'He used to punch himself in the face with frustration': James Gandolfini 'battled cocaine addiction and nearly derailed The Sopranos'
His untimely death at the age of 51 has left the world reeling.
But according to the ex-wife of talented and kindly James Gandolfini, the complicated personality that made Tony Soprano the TV icon of the last decade fought a battle with drug addiction, alcohol and inner demons that would cause him to lash out at himself violently.
According to GQ, papers relating to his 2002 divorce from Marcy Wudarski allege that Gandolfini battled serious issues with drugs and alcohol which saw him 'punch himself in the face with frustration.'
Troubled: James Gandolfini admitted to drug and alcohol abuse in the past and reportedly disappeared from the set of The Sopranos in 2002 for four days amidst his messy first divorce
The magazine goes on to describe how those who worked with the mercurial force on the HBO drama from 1999 to 2007 saw him frequently 'berate himself in disgust, curse and smack the back of his own head.'
The article goes on to describe how these issues came to a head in 2002 when the self conscious actor disappeared from the set of The Sopranos for four days as his bitter divorce raged on, he had married Marcy in 1999.
Marcy claimed that he was so out of control on cocaine and alcohol on the set of his first major film, The Mexican in 2001, co-starring Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, that filming had to be stopped.
She also alleged that he dated a string of women, including a stripper.
In response, Gandolfini claimed that his wife constantly threatened to kill herself and blamed her emotional instability and volatile temper for the marriage breakdown.
Married to the mob: In character with his Sopranos co-stars Edie Falco, Robert Iler and Jamie-Lynn Sigler
He filed for divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment. At the time his wife said his departure had come as a shock.
Gandolfini's agent said the accusations against his client were the 'ramblings of a disgruntled ex-wife apparently looking for a pay day.'
He confirmed that the actor had struggled with drug and alcohol abuse but 'it was a problem that existed in the past.'
Indeed, Gandolfini put his issues behind him to win three Emmys and ensure The Sopranos became one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved television series of all time.
And tragically, it's been revealed that he had just shot the pilot for a new HBO series.
He'd completed the pilot for Criminal Justice, adapted from a 2008 BBC version and starring him as Jack Stone, an ambulance-chasing lawyer in New York.
James Gandolfini with his son and second wife Deborah Lin at a film premiere in 2011
He had also shot his part in Enough Said, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a recently divorced woman and Catherine Keener as her friend and ex-wife of Gandolfini.
According to Deadline.com, Gandolfini's HBO-based Attaboy Prods. had the actor-producer set to costar with Steve Carell in Bone Wars, about a pair of real-life paleontologists after the Civil War who discovered the fossils of more than 160 dinosaurs.
'Unbelievably sad news. A fine man,' Carell Tweeted on Wednesday.
According to Deadline, CBS had just approved Taxi-22, based on a French Canadian comedy with Gandolfini in the driving seat.
Its executive producer Clark Peterson said that the project remains in development, explaining: 'We are devastated. He was a great man and a unique embodiment of creativity, humanity, and humility.'
Iconic: Fame came late to Gandolfini but he nearly derailed three years into The Sopranos during a messy divorce
Gandolfini died on Wednesday of an apparent heart attack in Rome, where he was on vacation and set to participate in a Saturday event at the 59th Taormina Film Festival with actress Marisa Tomei. m
NBC News reports that his son called for help after discovering his father collapsed in their hotel-room bathroom.
Hotel staff tried to resuscitate him, and the actor was still alive when taken into an ambulance, said NBC.
He was later pronounced dead at the Policlinico Umberto I hospital. His sister was also said to be with him.
When paramedics arrived to take Gandolfini to hospital, they found him lying on the bathroom floor, according to hotel owner Antonio D'amore.
The actor was taken to Policlinico Umberto I at 10.20pm, and was pronounced dead at 11pm when efforts to revive him proved unsuccessful, according to Dr Claudio Modini, head of the hospital's emergency room.
An autopsy on his body will take place today, as is required by Italian law.
Mario Sesti, director of the film festival which the star was due to attend this weekend, claimed that Gandolfini was excited by his Italian vacation because of his family's link to the country.
'He was so happy to be in Italy, to reconnect with his Italian roots, and he was very excited to come here and receive this award,' he told USA Today.
Gandolfini seen in the first season of the hit HBO show in 1999
Gandolfini was born and brought up in New Jersey, but both his parents were Italian.
The Taormini Film Festival will host a tribute to the actor in place of a round-table discussion which Gandolfini had agreed to take part in.
The actor and his family had spent a 'beautiful day out together' in Rome before his tragic passing, according to Gandolfini's assistant, Tom Richardson.
