# James GANDOLFINI is 35 years old in the Sopranos pilot **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2021, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826 "2021-04-12T03:33:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HughGoply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hughgoply/32/7834_2.png) [@HughGoply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HughGoply)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/1 "2021-04-12T03:33:46Z")
Holy shit that can’t be right, but it is. Gal Gadot is currently 35. Michael B. Jordan is 34. Kyle Chandler is 55. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/2 "2021-04-12T07:30:19Z")
The Sopranos premiered on January 10, 1999. According to his [official character bio](https://www.hbo.com/the-sopranos/cast-and-crew/tony-soprano), Tony Soprano was born in 1959. So he would have been 39-40. Gandolfini himself was born in 1961, so he was slightly younger. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/3 "2021-04-12T12:35:15Z")
The original pilot of the Sopranos was recorded at least two years before broadcast, possibly more. You can even see the age difference in between that one and episode 2. It was to do with the time taken shopping the pilot around, they didn’t rerecord it for the series. So it is possible that he could be late 35 part way through 1997. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/4 "2021-04-12T12:50:33Z")
You think that’s fucked up, Paul Rudd is 52 today. That’s _2 years older_ than Wilford Brimley was when he filmed **Cocoon**. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/5 "2021-04-12T13:49:33Z")
And one year older than Abe Vigoda in **The Godfather**. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/6 "2021-04-12T13:55:33Z")
And Carroll O’Connor was only 47 when All in the Family debuted! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/7 "2021-04-12T15:22:36Z")
Women had it much worse. Gloria Steinem was 51 as the addled hag in Sunset Boulevard. Bette Davis was 42 as the aging, threatened star in All About Eve. Margaret Dumont was 47 in the first of the Marx Brothers films. Myrna Loy was relegated to being the unsexy mother when she was in her mid-40s. ---
**Author:** ![SwissMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@SwissMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwissMan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/8 "2021-04-12T15:36:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Gloria Steinem was 51 as the addled hag in Sunset Boulevard. I think you meant Gloria Swanson. Gloria Steinem was still in high school when that film came out. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/9 "2021-04-12T16:13:46Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > And Carroll O’Connor was only 47 when All in the Family debuted! That sounds about right. The show premiered in 1971 and the character was supposed to be a WWII veteran. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/10 "2021-04-12T16:40:23Z")
> [@SwissMan](#): > > I think you meant Gloria Swanson. Yep. Weird brain fart. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/11 "2021-04-12T18:49:46Z")
It blows me away that Ed Asner was 41 when The Mary Tyler Moore Show started in 1970. He’s always been old to me, and yes he’s still around and still acting! And Betty White was 48 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d07c76/32.png) [@Hermione1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione1)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/12 "2021-04-12T19:16:58Z")
It’s amazing, isn’t it, what was considered “old” back then as opposed to today? Recently, I watched an entry of a YouTube series called Be Kind Rewind (about classic Hollywood) that focused on the Bette Davis/Joan Crawford conflict. The narrator pointed out that when the two made Baby Jane, the movie that helped coin the terms “psycho-biddies” and “hagsploitation”, these two “hags” and “biddies” were around the same age Nicole Kidman is now. Another example: William Hartnell and Peter Capaldi were pretty much the same age (55) when they were cast as The Doctor. But Hartnell looked like a doddering old man (and played the role as such) while Capaldi, in spite of his silver hair, was a vigorous man in his prime. (As a side note: Daniel Craig is only a few years younger than Hartnell was when he was cast as The Doctor, and his body’s a work of art!) Although, to be fair, Hartnell had some health problems, was a heavy smoker from what I understand, and lived through (and fought in) WWII, so all of these may have had a hand in aging him. But still… Finally, there’s my favorite example, A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche DuBois spends the entire play wailing about how she’s “aging” and “fading” and her “youth has gone up the waterspout” and she can’t stand to be seen in direct light because she’s AGED so. Blanche is THIRTY. ---
**Author:** ![HughGoply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hughgoply/32/7834_2.png) [@HughGoply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HughGoply)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/13 "2021-04-12T19:31:21Z")
Daniel Craig was playing “old” and out-dated in Skyfall when he was 43-44. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d07c76/32.png) [@Hermione1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione1)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/14 "2021-04-12T19:38:23Z")
Didn’t LOOK it, though, when he took his shirt off… 😍 ---
**Author:** ![HughGoply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hughgoply/32/7834_2.png) [@HughGoply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HughGoply)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/15 "2021-04-12T19:45:37Z")
Looked pretty good with his shirt on, too. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/16 "2021-04-13T03:59:25Z")
Edith Bunker goes to her 20th high school reunion in the third season of _All in the Family_. So that means she is 38 in SEASON 3. In the opening season, she was **36**. That’s younger than Mayim Bialik at the end of _TBBT_, and about the same age as Lucy Lawless toward the end of _Xena: Warrior Princess_. There’s a scene **several seasons into** _All in the Family_ where Edith goes through menopause. Lucy Lawless is playing an ex-cop/current private detective right now for Australian TV, and kicking ass at it. It’s called _My Life is Murder_. I think you either need to buy the series from your DVR, or get Acorn TV. She’s 53, and looks great-- also sounds great, moves great, acts great, you couldn’t ask for me. It’s so much about dress and hairstyle. And how you move. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d07c76/32.png) [@Hermione1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione1)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/17 "2021-04-13T04:46:50Z")
I’ve looked that episode up–[it was her 30th reunion, actually.](https://all-in-the-family-tv-show.fandom.com/wiki/Class_Reunion) That would’ve made her 48, and she turned 50 a couple of years later…and [her fiftieth birthday was not at all what she’d expected…](https://all-in-the-family-tv-show.fandom.com/wiki/Edith's_50th_Birthday_(Part_1)) But still…48. She looked twenty years older, and so did Archie, and both characters turned fifty during the run of the series. ---
**Author:** ![stuccosuperstar2020](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@stuccosuperstar2020](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuccosuperstar2020)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/18 "2021-04-13T08:48:04Z")
Well, when Ronald Reagan ran for President in 1984 at the age of 73, after serving four years as President, questions were brought up about his age. Gwen Stefani, 51. J Lo, 51 Halle Berry, 53 Jared Leto, 48 Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, 56 Angela Basset, 62 John Stamos, 57 Ellen, 62 Vanna White, 63 Denzel Washington, 65 Alyson Hannigsn, 46 Jim Parsons, 47 Chris Rock, 55 Lucy Liu, 51 Julia Louis Dreyfus 59 ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/19 "2021-04-13T09:51:38Z")
Oh. Phew! Glad I got that wrong, actually. Really, Edith didn’t look that much _un_like a 48 year old at the time. My maternal grandmother (who I remember very clearly, even from a very young age, because I saw her several times a week) was 50 when I was born, and had the same sort of hairstyle as Edith Bunker, and the same kinds of housedresses. She had a more expensive hair dresser, and more expensive housedresses, and didn’t wear housedresses out anywhere-- maybe the grocery store, the hair salon, or places that might be dirty, like if she took me to the park, or the car to the garage, unlike Edith, who seemed to wear them just about everywhere. Also, my grandmother was slimmer, so her dresses had a waist, but, yeah, Edith was coifed and dressed like anyone her age at the time would be. She looks older by today’s standards, but not by the standards of the early 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/20 "2021-04-13T16:38:50Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > And Carroll O’Connor was only 47 when All in the Family debuted! > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > That sounds about right. The show premiered in 1971 and the character was supposed to be a WWII veteran. Yep. My dad, who was a WWII vet, turned 46 that year. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826.md?page=2)