James Gandolfini will be posthumously inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame at a ceremony Thursday night in Asbury Park. The actor, best known for playing Tony Soprano on HBO’s The Sopranos, died in Italy last year. According to NBC New York, several of Gandolfini’s former Sopranos castmates are set to attend the ceremony, including Vincent Curatola, Tony Sirico, Aida Turturro, and Vincent Pastore. Gandolfini will join the 80 other public figures with New Jersey connections who have been inducted into the Hall since it was created in 2008.
Not only did Gandolfini play the head of a fictional New Jersey crime family, the actor was also a proud New Jersey native. He was born in Westwood, New Jersey and attended both high school and college in the state before moving to New York City to purse acting. Gandolfini will be inducted alongside jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie, news anchor Brian Williams, girl group The Shirelles, author Dorothy Parker, chef Alice Waters, basketball legend Patrick Ewing, and former New Jersey Governor Jim Florio. The web-based Hall of Fame has no permanent location, but instead operates out of a “mobile museum” that has toured the state since 2013.