10 Great Posthumous Performances

This week sees the release of Eye in the Sky - Gavin Hood's drone warfare movie, playing now Stateside - in the UK. Already the film has been a hit with critics, with special notice going to one of the actors in particular: the late, great Alan Rickman.

Brogan Morris

Published: Apr 15, 2016 01:48 pm

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7) James Gandolfini In The Drop

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Michael R. Roskam’s underrated crime drama The Drop is notable for four main reasons: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts and James Gandolfini, in his final film appearance (he died aged 51, not long after filming on The Drop completed, of a heart attack).

In this movie, it’s the actors that tell the story, and for Gandolfini it was one last opportunity to prove why he was such a reliable mainstay of the gangster picture.

Though Hardy, Rapace and Schoenaerts are all excellent, it’s Gandolfini who’s the hard heart of the film. As an ex-crime boss reduced to working for the Chechen mobsters that took over his turf, the actor projects a heavy sense of disappointment. He’s a picture of a man living a life he never expected: one of mediocrity and subservience.