James Gandolfini died of a heart attack in Rome at just 51 years old. Famous for being an intense actor, but his dedication to his craft took a deep toll, and rumors of addiction and excess followed him throughout his career. Subscribe to Our History
On June 19th 2013 James Gandolfini died of a heart attack in Rome at just 51 years old. A famously intense actor, he was credited with changing the very nature of television acting. First appearing in films such as True Romance and Get Shorty, it was the HBO series The Sopranos that made him a household name. But his dedication to his craft took a deep toll on the actor, and rumors of addiction and excess followed him throughout his career. Now expert pathologist Dr Michael Hunter is re-examining his medical history in order to discover what led him to die of a heart attack at only 51.
actor james Gandolfini has did.hollywood is mourning the loss of veteran actor James Gandolfini .
on June 19 2013 james Gandolfini died of a hardattack in rom.
51, so young ,51 years old a famously intense character actor .
he was credited with changing the very nature of television acting ,he brought cinematic acting into television .
his talent was unbelievable.
first appearing in films such a true romans
and get shorty. it was the HBO series .
the sopranos that made him a household name. he was tony soprano.
he really humanized the role of a mob boss.
tony soprano redefined television as we’d known it.
but his dedication to his craft took a deep toll on the actor.
jim went to dark places when he played dark characters. it was eight years of killing and killing. a rumors of addiction and excess followed him throughout his career.
on the screen was also happening in his real life. his autopsy state said james Gandolfini suffered acute myocardial infarction
otherwhise known as a heart attack at the age of just 51. but this stsatement raises as many questions as answers.
what might have caused him to die in this way at this relatively young age.
world -renowned forensic pathologist dr michael hunter has conducted thousands of autopsies. as the chief medical examiner in one of american’s biggest citie’s he works closely with law enforcement to investigate suspicious deaths.
james gandolfini died at just 51 year old to suddenly die at this age is rare and suggest to dr hunter severer and deep- seated health issues. he’s goning to analyze every part of his medical history in order to discover what really led to his premature death.
march 2013, brooklyn. james is filming
his new movie the drop.his 45th film , it’s a crime thriller
with tom hardy and further evidence of his status as a hollywood a-lister he did a number of films that people really liked . and were very good ,he wanted to be the best artist he could possibly be.
he plays a bar owner in over his head with trhe russian mafia the blend of tough but vulnerable that is james ‘s stock and trade , he was something of a tough guy.
this was a guy who was an edge to him and that kind of came through in the majority of roles that you saw him in.
james split his time between new and LA. where his son lives with his ex- wife.and james is already planning a father -son vacation ,to rom
once the shoot’s finished.
james was extrermly close with his son michael . he spent as much time with him as possible ,he would drive him to school every morning.
but the vacation will be james ‘s last in less than three months he will be dead.
at thee time of his death james was six foot one and approaching 300 pounds at almost twice the recommended way for someone of his height he was clnically obese.
he was working non-stop in the moinths leading to his death .filming up to 10 hours a day which takes a huges amount of stamina.therefore despite being overweight he appeared be in relatively good health at the end of his life . at this stage in the investigation the cause of death is not immediately apparent.
james joseph gandolfini Jr grew up in park ridge new jersey to italian parents. his father was the head jaitor at the local catholic high school.
jim came from a blue colalr bakground , his mother was the lunch lady at his school . there were no Gatsby in jim gandolfini.
his italian heritage was deeply ingrained into the the young james. he was a child of immigrants and that history and whatever he had heard about it influenced him
james got the acting bug at school
after landing the lead role in the school production of kiss me kate. at a young age jum knew that he wanted to act , not sure how much support he got from his family.
rather then become an actor his parents wanted him to go college friend mark met him at ruthers university where james was stdying communications
people loved him he had a great natural charisma.girls really liked him. big broad shouldered had long blond to share, realy good looking kid .
but he also , he had wild side. at 18 years of age james fell foul of the law, he broke a traffic barrier in the new york brusnwick .police arrested jim . his frien mark went down to the police station prentending he was in the navy and james couisin and paid 25 bucks
Unuinterested in his studies he told friends about his true passion. he wanted to be an actor ,he just didn’t know how to go about doing it. but after studying he tookseries of casual jobs from , managing a new york nightclub. to furniture
It wasn’t until he hit his mid-20s. james enrolled in in an acting class run by
cathrine gately. he had so many sides of him and complexities to him . he was truly authentic person. at first she had trouble getting james to express his full range of emotions.he avoided anger and that was the thing that cathrine keep pushing .
