THE PROFESSIONAL (REMEMBERING JAMES GANDOLFINI)

James Gandolfini always came across in interviews as a modest man.

Uncomfortable with questions about his craft, he was quick to salute screenwriters - not least those who created his defining role as Tony Soprano.

He would also in interviews point out the ridiculousness of his profession, declaring: "Standing in public in other people's clothes, pretending to be someone else - it's a strange way for a grown man to make a living."

But, boy, was he good at it and not just in the many Mafia and Army roles he essayed.

Gandolfini was a hugely intelligent character actor, whose presence often elevated otherwise iffy films.

Many cinemagoers first became aware of him in a few brief scenes as a brutal Mafia enforcer in Tony Scott's stylish, hyperviolent 1993 movie 'True Romance', which saw him working from a Quentin Tarantino script.

As the hitman Virgil, he did not spare his audience as he tortured Patricia Arquette's runaway prostitute Alabama and brought some depth to a character by almost treating his victim with some affection.

A year later, he would sparkle again as Geena Davis's boyfriend, Vinnie in Martha Coolidge's 'Angie' who is dumped for Stephen Rea's witty Irishman.

Gandolfini was back in front of the cameras for Tony Scott in 1995, who he would regularly work with, as a Lieutenant in a divided submarine crew in the tense thriller 'Crimson Tide' and he showed a flair for comedy as a dumb henchman in Barry Sonnenfeld's Hollywood gangster thriller 'Get Shorty'.

Gandolfini would go on to be a memorable screen presence as a Detective snared in a corruption investigation in Sidney Lumet's 'Night Falls On Manhattan', a sleazy pornographer in Joel Schumacher's '8mm', a gay hitman in Gore Verbinski's action comedy 'The Mexican', a boisterous businessman in the Coen Brothers' excellent 'The Man Who Wasn't There', an arrogant military prison Colonel opposite Robert Redford in Rod Lurie's 'The Last Castle' and, in arguably his most testing screen role, as an iron worker engaged in an extra-marital affair in John Turturro's musical comedy 'Romance and Cigarettes'.

In recent years, British fans got a real kick out of seeing him trading barbs as a Pentagon Lieutenant General with Peter Capaldi's monstrous Labour Government spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in Armando Iannucci's 'In the Loop'.

He got to play the Mayor of New York in Tony Scott's flashy 2009 remake of 'The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3' opposite Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

Gandolfini turned in a barnstorming performance too as the voice of the monster, Carol in Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's fairytale 'Where The Wilds Things Are'.

In the last year, he popped up on our cinema screens in Kathryn Bigelow's controversial 'Zero Dark Thirty' as the Director of the CIA and opposite Brad Pitt as a depressed hitman in Andrew Dominick's hugely underrated gangster flick 'Killing Me Softly' - a role which really ought to have landed him a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.

But his signature role was undoubtedly that of the troubled New Jersey gangster, Tony Soprano in what was a game changing series for television drama.

From the moment Gandolfini appeared in the first episode sitting opposite Lorraine Barcco's Dr Susan Melfi, he gripped audiences.

How could a gangster pour his heart out to a psychiatrist and yet avoid the retribution of his fellow hoodlums and the attention of the Feds?

For six seasons (season six was split in two parts by HBO), Gandolfini never lost his audience as Tony walked a tightrope between a messy domestic life and an equally complex organised crime life.

Highly intelligent, imbued with street cunning and charisma, Tony Soprano was deceitful and capable of the most monstrous acts and yet audiences adored him.

Surrounded by a cast that included Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli and Steven Van Zandt, Gandolfini played Soprano occasionally with a twinkle in his eye and large doses of vulnerability but also with a chill when required to switch into killer mode.

There have been few TV characters that were as nuanced and contradictory as Tony Soprano which was why there was such an outcry about 'The Sopranos' creator David Chase's decision to fade to black in the final sequence.

Fans of 'The Sopranos' have since it stopped airing six years ago, always harboured a dream it might return as a movie and we might learn Tony's fate in the diner in that final episode.

Gandolfini's shocking death finally puts paid to those hopes.

The hole Tony Soprano left behind at the end of the hit TV series just got a whole lot deeper.

(James Gandolfini passed away on June 19, 2013. This tribute originally appeared on Eamonnmallie.com)