The wealth of evidence — when he was alive and when he passed away — that actor James Gandolfini was truly special when it came to his fellow cast members and friends now has a new tidbit. Gandolfini left $50,000 to a friend with an autistic son. The New York Post:
Family man James Gandolfini took care of his friends’ kids as well as his own.
The benevolent “Sopranos” star left $50,000 in his will to college pal Doug Katz, who has a 12-year-old autistic son.
“I was shocked,” Katz told The Post yesterday of the gift, of which he learned of in a phone call from Gandolfini’s widow, Deborah Lin. “He’s my son’s guardian angel.”
Katz said Gandolfini, with whom he once roomed, has always been generous with Katz’s son, Andrew.
“He got him nutritional supplements, anything Andrew needed to help him lead a better life. Jim sponsored gymnastics for my son,” the grateful dad sai“He always said, ‘How can we help? How can we make it better?’ And none of it was lip service.
“I’d rather have Jim alive than his money,” said Katz. “You could never meet a nicer guy in the world. He was the glue that kept us together.”
Gandolfini, who died of a heart attack on June 19 on vacation in Rome, also left $100,000 to young godson Robert Parish, whose mom, Brittany, is a longtime friend.
And, of course, the Post notes that Gandolfini, who was worth as much as $70 million, took care of his son Michael in his will.
Over the years there have been many indications that Gandofini was a special soul. The most famous one years ago was when he held out for a raise. He then sent checks to other cast members so they could share in his raise. He also had a habit during press interviews of making sure he’d talk about how great his cast was — taking great pains not to hog all the fame and credit for the Sopranos for himself. Watch his 2002 Golden Globes acceptance speech HERE.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.