until one day at rehearsal he completely let go ,destroying the set in the porcess, and after it was over he was thrilled and then he said later that’s when i realized there was a lot of things i’ m capable of doing. it was this ability to control the simmering emotion beneath the surface
that would land him a string of roles playing psychos and mobsters, he felt that every human being no matter how bad they were had godness to them.he never wanted to play a killer as a killer he just thought that was so silly.
but even after his eye-catching role as virgil in true romance he still had to supplement his acting with bar work and odd jobs
it wasn’t until the age of 38 that he landed the role of angst ridden mob boss tony soprano. he was very lucky to be where he was .and that with a couple of more mishaps of fate he’d still be a bartender someplace.
looking back at pictures of james gandolfini it’s clear that his weight increased dramatically when he took on the role of Tony Soprano and it seems that this change in his physical appearance was rooted in his dedication to his acting.
gandolfini studied the meisner techinque which reirees the actor to transform into a new persona
when it came to playing tony soprano james saw his size as an essential part of the role. if you look at the beginning of supranos in 1999, he was 230 ,240 pounds
jim was 6-1, 285 pounds, he knew in the back of his mind no one’s going to believe in a skinny mob boss.
brent seaman was james stand – in on the movie , lonely hearts , shot just before the final supranos series .the production said , if you want to be his stand – in and photo double you’re going to have to put on weight.
sopranos co -star joe pantoliano recalls jame’s attitude to eating on set.
they were doing a breakfast scene in a diner and james was eating steak and eggs , watch any other show any other actor or actresses especially ( (they play with the food ) they never swallow. james swallowed and he went through about four or five steak and eggs
but there were question marks over the effect this was having on james’s health. the weight gain was a sign and a symbol of the toll it was taking on him. people started worried about him.
it took it’s toll , it really did. james was told to get some of this weight off and of course his response was, this i know.
at 300 pounds james was at risk of high blood pressure ,high cholesterol and diabetes as well as coronary heart disease. all of which carry significant risk of heart attack. so james weight an unhealty diet played a role in his death.
april 2013 , brooklyn ,three months berfore his death, filming of the drop is coming to an end.but an eyewitness report suggests james was struggling physically , at one point he leaves the set during a spell of brathlessness and breathing issues.
if you watch the sopranos you could hear him breathing. it doesn’t suprise dr michael hunger that james had trouble breathing as well as being overweight ,he could see that james was a smoker.
as tony soprano james was rarely seen without a cigar.and it seems the actor enjoyed cigars too. tony was the ultimate flawed anti- hero, a family man who’s having an affair
a crime lord with anxiety and mental health issues, a man who smokes ,drinks, and eats too much . and parts of jame’s life mirrored this.
jame’s performeance was always real , he became the character ,that why people would call him tony all the time.,because they believe that that’s what who he was. he wasn’t an actor , he was tony’ soprano .
smoking would have put further strain on an already overworked heart .although cigar smokers tend not to inhale ,nicotine from the smoke is absorbed in the mouth raising blood pressure while carbon monoxide reduces the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream.
and like a high fat diet. it is a known cuase of heart disease.overall dr hunter starting to form a pictures of a man who put his acting and the stresses that went with it before his health.dr hunter want to understand what a fact thishad on his mental and physical well-being.
james played that role over and over and over again for 10 years.
june 2013 , los angeles.two weeks prior to his death.
james calls up ex -fiancee lora samosa . he met laura while making the movie the mexican she was a production assistant on the film and the two became engaged.
but james and lora separated in 2005, now james has an eight- month- old baby with his second wife deborah. the information at the time was that james was unhappy before he died and that james was reaching out to lora in an attempt to get her back into his life.
there are indications that james was dealing with emotional issues and a troubled privat life leading up to his death.like the character that he played tony soprano. dr hunter could see that james sought out therapy over the years.
one of james’s issues was self-doubt. james was very insecure, he would always say”i’m not a great actor, he just didn’t really have a lot of confidence in himself.
when he was cast in a role, he was well known for calling the producers and asking them to give it to someone better , who deserved it more.
when he first audition for tony soprano, they did the pilot and then he watched it and he was aghast and horrified by his work that he writes this letter to HBO
and he says” i’m so horrible in this and i’ve wasted your time and i’ve sent a check to pay for you for all the time that i wasted and i thank you very much for considering me.”
but the network bosses knew better.
james ‘s italian new jersey upbringing was intrinsic to many of the characters he brought to life. he was a hollywood guy. the jerseyness of him never left and that’s made him so successful in the role ,but friend mark believes it may also had a less positive impact.
