He may have played a mob boss on TV, but that's not who James Gandolfini was in real life. Gandolfini partnered with filmmaker Jon Alpert on two documentary projects and was in the process of working with him on a third before he died. “He really cared for people. He wanted to do something that was going to help people,” Alpert said on Thursday’s show. “He said even though I’m a celebrity I want to do something that’s going to help people, he worked really hard at it and he did a good job.”
Gandolfini died Wednesday evening of an apparent heart attack in Rome, at the age of 51. Politicians, fellow actors, friends, and fans are remembering the large-than-life character he embodied. “They felt like they knew him. He was in your living room every Sunday,” Alpert said. “I didn’t watch any other TV shows except The Sopranos and I felt that Jim was in my living room and that I knew him before I met him. And everybody felt the same way.”