Jim bought the Cadillac convertible in January 2004 from one of the guys on the crew of “The Sopranos.” After five hours of working on it, Jim and I got the engine to start, but the top wouldn’t go up. He said, “I’ll just drive it like this.” I followed in my car and watched as everyone in Manhattan did a triple take, like, “What is this idiot doing driving this old convertible in 10-degree weather?” He smoked a cigar the whole ride. It became the summer car on the Jersey Shore. We would take it to go watch the fireworks or down to the boardwalk. The car was something that everybody shared — the trunk was always packed with shovels and boogie boards. Jim was a great boogie-boarder.

- Tom Richardson, James Gandolfini’s best friend and project manager