“he is a southern italian and i’m is a southern italian, there’s still some ruffles with assimilation there is the sense that we dont belong anywhere, and i think that inherent in our character is this sense of self-doubt, are we good enough”
the early 2000s on the set of sopranos, feelings of low self-esteem were compounded by the difficulty he had remembering the pages of dialogue required of him.
james was a perfectionist, there were a few times that he got angry on set.because he didn’t have his lines down. offentimes he was extremely upset with himself ,angry at himself going into minor rages to the point where he would sometimes physically hit himself.
our pro- masculated society being angry is much more acceptable than being sad and i you think of james he grew up in jersey of battalion descent .four or five decades ago so this is a time when being a guy and being sad wasn’t okay ,but being a guy and being angry well that was absolutely fine.
so what ends up happening is those two motions become conflated so when i’m sad it comes out as anger , when ‘i’m frustrated it comes out as anger when i’m upset it comes out as anger , so all of a sudden it becomes my go-to set of emotions and that’s was happening in jame’s case.
dr hunter said angry outburst have a clear link to heart attack .people who experience periods of intense anger are thought to be many times more likely to have a heart attack in the two hours after the outbursts and dr hunter woundering whether anger could have played a part in his death.
james admitted that he suffered from anger issues .james went to dark places when he played dark characters. it was easy for him ,because he had a dark side to himself.
during a rare interview he said of mob boss tony soprano” i’m playing an italian lunatic from new jersey and that’s basically what i ‘ am.”
friends and family worried about the strain it was having on him.
he immersed himself in these characters and some of these characters were genuinely psychotic they’re psychopathic, very dark, very violent and he would have had to have drawn on his own experience of anger ,of frustration of all of those negative emotions to at least come close to being able to emulate that in addition that he would have had to stayed in character which means there was no respite for him .
when there was an intense scene you certainly didn’t want to get in the way of jame’s preparation.
on the day that he died james was on vacation with his son and was reported to look relaxed and happy , so dr hunter don’t think anger directly contributed to his death .however experiencing these emotions on a regular basis is not healthy and can lead to high blood pressure.”
as well as delving into hid dark side to summon his anger and intensity james would also put himself under physical stress. by depriving himself of sleep or putting sharp stones in his shoes.
the fact of the matter is, is that he’s trying to show emotion in as real w ay as possible , so there’s playing a part and then there’s being the part and he very much tried to do this idea that he put himself in physical discomfort,putting rocks in his shoes or becoming sleep deprived so he gelt that anger, so he felt that discomfort and anger .
attest to the fact that these were real emotions for him ,this wasn’t something that he could turn on and off with a switch of a button , this was something that he was experiencing physically, emotionally,psychologically.
dr hunter says there is evidence here that james was under significant emotional and physical stress over a prolonged period , at work he emobdied the characters he portrayed to such an extent that his friends were worried for his health . he suffered from self-doubt and relationship difficulties.
chronic stress damages the body when you are stressed a part of the braine called the amygdala signals to the bone marrow to produce extra white blood cells.
this causes arteries to become inflamed leading to an increased risk of heart problems. in addition people suffering from chronic stress frequently resort to unhealthy habits in order to manage it .
so for dr hunter nuilt up a picture of a man who has paid a steep physical and emotional prize for his commitment to his work as an actor. overweight , a smoker and someone with a tendency toward angry outbursts and low self-esteem. dr hunter have evidence that james gandolfini sought to deal with his problems through self-medicating.
june 18 2013,one day before his death.
james and michael arrive in Rome after a 12 -hour flight from L.A. and check into the Boscolo Exedra Roma hotel.
taking michael to italy had to be important he wanted him to see his italian -american heritage firsthand.
that evening father and son are photographed ,having dinner at sabatini resturant. there were people shooting cell phone video of him in his final days in rome .
and there were videos of him and pictures of him that emerged after his death.
it’s reported by onlookers that james was eating pasta with clams and enjoying an unseasonably hot evening with his son.
the waiter recalled ,he had a big smile a big laught and looked happy. report also suggest he drank campari and soda as well as red wine.
drinking alcohol with meals or socially is common practice but for james it led to an dangerous dependency.
dr hunter can see from the reports that he sought help for alcohol addiction at several points over the years, the severity of his problems brought home just a few months before he was cast as tony soprano
in 1997 james was out in los angeles and he was picked up by cops for driving under the influance, the incident, triggered his first encounter with going into rehab.
but it wasn’t a problem james was able to deal with easily. he tried rehab a couple of times. though he had tried in the past to give up alcohol
“it is evident that james was still drinking in days leading up to his death .excessive consumption of alcohol can cause abnormal heart rhythms high bood pressure and damage to your heart muscle all of which can lead to heart hart attack and dr hunter was concerned he had another serious addiction that is consistent sudden heart attack.”
