( CNN ) -- `` Now we 'll never know whether Tony Soprano got whacked or not . '' This , believe it or not , was how somebody on a social networking site greeted last night 's shocking news of James Gandolfini 's death , at 51 , of a heart attack while vacationing in Europe . The first thing you want to say to this is : Really ? Six years have passed since the last episode of `` The Sopranos '' left the fate of its psychically damaged crime boss and suburban patriarch to speculation -- and you still want closure after all this time ? Is that really the first thing you thought about after someone died so young , so unexpectedly ? On the one hand , this sounds at best shallow and at worst callous . It is true , of course , that Tony Soprano , one of the great characters in American television and folklore , was indeed the role of a lifetime , for which Gandolfini was deservedly honored with multiple Emmys , unanimous acclaim and the type of reverberating legacy that is rarer than awards or praise . ( It may be somewhat premature to call this immortality , but we 'll see in another 30 years or so . ) Appreciation : James Gandolfini , a pure actor . It is also true that in what turns out to have been a painfully brief time , Gandolfini had also distinguished himself in many roles on stage and screen in which his gruff , bearish demeanor proved adaptable enough to play everything from a well-heeled New York parent in the 2009 Broadway production of `` God of Carnage '' to the recalcitrant father of an aspiring rocker in `` Not Fade Away , '' last year 's movie-directorial debut of `` Sopranos '' creator David Chase . He could also veer into the offbeat with surprising results , making a poignant impression while giving wounded , anxious voice to one of the beasts in Spike Jonze 's 2009 movie adaptation of `` Where the Wild Things Are , '' a film I liked better than most of my fellow film critics did at the time . In last year 's `` Zero Dark Thirty '' he made a deeper impression playing CIA director Leon Panetta than his relatively brief screen time would have suggested . It was the resume of the consummate character actor . And yet , it 's just possible that only an actor as versatile and magnetic as Gandolfini could have rendered a character as complicated , forbidding and intimately familiar as Tony Soprano powerfully enough to have raised the bar for dramatic television . David Chase set the table for his quirky crime series by giving his menacing main character a streak of emotional vulnerability so deep and wide that he needed psychotherapy to cope with the consequences of his actions -- and the often trauma-inducing behavior of his family members . Galdolfini left his mark on New Jersey . And for all the tough talk , squalid activities and violent reprisals endemic to his profession , Tony was also flummoxed by life as a well-heeled New Jersey businessman trying to get his daughter into a decent college , his son into a better ( less illicit ) line of work and his wife to accept his peccadillos and keep the household together while he tried to keep his motley troops in line and the authorities at bay . One minute he could scare you ( and his shrink ) with his flashes of intense anger ; the next minute he made you empathize with his obsessive fascination with the wildlife ( ducks , bears , etc . ) wandering into his spacious backyard . He was both a dedicated thug and a lost soul , a philandering sociopath who lugged his own unwieldy , twisted sense of propriety and honor . It was this tension between Tony 's warring selves that , as much as any of the show 's other virtues , kept millions of viewers riveted to `` The Sopranos '' for six seasons . It also broadened the possibilities for new dramatic series featuring lead characters with similarly conflicted morals and sordid deeds . In other words : Without Tony Soprano , there would be no Don Draper of `` Mad Men '' ( created by `` Sopranos '' writer Matthew Weiner ) or Walter White of `` Breaking Bad . '' From the mouth of Tony Soprano : Best quotes . And without James Gandolfini bringing his own intelligence , charisma and intuitive graces to Tony Soprano 's portrayal , television might have been more resistant to the deeper , more complex drama that has catapulted the medium to being the main event in American popular culture . Gandolfini , known among fellow actors and others for his generosity of spirit toward others , gave all of us a gift that will keep on giving for generations . The real regret , the awful , terrible knowledge that informed so many grief-stricken tributes online Wednesday , is not that we 'll never know what happened to Tony Soprano at that last supper . It 's that we 'll never have a chance to see all the other wonderful gifts we would have received from the man who brought him to riveting , haunting life . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gene Seymour .
Gene Seymour : James Gandolfini helped elevate the medium of dramatic television . Without an actor of his gifts , the character of Tony Soprano might not have worked , he says . Seymour : Complex , conflicted Tony Soprano paved the way for others such as Don Draper . He says it 's sad that we wo n't get to see Gandolfini make other dramatic breakthroughs .