The New Jersey Hall of Fame is a real thing, where the Garden State’s famous natives are honored every year for their achievements. This year’s ceremony, which took place last night, was particularly poignant as members of the Sopranos cast honored their late co-star, James Gandolfini.
Gandolfini’s death last year came to a shock to everyone, but hit few as hard as the residents of New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie even ordered for flags to be flown at half-staff shortly after Gandolfini’s death.
NJ.com reports that the actors who turned out for the event at the Asbury Park Convention Center included Tony Sirico, Aida Turturro, Matt Servitto, Vincent Pastore and Vincent Curatola. Gandolfini’s widow, Deborah Lin, picked up the honor in his place.
“Jimmy had no ego,” Curatola told NJ.com. “That's a hard thing to do when you're so celebrated, but Jimmy genuinely had no ego. If you start from that point in life, you can only go up.”
NBC Nightly News anchor and occasional sitcom actor Brian Williams was inducted by Bruce Springsteen (who is, of course, already in the NJ Hall of Fame). As Today.com notes, Williams was born in New York, but he moved to New Jersey as a child.
The other honorees last night included The Shirelles member Alice Waters; basketball legend Patrick Ewing; and Howard Katz, the NFL senior VP of broadcasting and media operations at the NFL.
Last year’s honorees included Whitney Houston and Dionne Warwick.
image courtesy of Walter McBride/INFphoto.com