James Gandolfini Movies: The Man Who Wasn’t There + In the Loop

James Gandolfini movies.

James Gandolfini movies

James Gandolfini died today of a suspected heart attack while in Rome, Italy. Although the 51-year-old actor’s fame rests on his role as mob boss Tony Soprano in the hit HBO series The Sopranos, which earned him three Emmy Awards, three SAG Awards, and one Golden Globe, Gandolfini was also featured in dozens of big-screen productions. Most notable among James Gandolfini’s movie are the following:

• Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), in which Gandolfini plays Big Dave Brewster, a boisterous department store owner who may be having an affair with Billy Bob Thornton’s wife, Frances McDormand, and who’s being (anonymously) blackmailed by Thornton himself.
• Steven Zaillian’s remake of All the King’s Men (2006), starring Sean Penn as a populist Southern politician, with Gandolfini as fellow ruthless politician Tiny Duffy, demoted to Lieutenant Governor.
• Armando Iannucci’s political satire In the Loop (2009), with Gandolfini as a “Pentagon brass hat who loathes civilian warmongers but remains uneasily loyal to the military,” in the words of The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw. “This intelligent and well-observed performance from James Gandolfini,” Bradshaw adds, “is easily his best work since The Sopranos.” In the Loop was nominated for the 2009 Best Original Screenplay Academy Award.
• Jake Scott’s sentimental box office bomb Welcome to the Rileys (2010), in which Gandolfini and his wife, Melissa Leo, find in Kristen Stewart’s pole dancer-cum-sex worker a replacement for their dead daughter. About Welcome to the Rileys, the Boston Globe‘s Ty Burr wrote, “You’re glad it’s not ‘Tony and Bella’s Big Adventure’ even as you suspect that might have been a lot more fun.” (Check out Welcome to the Rileys reviews.)
• Andrew Dominik’s New Orleans-set mob thriller Killing Them Softly (2012), with James Gandolfini as a New York hitman hired by Brad Pitt.
• Kathryn Bigelow’s highly controversial Best Picture Academy Award-nominated political thriller Zero Dark Thirty (2012), in which Gandolfini plays CIA director Leon Panetta.

Among James Gandolfini’s other movies are Sidney Lumet’s A Stranger Among Us (1992), starring Melanie Griffith; Tony Scott’s True Romance (1994), with Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette; Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide (1995), with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman; Sidney Lumet’s Night Falls on Manhattan (1996), with Andy Garcia; and Gore Verbinski’s The Mexican (2000), with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.

Also: John Turturro’s Romance & Cigarettes (2005), with an all-star cast that includes Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Bobby Canavale, Steve Buscemi, and Barbara Sukowa; Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009), with John Travolta and Denzel Washington; Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy (2011), with Saoirse Ronan; and, most recently, Don Scardino’s The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), with Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, and Olivia Wilde.

Upcoming James Gandolfini movies

According to the IMDb, two James Gandolfini movies are currently in the post-production stages: Michaël R. Roskam’s crime drama Animal Rescue, featuring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and Matthias Schoenaerts; and an untitled Nicole Holofcener project featuring Ben Falcone, Toni Collette, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Catherine Keener.

June 21 update

James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart: Mutual admiration society

James Gandolfini did indeed die of a heart attack, an autopsy has confirmed according to various reports. The 51-year-old actor best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the hit HBO series The Sopranos, died in Rome, Italy, two days ago, on June 19, 2013. (Image: James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart in Welcome to the Rileys.)

Directed by Jake Scott, Welcome to the Rileys features Gandolfini and (estranged wife) Melissa Leo as grieving parents whose daughter has suddenly died. In New Orleans pole-dancer-cum-sex worker Kristen Stewart, they find an uneasy “replacement.”

Regarding her work opposite a pro like James Gandolfini in Welcome to the Rileys, Kristen Stewart told MTV.com‘s Josh Horowitz in 2010:

“It’s actually really oddly comforting. Like, if you’re working with someone who’s an unknown, it’s always like, ‘Oh, I hope they’re [OK].’ But going into a movie with James and Melissa, you sort of – the nerves come from ‘I hope I’m going to be OK’ rather than ‘I hope they’re not going to let me down’. I hope they’re not going to not fulfill their side. Because you can’t do this alone. So yeah, it was intimidating, but at the same time, like it always is with actors like that, and I’ve worked with a few now, and I always say the same thing, it really pushes you hard.”

And in Variety‘s “SAG Preview: Actors on Actors,” here’s what James Gandolfini had to say about Kristen Stewart’s performance as Marylou in Walter Salles’ movie adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road:

Kristen Stewart is one of the mad ones. But mad in a beautiful way. And she is determined to make people mad. To show them she is more than Bella in Twilight. To show them she does burn, and smolder, and wants more out of her career and life. And smolder she does.

As soon as she steps into the movie On the Road, you can’t take your eyes off her. As Marylou, whenever she fixes her gaze, you see someone who will go as far as she can, and do it as mad as she can, to live and feel alive. And it is sexy and scary and reckless and smart. She can play all of these things. She has them at her fingertips. She is just beginning. She is fearless. And that can be that good, and that can be very bad. But she is smart enough to handle it.

Stick around my friends, and there will be much, much more to come. Thinking about it, I am smiling already.

June 25 update: Following James Gandolfini’s death, Kristen Stewart sent the following statement to EW.com: “When I heard of James’ passing I was in New Orleans, where we met shooting, and every memory flooded back and gutted me. I’ll hold that time near to me forever. He was immeasurably great. My heart goes out to his beloved family.”

James Gandolfini movies

James Gandolfini movies encompass more than two decades and a wide variety of genres. Besides Welcome to the Rileys, those include Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide, with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington; Gore Verbinski’s The Mexican, with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts; Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Man Who Wasn’t There, with Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand; and Steven Zaillian’s remake of All the King’s Men, with Sean Penn and Kate Winslet.

Also: John Turturro’s Romance & Cigarettes, with Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet; Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, with Peter Capaldi; Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly, with Brad Pitt; and Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, with Jessica Chastain and Joel Edgerton.

Additionally, James Gandolfini has two movies in post-production: Michaël R. Roskam’s Animal Rescue, with Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and Matthias Schoenaerts; and an untitled Nicole Holofcener movie with Ben Falcone, Toni Collette, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Catherine Keener.

James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart in Welcome to the Rileys photo: Samuel Goldwyn Films.

James Gandolfini photo: Barry Wetcher.