# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/21 "2021-04-13T16:57:46Z")
If you actually watch the Sopranos pilot, Gandolfini looks like he easily could be in his late to mid 30s. He (the actor, not the character) was in his late 30s when the series began. Remember, Gandolfini died at the age of 51. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/22 "2021-04-14T03:14:04Z")
I don’t know, I think Gandolfini was just one of those guys who looked older than he was. Not quite Pat Morita level, but he’s only 32 in _True Romance_ and…the guy in this scene does not look 32 to me, is all I can say. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NazGqgc8u20/maxresdefault.jpg "True Romance Virgil") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NazGqgc8u20) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/23 "2021-04-14T03:38:40Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > 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. Yeah, if you’d been married for 20 years or more and had a grown daughter, particularly among the working class, you were solidly established as middle-aged at LEAST by the time you hit 40. Heck, 30 was the gateway to middle age back then, especially for women. ---
**Author:** ![DeathPool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e95f7d/32.png) [@DeathPool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeathPool)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/24 "2021-04-14T04:05:09Z")
I randomly googled Chris Rock, Denzel, and Julia Louise, it seems there all a year older than you said, are you on a year layover or something? A man outside of time? ---
**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 14, 2021, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/25 "2021-04-14T09:36:07Z")
It was just before the Baby Boomers “40 is the new 30,” Peter Pan, kids call you by your first name, thing. People were not embarrassed to be adults. As a member of the generation immediately post-Boomer, I appreciate some things, like being able to wear jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers when I’m not working, or sitting criss-cross on the futon, instead of sitting in a chair, like a grown up. My grandmother lived to 98, and I never once saw her sit on the floor. Since I am currently 4 years older than she was when I was born, I think it has more to do with ideas about adult dignity than what she could do. And she was a FUN grandmother. I loved her to death. When she was there we were always doing something, and I learned 80% of the family recipes directly from her, not from my mother. But she was born in 1917, and it affected her-- sometimes in good ways. She remembered women getting the vote in 1920-- it was the first news event she remembered-- and she never missed voting in an election herself. But she knew being called “Ma’am” was respectful, and not a sign that people thought she was old (at least, no older than 16), and she wasn’t flattered to be carded at a liquor store at 70, and said so, until the clerk explained they carded everyone who used a credit card. Every year, she did something new on her birthday, and wasn’t ashamed to tell people it was her birthday, or how old she was. She got her ears pierced on her 65th birthday, and a small crowd gathered at the mall to watch, and they all cheered. Half of them were punk rocker-types. I wish there’d been camera phones then. So she wasn’t especially conventional, but she was still a grown-up, and didn’t shy away from the idea. That really did come later. ---
**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 14, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/26 "2021-04-14T13:30:13Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > > [@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. I realize the age is correct for the year, but he seems/looks so much older than 46. ---
**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 14, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/27 "2021-04-14T13:38:35Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I don’t know, I think Gandolfini was just one of those guys who looked older than he was. Look up “young James Gandolfini.” He’s clearly one of those guys for whom puberty changed them directly into a middle-aged man. ---
**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 14, 2021, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/28 "2021-04-14T14:32:13Z")
Wikipedia has a [photo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_O%27Connor#/media/File:Carrol_O'Connor_as_Archie_Bunker.JPG) of Carrol O’Connor in the role in 1975 and he look about right for a fifty-year-old. His hair still has some color and his face looks relatively unworn. ---
**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 14, 2021, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/29 "2021-04-14T16:07:09Z")
I looked younger when I was 50. I still have all my hair, and the salt-and-pepper is mostly confined to the sideburns. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/30 "2021-04-14T19:12:50Z")
He still never had the makings of a varsity athlete. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/31 "2021-04-14T19:38:40Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I don’t know, I think Gandolfini was just one of those guys who looked older than he was. Not quite Pat Morita level, but he’s only 32 in _True Romance_ and…the guy in this scene does not look 32 to me, is all I can say. I think it’s hairline tbh. His face looks 30ish to me. ---
**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 15, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826/32 "2021-04-15T19:56:23Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > I think it’s hairline tbh. His face looks 30ish to me. Hair can really age you. My mother started chemo at 74. Prior to that, she had very thick hair, with barely any gray, and few wrinkles, no double chin, etc. Most people guessed her around 62, and if she’d told you she was 57, you might have thought she looked a little on the old side, but you would have believed her. After her first round, and her hair had grown back, it was almost entirely gray, and not as thick. She found a flattering style, but she still had aged 15 years in just 18 months because of the hair. She still looked good for her age, because she was fairly unwrinkled, with no double chin, and a pretty good figure for her age. But now she looked about 68-70 at 75. By the time she died, at 77, she had lost a lot of weight, and so now she had wrinkles and skin hanging down under her chin. She looked 80. But really, the hair was a big deal. Keeping your color, and volume goes a long way to keeping youth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-gandolfini-is-35-years-old-in-the-sopranos-pilot/939826.md?page=1)