We don’t often break tradition here, and our timelines are usually reserved for mobsters that have been born or passed away. However, we make an excemption today because Sunday 19^th June 2016 will mark the 3^rd year since we lost James Gandolfini who was best known and loved for his role as Tony Soprano, an Italian American Mafia boss, in the HBO series The Sopranos.

Gandolfini died at the age of 51 in Rome. After he and his family had spent a day of sightseeing in sweltering heat, his 13-year-old son Michael discovered him unconscious at around 10pm local time, on the bathroom floor at the Boscolo Exedra Hotel in the Piazza della Repubblica. He called reception, who in turn called emergency paramedics. Gandolfini reportedly arrived at the hospital at 10:40 pm and was pronounced dead at 11 pm.

An autopsy confirmed that he had died of a heart attack.

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The people of Gandolfini’s hometown started a Facebook page to discuss plans to honor him, including naming a street after him and renaming the Little Theater at Park Ridge High School, where he did his first performances, after him.

Broadway dimmed theater marquee lights on the night of Wednesday, June 26 in Gandolfini’s honor.

Gandolfini’s funeral service was held on June 27, 2013, at the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Morningside Heights, New York. He was cremated and his ashes were given to his closest loved ones.

James Gandolfini, the actor whose towering portrayal of fictional mob boss Tony Soprano brought the American Mafia into the living rooms of millions around the world, died on this day, 19th June 2013, in Rome, Italy. He was just 51 years old. Though Gandolfini was an actor rather than a genuine underworld figure, his impact on the public's understanding and fascination with organised crime was arguably greater than any documentary or true crime account of the era, and his loss was felt deeply by fans across the globe.

Gandolfini had been in Rome with his family, enjoying a day of sightseeing in the sweltering Italian heat, ahead of the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, where he was due to appear. That evening, at around 10pm local time, his 13-year-old son Michael discovered him unconscious on the bathroom floor of their suite at the Boscolo Exedra Hotel, situated on the grand Piazza della Repubblica. Michael raised the alarm with hotel reception, who immediately summoned emergency paramedics. Gandolfini was rushed to hospital, arriving at approximately 10:40pm, but was pronounced dead just twenty minutes later. An autopsy subsequently confirmed he had suffered a massive heart attack.

The outpouring of grief was immediate and widespread. In his home state of New Jersey, residents of his hometown began organising tributes, including proposals to name a street in his honour and to rename the Little Theatre at Park Ridge High School — where a young Gandolfini had first discovered his love of performance — after him. On Broadway, theatre marquee lights were dimmed on the evening of Wednesday 26th June as a mark of respect, a rare honour typically reserved for giants of the stage. His funeral service was held on 27th June 2013, at the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Morningside Heights, New York, after which he was cremated and his ashes entrusted to his closest loved ones.

As Tony Soprano, Gandolfini depicted a world rooted in the real traditions of the American Mafia — the power structures, the violence, the paranoia, and the strange domesticity that shadowed figures like the bosses of New York's Five Families and the old-world gangsters who built the syndicate from the ground up. The Sopranos drew heavily on the legacy of genuine organised crime, and Gandolfini breathed extraordinary life into that mythology.

His legacy endures not only through countless repeat viewings of The Sopranos, but in the way the series permanently reshaped television drama and kept the story of the American Mob alive for an entirely new generation.