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James J. Gandolfini, Jr. (born September 18, 1961) is a Golden Globe, three-time Emmy and five-time Screen Actors Guild Award-winning American actor.

Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey, the son of Joan, a school nutritionist, and James Gandolfini, Sr., a building maintenance chief at Paramus Catholic High School.

His parents, Italian immigrants and devout Catholics, spent part of their childhoods in Italy and often spoke Italian. Gandolfini grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey and graduated from Park Ridge High School in 1979, where he played basketball and acted in school plays.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications, from Rutgers University, where he worked as a bouncer at an on-campus pub. Gandolfini also worked as a bartender and club manager before embarking on an acting career. Gandolfini was introduced to acting as a young man living in New York City when he accompanied a friend to an acting class.

After acting on Broadway, Gandolfini established a film career. One of his better known film roles is that of Virgil, a brutal woman-beating mob enforcer, in the 1993 romantic thriller True Romance. Gandolfini's most acclaimed role to date is that of Tony Soprano, the Mafia boss and family man in the multi-award-winning HBO series The Sopranos, which debuted in 1999. He has won three Emmys for "Best Actor in a Drama" for his depiction of New Jersey Mafia boss Tony Soprano, an aging baby boomer who constantly questions his own identity and purpose. Gandolfini eventually garnered $1,000,000 per episode in the series. Entertainment Weekly recently listed him as the 42nd Greatest TV Icon of All Time for playing Tony Soprano.

In 2003, Gandolfini appeared in a series of television commercials with Greg Schiano promoting Rutgers football.

He considers himself a pacifist and has maintained reservations about continuing his portrayal of the violent mob boss. His sister Johanna Antonacci is the manager of the Family Division of the New Jersey Superior Court in Hackensack, New Jersey. Gandolfini is a fan of motorcycles and owns a Harley Davidson and a Vespa scooter. On May 4, 2006, Gandolfini was riding his Vespa when it was hit by a taxi, in traffic. He was forced to undergo knee surgery after the accident, postponing the filming of the final Sopranos episodes.

He keeps ties with his hometown of Park Ridge by supporting The Octoberwoman Foundation for Breast Cancer Research. He appears at their annual October banquet and often brings other Sopranos cast members to help Octoberwoman draw large crowds. He currently resides in New York City. He also bought a lot on the Lake Manitoba Narrows, presumably to build a cottage.

Gandolfini married his girlfriend, former model Deborah Lin, on August 30, 2008, in her hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii. They had been dating for about two years. This is Gandolfini's second marriage, having divorced Marcy Wudarski in December 2002. They had one child together.