-dr michael hunter
james waswell known for not turning up to the set. there were som day he just couldn’t get up ,to go to work. he called and said i’m sorry but i just can’t make it .I’ll pay for whatever the day is going to to cost.” which was a lot of money.
Guild ridden the actor tried to make it up to his colleagues. when he came back he’d be extremely upset about what happened he would arrange to have massages for the cast and crew on the set where he would have sushi and special treats delivered.
he bought the enire crew watches, everybody hada watch from him.he was a generous man that he was.
then during the filming of the fourth series of the sopranos, he didn’t show up for an expensive end-of – season finale. they had pretty much shut down the westchester county new york airport .
james simply never showed up. they didn’t hear from him the next day , the next day after that . there were people on the sopranos the crew who thought , maybe he died somewhere maybe he’s dead somewhere.
it wasn’t until four days later that a phone call came into the production office.
he had no wallet and no cell phone, the only number he could remember was that of the production office. he said that’s james i need to be p icked up i’m middle of brooklyn.
around this time james divorced his first wife marcy, according to allegations made by her during the divorce proceedings some of his absences from the set were down to a series cocaine addiction.
marcy had kept a diary in which she had made entries very specific to his secret battle with cocaine and alcohol abuse.
this horrible addiction was controlling him to the point where he would drift out of the house , would go off and buy drugs ,he would end up with various women in very seedy and dark places , very , very dark stuff.
dr hunter says cocaine works by increasing levels of the pleasure hormone dopamine making the user feel high,it’s extremely addictive and can be very damaging to the heart.
frequent users can suffer from cardiomyopathy damage to the walls of the heart. this is associated with heart failure and heart attack ischemia which is decreased or entirely blocked blood supply to the heart itself, it also occur with trigger a heart attack.
with allegations about his private life making headlines,james decided to make a public statement. he felt compelled that he needed to clear the air. he admitted to a cocaine habit which began in his early twenties as a nightclub manager.the revelations were not a shock to those who knew him well.
friend mark wasn’t suprised because he knew that he dabbled in those kind of thing back then.and it appeared his addictions had worsened over the years. he wanted to get healthy he wanted to get past his demons but at the same time it appears he never had the stomach to go trough a traditional drug rehab . and so , he was in a day -to – day struggle with addiction. for a lot of people drugs that begin off as recreational end up becoming a crutch
that’s the case for james. he work at a bar, he does some drugs and then eventually he realizes that this give him a sense of comfort or they give him confidence whatever the case may be and so they become something that he relies on sadly.
james ‘s addiction problems led to him going missing for days on, disappearing from the set and contributed to the breakdown of his first marriage. it was a problem he did not seem to have control over.
and dr hunter want to know whether cocaine played a part of his death.
june 19 , 2013 , 7 .PM. boscolo hotel Rome. following a day of sightseeing james and 13 year old michael go for dinner.his son michael had never been to italy and that gandolfini was eager to show him where his roots were from everybody that saw him that day said that he was happy
that he was energetic and all indications were that he was having a great time in Rome.it is later reported that the actor’s final meal consisted of four shots of rum, two pina coladas and two beers at dinner as well two orders of fried shrimp and a large portion of foie gras.
9 PM. the pair returned to their hotelroom.michael his son last saw james when james went into the bathroom it was obviously james wasn’t feeling well.
michael didn’t hear anything from his father in the bathroom ,the door was looked, he wasn’t able to get in ,he pounded on the door ,received no response.
michael went running downstairs and alerted the people at the desk that his father might have been ill, they rushed upstairs and were able to get the door open.
at this point it’s evident that james is not breathing and in a state of cardiac arrest his heart has stopped pumping blood around his body . CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation is used to pump the heart manually in order to get blood circulating and continue to deliver oxygen to the brain.the hotel staff attempt to resuscitate james as they wait for an ambulance to arrive.
10 : 08 PM.the emergency crew are on the scene,approximately eight minutes after the call. a statement from the ambulance driver was that they found the hotel workers performing CPR on him but he sas flatlined already there was nothing they can do.
dr hunter say he can see that at this point medics prepare to use a defibrillator to restart gandolfinis heart. this is where an electric current is delivered to the chest wall , the shock is intended to interrupt an irregular heartbeat which can occur during a heart attack allowing it to return to normal
but eye witness accounts suggests gandolfini had already flatlined by this point. a defibrillator will only work when there’s some activities within the heart , so the attempt was futile.
