James Gandolfini

An unlikely leading man and even more unlikely sex symbol, James Gandolfini was touted as both after his star-making portrayal of mobster Tony Soprano, a family man undergoing a mid-life crisis on the hit HBO drama, "The Sopranos" (1999-2007). Although he came to an acting career later in life, he was already a well-respected character player with roles as a hitman in "True Romance" (1993), a bearded stuntman and low-level henchman in "Get Shorty" (1995), and a drunkenly abusive neighbor in "She's So Lovely" (1997). Gandolfini made his television debut as Juror #6 in the remake of "12 Angry Men" (Showtime, 1997), while landing supporting roles in high-profile films like "A Civil Action" (1998) and "8mm" (1999). But it was "The Sopranos" that truly launched his career and led to a wider range of leading roles, like playing a sensitive hitman in "The Mexican" (2001), a cheating husband in "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2001) and reprising his "Get Shorty" role for "Be Cool" (2005). When "The Sopranos" went off the air with a literal bang in 2007, Gandolfini opened up to a bigger range of projects: interviewing disabled Iraq War veterans in "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" (HBO, 2007), winning a Tony for his performance in "God of Carnage" (2009) and playing man grieving the loss of his daughter in the indie drama "Welcome to the Rileys" (2010), which underscored Gandolfini's skill in a wide range of mediums. He died unexpectedly in 2013 at only 51 years of age.