Source: Evan Agostini / Getty
Get your hands on the same exact Cadillac Escalade driven by fictional mob boss Tony Soprano (played by late actor James Gandolfini), and roll around town as one of TV’s most memorable wise guys. The 2003 white SUV is being sold by Import 1 Motorsport in Pipersville, Pennsylvania for $175,000. Prior to that, it was auctioned off by Boston-based RR Auction nearly seven years ago for just under $120,000.
The 8-cylinder, all-wheel-drive SUV currently has 110,939 miles on the odometer (which is remarkably low given that the average American drove about 14,200 miles in 2019 and just under 13,000 miles the following year, according to Kelly Blue Book). The vehicle’s certificate of authenticity was signed in 2010 and states: “Mr. Gandolfini personally signed the driver’s side sun visor ‘Thanks for the truck, James Gandolfini’ and also autographed the passenger’s side dashboard.”
Gandolfini blessed the back of the driver’s side headrest with his John Hancock, too. He signed off on another certificate of authenticity from The Golden Closet in 2012 as well. “This vehicle was one of only two identical Escalades that were used during the last three seasons of the series,” it reads.
While fans of The Sopranos might enjoy the chance to cruise in style like Tony, the actual stress of playing him may have driven Gandolfini to an early grave. He died from a heart attack in 2013 at 51 years old, and many of his peers eulogized him as one of the generation’s greatest actors.
But in last year’s book Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, former HBO chief executive Chris Albrecht shared why he felt the late Westwood, NJ native could channel Tony Soprano so well.
“Tony’s struggles not only mirrored Jimmy’s struggles, they amplified Jimmy’s struggles and what Jimmy felt,” Albrecht told author and journalist James Andrew Miller. “In order to become Tony, he had to connect with his darkest side… The cost for him of playing Tony was beyond what just being an actor would be. To do it was for him to connect with his own demons.”
