James Gandolfini: 1961-2013

Actor James Gandolfini, best known as Tony Soprano in the HBO hit series The Sopranos (1999-2007), died Wednesday while vacationing in Rome.

"He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that," said Sopranos creator David Chase in a statement. "He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. I remember telling him many times, 'You don't get it. You're like Mozart.' There would be silence at the other end of the phone."

"For [wife] Deborah and [son] Michael and [daughter] Lilliana this is crushing. And it's bad for the rest of the world. He wasn't easy sometimes. But he was my partner, he was my brother in ways I can't explain and never will be able to explain."

For his role as the brutal but charismatic mob boss in The Sopranos, Gandolfini won three Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Drama, three Screen Actor Guild Awards, a Golden Globe, and the 2001 AFI Award for Actor of the Year - Male - TV Series.

In addition to television, Gandolfini enjoyed success on both the stage and screen as an actor and producer.

In 1992 he appeared in a six-week Broadway production of On The Waterfront, returning to Broadway in 2009 for God of Carnage with Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels.

His film credits include True Romance, Crimson Tide, Get Shorty, Fallen, The Mexican, The Man Who Wasn't There, The Taking of Pelham 123, Where The Wild Things Are, and Zero Dark Thirty to name a few.

Gadonlfini was the creator of Attaboy Films whose first documentary production, Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, received an Emmy nomination in 2008.

He followed this with Wartorn: 1861–2010, a study of the effects of post traumatic stress disorder, which won the 2010 PRISM Award for Best Documentary Program - Mental Health.

Gandolfini was 51 years old.