LATEST in the tragic death of JAMES GANDOLFINI as new details emerge.
The Sopranos star, 51, was vacationing in Rome with his sister and his 13-year-old son Michael when he suffered the heart attack.
They had just returned to their hotel after a day sightseeing. NBC News reports that the teen called for help as his father lay alive but stricken in his hotel room at the Hotel Boscolo around10 p.m. , the hotel's managerAntonio D'amore told NBC.
Dr. Claudio Modini, the emergency room doctor at the hospital where Gandolfini was taken after collapsing, said that the actor arrived around 10:20 p.m. Wednesday and was declared dead at 11 p.m. after efforts to resuscitate him had failed. Modini said an autopsy would be performed within 24-hours, according to Italian law.
PREVIOUSLY: HBO execs confirmed the loss.“It is with immense sorrow that we report our client James Gandolfini passed away today while on holiday in Rome, Italy,” said a statement from agents, Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders.“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.”
Gandolfini was in Italy to attend the 59th Taormina Film Festival.
Gandolfini hit the big time in the Quentin Tarantino – Tony Scott film 1993 hit "True Romance" in 1993 and was a working thesp before gaining notoriety as mob kingpin Tony Soprano from the hit HBO series garnering 3 Emmy awards for his perf during the 6 season run.
Born on Sept. 18, 1961, Gandolfini attended Rutgers University and launched his acting career on the New York stage — and had his first Broadway role in 1992’s “A Streetcar Named Desire.” His most recent screen triumph was as Leon Panetta in Katherine Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” based on the Seal Team Six op to bring down Osama Bin Laden. He was also in the film version of Maurice Sendak's classic "Where the Wild Things Are".
Gandolfini had been in production on a new series for HBO, Criminal Justice.
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