The son of Italian-Americans James Gandolfini (1935-2005) and Santa Gandolfini (1937-1992), he was exposed to acting while a young man living in New York City when he accompanied a friend to an acting class.
Although he acted on Broadway and in various films in the 1990s, Gandolfini's most acclaimed role 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 work on the show.