James Gandolfini and the Art of ‘The Sopranos’

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Legendary acting coach Tanya Berezinonce told an interviewer that what makes an actor great is theability “to throw light ... in some sort of inexplicable way” on“what makes people tick and live and thrive and what makespeople not.” James Gandolfini, who died yesterday in Italy at51, possessed that rare gift. Every moment he spent on thescreen illuminated the human condition.

He was best known, of course, as star of “The Sopranos,”which ran on HBO from 1999 to 2007, and was recently dubbed bythe Writers Guild of America as the best-written show in thehistory of television. And plenty of “Sopranos” fans will tellyou that the heart of the show was the sparkle of the writing.Others will cite the brilliance of the central irony, or eventhe precious settings, particularly the lovely upscaleordinariness of Tony and Carmela Soprano’s suburban New Jerseyhome, which to this day is said to attract busloads of thecurious.