James Gandolfini (WireImage)
SAD FINAL FLIGHT: Airport workers yesterday load the crate carrying the body of beloved “Sopranos” actor James Gandolfini (inset), who died in Rome last week. (
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ROME — James Gandolfini’s body was quietly loaded onto a private plane yesterday and flown back to his native New Jersey, where loved ones are planning a grand curtain call.
The jet departed from Rome at 6 p.m. local time and touched down at Newark’s Liberty International Airport at 9:30 p.m.
The Italian news agency ANSA had earlier published a photo showing airport workers loading a box containing a coffin said to be holding Gandolfini’s remains onto the jet in Rome.
It was to be transported to the Robert Spearing Funeral Home in Park Ridge, NJ, which also handled the the arrangements for Gandolfini’s parents.
On Thursday morning, friends and loved ones of the actor best known for his portrayal of Tony Soprano will give him one more standing ovation during services at The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan.
Police and funeral planners are set to meet today to go over logistics.
The NYPD expects to close off at least a few blocks around the gothic church, on Amsterdam Avenue and West 112th Street.
Gandolfini, 51, died of a heart attack Wednesday at Rome’s Boscolo Exedra Hotel. He had just finished a huge meal of fried prawns, foie gras and eight cocktails at the hotel’s outdoor eatery, The Post exclusively reported last week.
He was vacationing with his 13-year-old son.
It usually takes at least one week to work through international red tape and ship a body home.
But Gandolfini rep Michael Kobold thanked HBO, United Airlines, Secretary of State John Kerry, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for expediting the arrangements.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona in New York with Post Wire Services