The late James Gandolfini wasn’t always the hulking, balding man the world grew to love as a ruthless yet sensitive mobster on The Sopranos.

Iconic for his portrayal of the philandering Tony Soprano, who had better luck being loyal to his mob family than his own family, Gandolfini was equally frisky in his younger years, decades before he played the enigmatic violent sociopath on The Sopranos.

Born September 18, 1961, James Gandolfini was best known as the affable Tony Soprano, the Mafia crime boss, and the family patriarch in HBO’s The Sopranos.

Sometimes sensitive, other times sociopathic, Gandolfini’s landmark performance of the flawed gangster earned him numerous awards and international acclaim.

Speaking of the lovable but brutal Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini told Vogue: “I am playing an Italian lunatic from New Jersey, and that’s basically what I am.”