James Gandolfini spent most of the 1990s on stage and in small parts in movies such as True Romance (1993), Get Shorty (1995) and A Civil Action (1998). In 1999 he was cast as Tony Soprano, the central character in the HBO mobster soap opera The Sopranos, and he became a star. Gandolfini continued work in feature films, including The Mexican (2001, with Julia Roberts), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001, starring Billy Bob Thornton) and Romance & Cigarettes (2005, with Kate Winslet).