According to Mike Sullivan, a close friend of Gandolfini's, Richardson told him: 'When they got back to the hotel, Jimmy went to use the restroom. And something happened in there.
'His sister said he was alive when they took him out in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.'
Gandolfini's first wife Marcy Wudarski, Michael's mother, is said to have immediately booked a flight to Italy to comfort her son after learning of the actor's death.
The couple were married for three years until they divorced in 2002.
Gandolfini's second wife, former model Deborah Lin, was with the star in Italy along with their daughter Liliana.
The pair married in Hawaii in 2008, and Liliana was born last October. After his daughter's birth, Gandolfini said he was 'thrilled' to become a father for the second time.
The actor rose to fame playing a hitman in the 1993 film True Romance, and roles in films such as Terminal Velocity and Get Shorty followed.
However, it was not until his breakout role in 1999 in the hit television show The Sopranos that he became a household name.
Hotel: Gandolfini had a heart attack in his bathroom at the Hotel Boscolo, pictured, in Rome
The scene: People walk in the entrance of the morgue of Policlinico Umberto I hospital where the body of actor Gandolfini was brought after he was reported dead late Wednesday
At the hospital: Members of the media gather outside the emergency department of Policlinico Umberto I
Mortuary: Although the star was taken to hospital, doctors were unable to save him
He played the powerful mob boss Tony Soprano, whose stressful gangster and family life left him needing to visit a psychiatrist, played by Lorraine Bracco.
His compelling portrayal of the ruthless mob boss who suffered from panic attacks saw him win three Emmy Awards for the role.
The character apparently died in the series finale, although the audience was never shown the moment of his death, with the screen just fading to black instead.
Speaking to Vanity Fair about the ending, Gandolfini said: ‘What the f***? I mean, after all I went through, all this death, and then it’s over like that?'
Gandolfini's managers Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders paid tribute to the star, saying in a statement: 'Our hearts are shattered and we will miss him deeply. He and his family were part of our family for many years and we are all grieving.'
Compelling: Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) and Lorraine Bracco, as Dr. Jennifer Melfi, in a scene from the fourth season of The Sopranos
Tribute: Sopranos creator David Chase, pictured with Gandolfini, compared the actor with Mozart
First big role: Gandolfini in 1993's True Romance, in which he also played a mobster
Cable channel HBO, which hosted The Sopranos until the show ended in 2007, called the actor a 'special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone, no matter their title or position, with equal respect.'
'We're all in shock and feeling immeasurable sadness at the loss of a beloved member of our family,' HBO added.
'He touched so many of us over the years with his humor, his warmth and his humility. Our hearts go out to his wife and children during this terrible time. He will be deeply missed by all of us.'
The Sopranos creator David Chase called his leading actor 'a genius'.
He said: 'Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes.
'I remember telling him many times, "You don't get it. You're like Mozart." There would be silence at the other end of the phone.'
Devoted dad: James was said be 'thrilled' at the arrival of his daughter last year; he is pictured carrying her to lunch with his wife in May
Family tragedy: The actor was married twice, to Deborah Lin, left, mother of his nine month old daughter, and right, Marcy Wudarski the mother of son Michael who has flown to Rome to be with him
James Gandolfini marries Deborah Lin. The couple tied the knot on the islands of Hawaii over the Labor Day weekend in 2008
Mr Chase added: 'He wasn't easy sometimes. But he was my partner, he was my brother in ways I can't explain and never will be able to explain.'
Chris Albrecht, who commissioned the crime drama for HBO and approved Gandolfini for the role, told Deadline: 'Absolutely stunned. I got the word from Lorraine Bracco and just got off with Brad Grey who had just heard from David Chase.
'We had all become a family. This is a tremendous loss.'
And Steve Schrirripa, who played Bobby Baccalieri in the show, said upon hearing the news: 'I had to get up and leave. It was like being told a brother had died. Jimmy Gandolfini was as great a friend as he was an actor and a human being.
'The phone hasn’t stopped. I spoke to a lot of the guys from The Sopranos. We were crying. People joke about us being a family. But we are a family.'
Complex character: James Gandolfini alongside actors Tony Sirico Federico Castellucio, and Steven Van Zandt in The Sopranos
The mob boss: Gandolfini was the head of a mob family in show Sopranos
The best of friends: David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, has spoken of his grief following Gandolfini's untimely passing
Meanwhile his co-star Joe Gannascoli, who played Vito Spatafore on the HBO drama, said he was shocked and heartbroken at the news.
'Fifty-one and leaves a kid - he was newly married. His son is fatherless now... It's way too young,' Gannascoli said.
