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Edie Falco

 
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Falco, Edie
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Edie Falco was the first actress to sweep the top three television awards in one year. In 2000, she received the Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG awards for best actress, all for her performance as Carmela Soprano in the hit HBO series The Sopranos. She has played Carmela since 1999, and also won the Golden Globe in 2003 and Emmy awards for best actress in 2001 and 2003.

Falco was born July 5, 1963, in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from the acting program at SUNY Purchase and, immediately afterwards, went to work as a clown and entertainer at weddings and birthday parties. She began to get small parts in films in the late 1980s. Some of the films she has appeared in include The Unbelievable Truth (1990), Laws of Gravity (1992), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), The Addiction (1995), Cost of Living (1997, for which she won the Los Angeles AFI Film Festival Best Actress award), Cop Land (1997), A Price Above Rubies (1998), Random Hearts (1999) and Sunshine State (2002).

From 1993-1996, Falco had a recurring role as the wife of a blinded police officer on NBC's acclaimed drama Homicide: Life on the Street. She also guest-starred on Law and Order, Oz and Will and Grace.

Falco made her Broadway debut in 1999, in Warren Leight's semi-autobiographical play Side Man, in a role that she originated in 1996 in workshop productions. She has also appeared on stage in The Vagina Monologues and Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune.

Last updated: January 05, 2009.

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Actor: Edie Falco
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jul 05, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '90s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Judy Berlin, Trust, The Addiction
  • First Major Screen Credit: Trust (1990)

Biography

Known as part of "the Purchase Mafia" thanks to her status as one of the many illustrious alumni of the State University of New York at Purchase, Edie Falco is one of America's most well-respected television and film actresses. A native of Brooklyn, Falco, who is of Sicilian heritage, was born in 1963. She got her professional start acting in fellow-Purchase alum Hal Hartley's films, most notably Trust (1991), which cast her as the unrepentantly trampy older sister of a pregnant cheerleader (Adrienne Shelly). Falco spent the 1990s dividing her time and talent between TV and film, doing recurring work on such series as Homicide: Life on the Street and Law and Order, and appearing in a slew of diverse films that included Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway (1994) and The Addiction (1995).

In 1997, Falco began earning kudos for her performance as Officer Diane Whittlesey on the HBO prison drama Oz; she stayed with the show for two years, after which she garnered even greater acclaim for her work on another HBO series, The Sopranos. Cast as Carmela Soprano, wife of Mafioso Tony Soprano, Falco won both a 1999 Emmy and a 2000 Golden Globe for her work on the show. The growing respect and recognition she garnered for her television work was ably complemented by the acclaim she was increasingly receiving for her work on the big screen; after winning an Independent Spirit Award for her role in the noirish Cost of Living (1997), she gave a strong portrayal of a jailed mother in Morgan J. Freeman's Hurricane Streets (1997). In 1999, Falco earned her strongest screen notices to date for her title role in Eric Mendelsohn's Judy Berlin, portraying an aspiring actress trying to break out of her small Long Island town. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Edie Falco
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Edie Falco

Falco at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Born Edith Falco
July 5, 1963 (1963-07-05) (age 46)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1987 – present

Edith "Edie" Falco (pronounced /ˈiːdi ˈfælkoʊ/; born July 5, 1963) is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her lead roles as both Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and the titular character on the Showtime series "Nurse Jackie"

Contents

Family

Falco was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Judith Anderson, an actress, and Frank Falco, a jazz drummer.[1] Her father is Italian American and her mother Swedish American.[2][3] Falco's siblings are Joseph, Paul and Ruth. Her uncle is novelist, playwright and poet Edward Falco, an English professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. She was raised in Northport and West Islip,[4] on Long Island. She has an adopted son named Anderson Falco and an adopted daughter named Macy Falco.

Education

Falco graduated from Northport High School in 1981, after playing Eliza Doolittle in a production of My Fair Lady. She attended the Acting Program at SUNY Purchase with fellow actors Stanley Tucci and Ving Rhames; she remains friends with both.

Career

Early in her career, Falco made guest appearances on television shows like Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street. Tom Fontana, executive director of Homicide, cast Falco as Eva Thormann, the wife of an injured police officer, after watching Falco's performance in Laws of Gravity, a 1992 film directed by Nick Gomez. Fontana said of her, "She's an actress who's unadorned by any embroidery. She does everything with such simplicity and honesty, it's breathtaking."[5] A struggling actor at the time, Falco said her salary from these television episodes paid for one month's worth of rent.[6] Fontana cast Falco as a regular character, prison officer Diane Whittlesey, in his HBO series Oz based on her work in the Homicide episodes "Son of a Gun" and "A Shot in the Dark".[7]

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

Falco in 2007.

Falco, The X-Files star Gillian Anderson, Ugly Betty star America Ferrera, and 30 Rock's Tina Fey are the only actresses to have received a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a SAG Award in the same year. Falco won these awards in 2003 for her performance as Carmela during the fourth season of The Sopranos.

Edie has won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and five Screen Actors Guild Awards.[8]

Falco has appeared in the films Trust, Cop Land, Random Hearts, Freedomland, and John Sayles' Sunshine State, for which she received the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for "Best Supporting Actress". On Broadway, she appeared in the Tony Award-winning Side Man and in the revivals of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune opposite Stanley Tucci, and 'night, Mother opposite Brenda Blethyn. She has also appeared as a guest star on the television shows 30 Rock and Will & Grace.

