JERSEY CITY -- At Wednesday night's Jersey City council meeting, the attendees could have been talking about Mayor-Elect Steve Fulop and the new policies he has already started talking about.

But instead, they were buzzing about fiction. Actor James Gandolfini, 51, who played Tony Soprano on the popular "Sopranos" TV series, has died, several news outlets reported in the last hour.

The series was set in Northern New Jersey and employed several Hudson County natives as stars.

It was reported on CNN that he died of a possible heart attack in Italy.