10 .20 PM. the actor arrives at the emergency room of the umberto hospital. it is a short ride to the hospital. the hospital tried to resuscitate him ,they were unable to do so.
and at 11 o’clock they formally pronounced him dead.james gandolfini is declared dead at 11 PM
news of james’s soon spreads around the world.
” hollywood is mourning the loss …”
” … james gandolfinini has died “
while the public waits for the autopsy results….
rumors cicrulate that his death was linked to his well -known battle with cocaine.
was this the result of his addictions, was this a result of substance abuse?
“today we received the result of s of the autopsy.which stsated he died of heart attac of natural causes. the autopsy further states that nothing else was found in his system “
no drugs were found in james ‘s body. so although cocaine may have caused long -term damage to his heart. he didn’t die from a sudden cocaine -induced heart
however , dr hunter can see here that james suffered from a life- threatening condition which could have been responsible and which wouldn’t necessarily have shown up on an autopsy.
james had sleep apnea, there was some times that he would fall asleep and he would not just breath.
obstructive sleep apnea is when the walls of the throat relax and narrow during sleep interuppting normal breathing. sufferers are encouraged to wear a special mask when they sleep they were to do so means that they stop breathing and start again with a gasp.
this can happen hundreds of times a night . he was very embarrassed to wear this apparatus. it’s estimated that untreated sleep apnea may raise the risk of dying from heart disease by up to five times.
this is because when breathing stops the body responds by releasing adrenaline. this increases heart rate and tightens blood vessels increasing blood pressure .
dr hunter is certain this would have had a negative effect on james’s health.
and dr hunter has found evidence that james was suffering from another deadly disease.
any percentage of blockage in the arteries means the sufferer has a disease atherosclerosis plaque is made up of fat cholesterol calcium and other substances found in the blood over time plaque hardens and narrows the arteries. if this build up in the coronary arteries those leading to the heart, this is called coronary heart disease.
james knew that he needed to make changes in his health, but that wasn’t something that was easy for him .overall james was at very high risk of heart attack,smoking ,drinking ,cocaine abuse ,his weight, sleep apnea and atherosclerosis.
but why did he die on that day , june 19,2013 in rome?
dr hunter thinks the answer lies in the events just prior to his death.
on the day he died it was unseasonably hot in rome with temperatures reaching 100 degrees farenheit.Rome in the summer is vicious and you have to walk everywhere. to sightseeing.
people with atherosclerosis are at higher risk of heart attack during hot weather , sweating leads do dehydration which reduces the volume of blood and this makes the heart pump harder which in turn can owerwhelm the heart and result in a heart attack.
james then went on to eat a heavy high fat meal accompanied by several alcoholic drinks and dr hunter think that this more than anything is what led to his fatal cardiac arrest.
apparently he order couple of plates of deep fried shrimp an order of foie gras . and several drinks including two pina coladas, couples of beers and four shots of rum.
a rescent study indicates that heavy meal quadruples the chances of a heart attack in the first two hours after eating. after eating heavy meal , the coronary arteries can consxtrict making it more difficult for blood to flow.
in addition the blood become fattier and thicker. when someone already has diseased arteries ,this can cause a blood clot to form, leading to a heart attack.
in james gandolfini’s case his final meal was very likely the trigger, the heavy food constricting his already disease arteries while the alcohol raises blood pressure further.
james was well aware that his arteries were partially blocked and that his health was in danger the tragedy is that he didn’t have the self- love he needed to look after his body.
A funeral service for the legendary actor James Gandolfini took place in New York City on June 27, 2013. Gandolfini died of a heart attack on June 19, 2013 in Rome. The service was held at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan’s Upper West Side where friends, fans, co-stars and loved ones gathered to say goodbye to the one we know as “Tony Soprano.”
Sad end: The hallway outside room 449 of Rome’s Hotel Exedra, where Gandolfini was found June 19. He was reportedly still alive as paramedics rushed him to the hospital, but in cardiac arrest by the time he arrived
Tragic scene: This is the bathroom in which The Sopranos actor James Gandolfini was found by 13-year-old son Michael, having suffered a massive heart attack
State of mourning: Gandolfini’s body is loaded onto a private jet in Rome which landed in New Jersey at 9 p.m.
