NEW YORK, N.Y. – The funeral of James Gandolfini took place in one of the largest churches in the world and didn’t stint on ceremony.
Still, the estimated 1,500 mourners who gathered Thursday in New York’s Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine seemed part of an intimate affair. They came to pay their respects to a plain but complex man whose sudden death eight days before had left all of them feeling a loss.
During the service, Gandolfini was remembered by the creator of “The Sopranos” as an actor who had brought a key element to mob boss Tony Soprano: Tony’s inner child-like quality.
For a man who, in so many ways, was an unrepentant brute, that underlying purity was what gave viewers permission to love him.
“You brought ALL of that to it,” said David Chase in remarks he delivered as if an open letter to his fallen friend and “Sopranos” star.
Even though Gandolfini was indisputably a formidable man both on and off the screen, Chase also saw him as a boy — “sad, amazed, confused and loving,” he summed up, addressing his subject: “You could see it in your eyes. And that’s why you are a great actor.”
Susan Aston, who for decades was Gandolfini’s dialogue coach and collaborator, spoke of how he wrestled to find truth in his performances.
“He worked hard,” she said. “He was disciplined. He studied his roles and did his homework.” But then, when the cameras rolled, his performance took over and, “through an act of faith, he allowed himself to go to an uncharted place. … He remained vulnerable, and kept his heart open in his life and in his work.”
The 51-year-old actor died of a heart attack last week while vacationing with his 13-year-old son in Italy. It was cruel end to a holiday meant to be part of a summer that Gandolfini was devoting to his family — including his son and his 9-month-old daughter — by even turning down a movie role, according to Aston, citing what she said was her final conversation with him.
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Aston said he told her “I don’t want to lose any of the time I have with Michael and Lily this summer.”
