Doctors spent 40 minutes trying to revive 'Sopranos' star Gandolfini

'HUMBLE, LOYAL, COMPLICATED'

Gandolfini began his career as a stage actor in New York and earned a Tony nomination for his role in the original 2009 Broadway cast of the dark comedy "God of Carnage."

The actor, who was raised in a working-class family, shared Tony Soprano's Italian-American heritage and New Jersey roots. He was known for his reserved demeanor off-camera and generally shied away from publicity.

"The Sopranos" earned Gandolfini three Emmy Awards as best lead actor in a drama series and was considered by many critics the finest drama to have aired on US television.

The series was a major factor in establishing HBO, a pay-cable network once focused on presentations of feature films, as a powerhouse of original dramatic television and in shifting the kind of sophisticated storytelling once reserved for the big screen to TV.

His role paved the way for other popular prime-time shows built around profoundly flawed characters and anti-heroes, from "Dexter" and "Breaking Bad" to "Mad Men" and "Nurse Jackie."

Script writer Steve Zaillian, who worked with the actor before and after "The Sopranos," said he had always been the same man.

"A real man, like they don't make anymore. Honest, humble, loyal, complicated, as grateful for his success as he was unaffected by it, as respectful as he was respected, as generous as he was gifted. He was big, but even bigger-hearted," he said.

Gandolfini is due to appear on the big screen next year, playing the love interest of comic actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the film "Enough Said." He also has a role in the upcoming New York crime drama, "Animal Rescue."

Both are set for US release by News Corp-owned studio Fox Searchlight.

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