It didn't matter if James Gandolfini was in a film or TV role he was an actor who would grab your attention and hold it from start to finish.
Throughout his successful career he moved from film to TV to the stage and back again; earning praise where ever he went.
The actor kicked off his career in 1987 with a role in movie Shock! Shock! Shock! But it was throughout the nineties that he started to make a name for himself.
With roles in the likes of True Romance, Terminal Velocity and Get Shorty he showed that he was a real presence on the big screen.
However his most successful and acclaimed role came in television when he landed the part of Tony Soprano in The Sopranos.
The series follows the Mafia boss and his family and was a massive critical and audience hit.
Gandolfini stayed with the show from 1999 to 2007 and appeared in eighty six fantastic episodes.
A whole host of gongs and nominations came his way as he picked up a Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild award for his central performance; he won the Best Actor in a Drama Series Emmy and SAG on three occasions.
He may have been having all of the success of television but he never turned his back on film as he starred in the likes of The Mexican, Romance & Cigarettes and In The Loop during this time.
More recently the actor had been mixing up his movie roles as he played a grieving father who tries to help a stripper in Welcome to the Rileys and lent his voice to the character of Carol in the wonderful adapt ion of Where The Wild Things Are.
In 2013 we have already seen him appear in war movie Zero Dark Thirty and comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
He has also completed an as yet untitled Nicole Hologcener project and Animal Rescue, a movie that sees him team up with Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace.
But it hasn't been all about being in front of the camera for Gandolfini during his career as he has also produced a series of project.
His production debut came back in 2007 when he was behind documentary Alive Day Memories; Home From Iraq. Since then he has produced Wartorn: 1861-2010 and Hemingway & Gellhorn.
James Gandolfini passed away in Italy yesterday at the age of fifty one. He is survived by his wife Deborah Lin and two children.
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