A deeply reported, perceptive, and celebratory biography of beloved actor James Gandolfini from a prominent critic and film historian
Based on extensive research and original reporting, including interviews with friends and collaborators, Gandolfini is a detailed and nuanced appraisal of an enduring artist.
More than a decade after his sudden passing, James Gandolfini still exerts a powerful pull on television and film enthusiasts around the world. His charismatic portrayal of complex, flawed, but always human men illuminated the contradictions in all of us, as well as our potential for grace, and the power of love and family.
In Gandolfini, critic and historian Jason Bailey traces the twinned stories of the man and the unforgettable roles he played. Gandolfini’s roots were working class, raised in northern New Jersey as the son of Italian immigrants, and acting was something he loved for a long time before he could see it as a career. It wasn’t until he was well into his bohemian twenties that he dedicated himself to a life on the stage and screen.
Bailey traces his rise, from bit parts to character roles he enlivened with menace and vulnerability, to Tony Soprano, the breakout role that would make him a legend, and onto a post-Sopranos career in which he continued to challenge himself and his audience.
Praise
“With Gandolfini, Jason Bailey has crafted a compelling portrait of a complicated man, grounded in stunningly meticulous research and told with grace and nuance. Gandolfini finely threads the gulf between the James Gandolfini audiences knew on-screen and the man he was in real life. Tracing the relentless amount of work—along with personal demons—that led an ordinary, working-class guy from New Jersey to craft such affective, culture-defining performances, Bailey’s portrait leads all of us to a deeper understanding and appreciation of James Gandolfini’s tragically shortened but powerful body of work, and compassion for the man behind it.”
—Carrie Courogen, author of Miss May Does Not Exist
“Jason Bailey’s richly reported biography of actor James Gandolfini is both entertaining and poignant, perceptive and vibrant. Best of all, it gives us the thing we’ve all been missing most: more time with the brilliant actor. You want to savor every anecdote, every insight and cherished memory shared by his friends, colleagues, and the entire Sopranos family. A true gift."
—Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout and Beware the Woman
“The word ‘sensitivity’ recurs throughout Jason Bailey’s wonderful, comprehensive, insightful biography of James Gandolfini, describing its subject as a man, a co-worker, and a great artist. It’s a word that applies to Bailey’s work as well. With rigorous reporting, deft storytelling, and the insightful eye of a great critic, Bailey renders James Gandolfini on the page with great sensitivity, never sugarcoating his faults, but also paying tribute to his immense gifts. We should all be so lucky as to have our life stories told with such grace, honesty, and care.”
—Isaac Butler, author of The Method: How the 20th Century Learned to Act
“The superb writer Jason Bailey brings a potent combination of critical acuity and humane empathy to his portrait of a superb performer and a terribly complicated man. We may never be able to know James Gandolfini in full, but Bailey brings us as close as we’re likely to get.”
—Glenn Kenny, author of Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas and The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarfa
“Bailey’s thoughtful, thorough bio plunges into the contradictions that defined Gandolfini. At once an unlikely star and an undeniable, once-in-a-generation talent, the Gandolfini captured here is at once forceful and stormy but also gentle and generous. No one else could have played Tony Soprano, but both Gandolfini and his talent extended well beyond that character and the show that made him a star.”
—Keith Phipps, author of Age of Cage
“Jason Bailey doesn't spare telling the unflinching details of James Gandolfini's sometimes troubled life, but he does it with a necessary dose of empathy that makes this biography a guide to better understand the man, his work, and where the lines between the two blurred—and sometimes didn't."
—Jason Diamond, author of Searching for John Hughes and The Sprawl
