A made man – Cinema lost an incredible presence in The Sopranos star James Gandolfini.

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Cinema lost an incredible presence yesterday when The Sopranos star James Gandolfini suffered a heart attack and died while on vacation with his family in Italy. He was 51.

A perennial favorite of late critic Roger Ebert, Gandolfini was funny, but never a clown; bullish and strong, but never completely beyond emotional reach. And boy, could his characters command a room. As Tony Soprano would put it, Gandolfini was a made man. Not the most handsome or unique. Not a traditional lead and not exactly a journeyman character actor either, the New Jersey native was somewhere in between, and he always got by on hustle.

The son of an Italian immigrant, Gandolfini began acting in plays while managing a bar in Manhattan in the 1980s. After making a few connections through acting classes, his big break came at age 30 when he got a call from Sydney Lumet who cast him in a small role in 1992’s A Stranger Among Us. Seven years later, The Sopranos would skyrocket him to stardom, make HBO cool again and pave the way for large-budgeted and critically acclaimed cable dramas like Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

For a performer known universally as a television actor, and an iconic one at that, Gandolfini quietly became a secret weapon for many of the most talented film directors of the last half-century. He worked with Sidney Lumet (Night Falls on Manhattan), Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino (True Romance), Anthony Minghella (Mr. Wonderful), William Friedkin (12 Angry Men), the Coen Brothers (The Man Who Wasn’t There), Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are) and Katherine Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty).

He worked in Louisiana three times, including a killer role in Andrew Dominik’s underrated 2012 Brad Pitt crime drama Killing Them Softly, and Kristen Stewart indie drama Welcome to the Rileys directed by Tony Scott’s nephew Jake Scott.

Gandolfini spent several weeks in Baton Rouge playing Willie Stark’s nemesis Tiny Duffy opposite Sean Penn in the 2006 remake of All the King’s Men. He was one of the bright spots in that uneven adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s political classic.

Before his untimely death, Gandolfini completed work on three projects: An untitled comedy from former Sex and the City director Nicole Holofcener, an appearance on an upcoming TV series called Criminal Justice, and most promisingly, a co-lead role opposite Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace in the adaptation of Denis LeHane’s Animal Rescue. That highly-anticipated crime drama is slated for release in 2014.

Watch Gandolfini’s 2004 appearance on Inside the Actors Studio below: