James Gandolfini Shows Kinder, Softer, Gentler Side on Sesame Street (2002)

When James Gandolfini first broke into film, he played Virgil, a brutal woman-beating mafioso (viewer beware), in the 1993 thriller, True Romance, written by Quentin Tarantino. In Terminal Velocity, he was back at it again, playing a Russian mobster. By the 1999, when The Sopranos first aired on HBO, Gandolfini had perfected the mobster role. The explosive anger, the raw violence, the colorful language — he had it all down. Of course, this contributed to a good gag when Gandolfini appeared on Sesame Street in 2002. Now the world had the chance to see the actor as it hadn’t seen him before. Meek, timid, and deathly afraid of giant talking vegetables. It’s an endearing little scene.

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