Gandolfini's sudden and unexpected death has prompted a huge outpouring of grief from those who worked with the actor, with many celebrities taking to Twitter to pay tribute.
Actor and friend Gilles Marini revealed on his Facebook page that Gandolfini had travelled to Italy with his son Michael for a 'boy trip'.
Tribute: Gandolfini's picture is displayed in the window of a restaurant in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York following his sudden death on Wednesday
Versatile: James Gandolfini starred opposite Twilight's Kristen Stewart in the heartwarming 2010 movie Welcome To The Rileys
'I am heartbroken. My bud James Gandolfini just died. Last Saturday he told me at our kids graduation [that] he was so happy to go with his son to Italy. A boy trip!' Marini wrote.
He added: 'It was an honor to have met this man, such a great Dad! I spent so much time with James son teaching him soccer. I feel for that kid it must be so hard right now for little [Michael].'
'RIP James Gandolfini. A great friend,' wrote Jeff Daniels, his co-star in Broadway's God of Carnage.
'I am so deeply saddened by the untimely passing of sweet James Gandolfini!', tweeted Christina Applegate, his co-star in the 2004 comedy Surviving Christmas. 'My heart is broken for his family!! I’m in shock.'
Steve Carell, who was about to work with the larger-than-life star in HBO Films' Bone Wars, added: 'James Gandolfini. Unbelievably sad news. A fine man.'
In his younger days: As a basketball star at Ridge High School, Park Ridge in New Jersey
Senior year: James Gandolfini, in 1979 at Park Ridge High School, New Jersey
Following the success of the HBO television series - which finished in 2007 - he continued to make big screen appearances in critically acclaimed films including In The Loop and The Taking of Pelham 123.
He appeared alongside Twilight actress Kristen Stewart in the heartwarming drama Welcome to the Rileys and voiced the 'Wild Thing' Carol in Where the Wild Things Are.
He recently played Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in the Oscar nominated film Zero Dark Thirty.
In his personal life, Gandolfini made his first public appearance with Deborah at the premiere of the second half of the sixth and final series of The Sopranos in March 2007.
At their wedding a year later, they exchanged vows in front of family and friends at Honolulu's Central Union Church.
Deborah wore a white gown made of Italian lace, while the church was decorated with white lilies and rhododendrons.
Born in Westwood, New Jersey, Gandolfini graduated from Park Ridge High School, where he cut his teeth acting in school plays, and went on to study communications at Rutgers University.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has described himself as a 'huge fan' of Gandolfini.
'It's an awful shock. James Gandolfini was a fine actor, a Rutgers alum and a true Jersey guy,' he said.
In his school days: Gandolfini poses with a female friend in a picture from his High School year book in 1979; he was voted 'class flirt'
Acting debut: Gandolfini, sitting, as Jonathan Brewster in his high school production of Arsenic And Old Lace
Gandolfini started his professional acting career treading the boards in New York, and made his Broadway debut in the 1992 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire with Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin.
Although his first film role came before in the 1987 comedy horror movie Shock! Shock! Shock! and also had a minor role in the Melanie Griffith thriller A Stranger Among Us.
Gandolfini had a number of projects completed before his death including Violet & Daisy starring Saoirse Ronan, and another project by director Nicole Holofcener starring Catherine Keener.
In an interview in December last year, Gandolfini sounded upbeat about a slew of smaller roles following the breathtaking blackout ending in 2007 of The Sopranos.
'I'm much more comfortable doing smaller things,' Gandolfini said.
'I like them. I like the way they're shot; they're shot quickly. It's all about the scripts - that's what it is - and I'm getting some interesting little scripts.'
Celebrated: James and his on-screen wife Edie Falco both won at the 2000 Golden Globes for their roles as Tony and Carmela Soprano
TONY SOPRANO'S MOST MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM THE HBO SERIES
'You know my feelings: Every day is a gift. It's just, does it have to be a pair of socks?'
'What kind of (expletive) human being am I, if my own mother wants me dead?'
About his father: 'The belt was his favorite childhood development tool.'
'Nothing beats popping up some Orville Redenbachers and listening to `Men in Black.''
'Nowadays, everybody's gotta go to shrinks and counselors, and go on `Sally Jessy Raphael' and talk about their problems. What happened to Gary Cooper? The strong, silent type.'
'I gotta be honest with you. I'm not getting any satisfaction from my work.'
'I'm like King Midas in reverse. Everything I touch turns to (expletive).'
'You got any idea what my life would be worth if certain people found out I checked into a laughing academy?'
'When you're married, you'll understand the importance of fresh produce.'
'It wasn't like it was friggin' Cobain. It was just a little suicidal gesture, that's all.'
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