Aida Turturro
Family is important to Janice, sister of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano, and family seems the focus as well of the actress who played her, Aida Turturro. In recent interviews she has lamented the end of the hit HBO series, by saying "we're not going to have our family anymore…It really has been a true family."
Before she joined the Soprano family, the New York-born actress had appeared in dozens of movies, usually in small character roles, some involving her cousin, the actor and director John Turturro. There is something of a theme to her career: Her first Off-Broadway role was as a bridesmaid in Tony 'N Tina's Wedding. Her first film role was the 1989 "True Love," directed by Nancy Savoca, about an Italian-American family.
She first worked with James Gandolfini in a Broadway revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1992, and appeared with him in two movies ("Angie" starring Geena Davis in 1994 and "Fallen" in 1998) before being cast in her breakthrough role as his sister in "The Sopranos."
Photos: Aunt Aida Misses The Family
It has been a bitter-sweet time. She has befriended the other cast members and gotten widespread recognition, nominated both this year and in 2001 for an Emmy. But during the run of the series, both her parents died, and she discovered she has diabetes. And now the show has ended.
Her plans for the future, she has said, are to continue acting in order to pay the bills (she has said her next gig will be a role in "Chicago" on Broadway in the fall), and get married and have a family.