James Gandolfini laid to rest in New York

More than 1500 mourners attended the funeral of James Gandolfini in Morningside Heights, New York, yesterday.

Alongside his wife Deborah Lin Gandolfini and his two children, 13-year-old son Michael and nine-month-old daughter Liliana, were stars of the screen who arrived at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine to pay their last respects to the 'Sopranos' actor, who died last week aged 51.

Among them were Steve Buscemi, who starred in and directed a number of episodes of the show, and other cast-members from the series, including Julianna Margulies, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Joe Pantoliano, John Ventimiglia, Michael Imperioli and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

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Also in attendance were Steve Carrell, John Turturro, Alec Baldwin and Dustin Hoffman.

His wife Deborah said that despite the huge congregation, her husband was a very private man.

“People mattered to him,” she added. “He was always secretly helping someone.”

'Sopranos' creator David Chase was the last person to read at the ceremony, delivering a most personal eulogy in the form of a letter to Gandolfini.

“I asked around, and experts told me to start with a joke or cite a funny anecdote. 'Ha-ha-ha.' But as you yourself so often said, 'I’m not feeling it'. I’m too sad and full of despair,” he said.

“I’m writing to you because I’d partly like to have your advice because I remember how you did speeches. I saw you do a lot of them at award shows and stuff and invariably I think you used to express the thoughts on a sheet of paper and put in your pocket and then not really refer to them. And consequentially, many of your speeches didn’t make sense.

“I think that could happen except in your case it didn’t matter that it didn’t make sense because the feeling was real, the feeling was real, the feeling was real. I can’t say that enough.

“I tried to write a traditional eulogy, but it came out bad. So I’m writing you this letter and now I’m reading that letter in front of you. But it is being done to and for an audience that will give the funny opening a try. I hope it is funny. It is to me and I know it is to you.”

He added that Gandolfini had once told him 'You know what I want to be? I want to be a man. That's all. I want to be a man'.

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“And you were such a man,” Chase added, “But the paradox with you is I always thought I was seeing a boy - a sad, amazed, confused boy. You could see it in your eyes. That's why you were a great actor.

“I also feel you’re my brother because of the things we both loved. Family. Work. People in all their imperfection. Food. Alcohol. Talking. Rage. And a desire to bring the whole structure crashing down. We amused each other.”

Gandolfini died on June 19 after suffering a cardiac arrest in Rome. He was on his way to the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, where he was to have been given a special award.