Wikipedia has an idea about Tony Soprano having been born in ‘59. Which makes him eight during the first 50 minutes of The Many Saints of Newark in ‘67, which fits with chubby little William Ludwig filling the role.

Unfortunately this timeline also makes Tony 12 years old in the second half (or final 70 minutes) in ‘71, which DOESN’T fit as Michael Gandolfini, 20 when MSON began filming began in ‘19, is supposed to be around 16 or 17.

For Michael’s casting to completely work Tony Soprano would have to have been born in ‘55 or thereabouts, which throws other timelines out of whack. When he cast Michael as teenaged Tony, Chase was obviously saying to himself and to MSON colleagues “this doesn’t add up but Michael is such a good call in other respects that we’re just going to hope that no one does the math or complains too much.”

The birth year of ‘59 roughly synchs with James Gandolfini’s own birth year of 1961, which meant JG was 37 or 38 when the series (which premiered in ‘99) began filming, and roughly 45 or 46 when Tony Soprano was clipped in ‘07.

Between ‘99 and ‘07 Gandolfini seemed to put on a good 50 or 60 pounds if not more, almost doubling in size and looking more 50ish than 40ish by the end. In ‘99 JG could be described as stocky; by ‘07 he was on the edge of obesity. The poor guy died of a heart attack at age 51 in 2013.