A Table for Tony

Holsten’s, the Bloomfield, N.J. diner that served as the backdrop for the final scene of The Sopranos, paid tribute to James Gandolfini last night. The actor died yesterday at the age of 51. Here is Matt Zoller Seitz remembering Gandolfini over at Vulture:

Anybody who had even the slightest contact with Gandolfini will testify to what a great guy he was, how full of life he was, how extraordinary he made other people feel. Yes, absolutely, he had problems — with drink, with drugs, with women, probably with lots of other things, for all we know — but so does everybody, to one degree or another. But whether he was feeling well or poorly, or living smartly or stupidly, there was always something about the guy that you wanted to embrace.

You could feel it shining through the screen, that warmth and vulnerability, that broken yet still-hopeful humanness.