ROLE TOOK ITS TOLL

Gandolfini gained sudden fame after years toiling as a character actor and garnered widespread respect from fellow actors.

Brad Pitt, who appeared in three films with Gandolfini, called him "a ferocious actor" and said he was "gutted by this loss."

In the HBO series, the burly, physically imposing Gandolfini created a gangster different from any previously seen in American television or film.

He was capable of killing enemies with his own hands but was prone to panic attacks. He loved his wife and was a doting father, but he carried on a string of affairs.

He regularly saw a therapist, portrayed by Lorraine Bracco, to work out his anxiety problems and issues with his mother. The vulnerable side of Tony Soprano made his detestable character deeply likable.

By the start of the show's final season, Gandolfini suggested he was ready to move on to more gentle roles.

"I'm too tired to be a tough guy or any of that stuff anymore," he said. "We pretty much used all that up in this show."

"The Sopranos" cast was also known for its hard-partying ways off set, and Falco, who has worked to stay sober since the early 1990s, confessed in a 2007 interview with New York magazine that hanging out with the cast was "too dangerous."

In 2002, a representative for Gandolfini confirmed to the New York Daily News and other media organizations that Gandolfini had struggled in the past with substance abuse problems, a revelation that first surfaced in connection with a contentious divorce battle with his first wife, Marcy Wudarski.

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