Edie Falco

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Edith Falco (born July 5, 1963) is a three-time Emmy winning American television, film and stage actress who is best known for her role as Carmela Soprano on HBO's award winning series The Sopranos, as well as Diane Wittlesey on the HBO show Oz.

Falco was born in Brooklyn, New York to Frank Falco (an Italian commercial artist, who now works as a sculptor) and Judith Anderson (a Swedish actress who has since retired from the profession) [1]; her siblings are Joseph, Paul, and Ruth. She was raised in Northport, on Long Island, graduating from Northport High School in 1981 after playing Eliza Doolittle in a production of My Fair Lady. She attended SUNY Purchase with fellow actors Stanley Tucci and Ving Rhames, with whom she remains close friends.

Her first big break in movies was a small speaking role in the 1994 Woody Allen film Bullets Over Broadway. One reason she got the part was her friendship with former SUNY Purchase classmate Eric Mendelsohn, who at the time was the assistant to Allen's costume designer, Jeffrey Kurland. Mendelsohn later would go on to direct Falco in his feature film Judy Berlin, for which he won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival.

Falco is the only actress to have received a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and a SAG Award in the same year, for her performance as Carmela Soprano in the television series The Sopranos. Prior to that, she was a regular performer on Oz. She has also had recurring roles on Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street.

In the 2004 presidential election, Falco emerged on the political scene as a spokeswoman for M.O.B. (Mothers Opposing Bush). She endorsed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. She is a survivor of breast cancer. In December 2004 she adopted a son, named Anderson Falco ("Anderson" is her mother's maiden name).

Falco has won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2006, she was notoriously snubbed by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her work on "The Sopranos".

She appeared in the films Cop Land, Random Hearts and John Sayles' Sunshine State, for which she received the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also appeared in the film Freedomland.

On Broadway, she appeared in the Tony Award-winning Side Man and the revivals of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune opposite Stanley Tucci and 'night, Mother opposite Brenda Blethyn.

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