Edie stars as the title character in the Showtime dark comedy series Nurse Jackie, that premiered in June 2009.[9][10][11][12]

Politics

During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Falco appeared in a 30-second television commercial on behalf of M.O.B. (Mothers Opposing Bush) in which she said "Mothers always put their children first. Mr. Bush, can you say the same?" referring to George W. Bush who was running for re-election.[13]

Records show that she donated $1,000 to John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, $300 to the Democratic National Committee in 2004, and two separate sums of $1,000 and $300 to Hillary Clinton in 2005.[14] Coincidentally, Falco appears as a democratic congresswomen in 30 Rock.

Edie Falco has become the spokesperson for Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and appeared on CNN on June 25, 2009.[15]

Personal life

Falco has said she had problems with alcohol and decided to become sober after "one particular night of debauchery." She said in an interview that it is hard to be around the hard-partying cast of The Sopranos; "This cast (of the Sopranos) in particular, they really love to hang out and party. They make it look like fun. And it was fun for me! They spend a lot more time without me than with me, by my own choice—I’m always invited, and I’m always there for two minutes and I leave, because I can’t live in that world anymore. It's too dangerous."[16]

In 2003, Falco was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she subsequently survived. She chose not to make the news public for approximately one year.[16]

Awards and recognition

Awards won

Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series
  • 1999: The Sopranos (for the episode "College")
  • 2001: The Sopranos (for the episode "Second Opinion")
  • 2003: The Sopranos (for the episode "Whitecaps")
Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress - TV Drama Series
  • 2000: The Sopranos
  • 2003: The Sopranos
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor - Drama Series
  • 2000: The Sopranos
  • 2003: The Sopranos
  • 2007: The Sopranos
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble - Drama Series
  • 2000: The Sopranos
  • 2007: The Sopranos

Award nominations

Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series
Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress - Comedy Series
Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress - TV Drama Series
  • 2001: The Sopranos
  • 2002: The Sopranos
  • 2005: The Sopranos
  • 2007: The Sopranos
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor - Drama Series
  • 2001: The Sopranos
  • 2002: The Sopranos
  • 2005: The Sopranos
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble - Drama Series
  • 2001: The Sopranos
  • 2002: The Sopranos
  • 2003: The Sopranos
  • 2005: The Sopranos

References

  1. ^ Edie Falco Biography (1964-)
  2. ^ Steven Priggé - Interview with Edie Falco
  3. ^ Mob happy, July 13, 2002. Accessed July 2, 2008.
  4. ^ Green, Jesse. Edie Falco, Unmarried to the Mob, The New York Times, November 7, 2004. Accessed July 2, 2008.
  5. ^ Fretts, Bruce (1999-01-15). "The Courtship of Edie Falco; The much sought-after star of "Oz" and "Sopranos"". Entertainment Weekly: p. 48. 
  6. ^ Koltnow, Barry (2002-06-21). "Edie Falco follows unlikely path to stardom and her latest movie". The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, California). 
  7. ^ Morris, Mark (2000-09-24). "Life: Interview: Shooting Stars: After 15 years of waiting tables and dressing up as the Cookie Monster, Edie Falco had given up hope of making it as an actress. But then she married th emob and became the TV hit of the year. Mark Morris is blown away by The Sopranos' Carmela". The Observer (London, England): p. 12. 
  8. ^ Edie Falco - Awards
  9. ^ "Nurse Jackie: Official Site". Sho.com. http://www.sho.com/site/nursejackie/home.do. Retrieved March 3, 2009. 
  10. ^ Starr, Michael (June 30, 2008). "Nurse Edie: First Look at Sopranos Star's Dark, New Hospital Comedy". New York Post. NYPost.com. http://www.nypost.com/seven/06302008/tv/nurse_edie_117899.htm. Retrieved March 8, 2009. 
  11. ^ Krukowski, Andrew (July 18, 2008). "Showtime Orders Nurse Jackie, Grows Weeds". TVWeek.com. http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/07/showtime_orders_nurse_jackie_g.php. Retrieved March 8, 2009. 
  12. ^ "Cable Networks Draw Big Names For New 2009 Series". NBCWashington.com. December 22, 2008. http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/entertainment/Cable_Networks_Draw_Big_Names_For_New_2009_Series.html. Retrieved March 8, 2009. 
  13. ^ FOXNews.com - Groups Want Piece of Campaign Ad Buy Pie - You Decide 2004
  14. ^ NEWSMEAT ▷ Edie Falco's Federal Campaign Contribution Report
  15. ^ Edie Falco on CNN, June 25, 2009
  16. ^ a b Nussbaum, Emily. The Loneliest Soprano, New York Magazine, April 1, 2007. Accessed July 2, 2008.

External links

Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Edie Falco
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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series

Michael Learned (1976) · Lindsay Wagner (1977) · Sada Thompson (1978) · Mariette Hartley (1979) · Barbara Bel Geddes (1980) · Barbara Babcock (1981) · Michael Learned (1982) · Tyne Daly (1983) · Tyne Daly (1984) · Tyne Daly (1985) · Sharon Gless (1986) · Sharon Gless (1987) · Tyne Daly (1988) · Dana Delany (1989) · Patricia Wettig (1990) · Patricia Wettig (1991) · Dana Delany (1992) · Kathy Baker (1993) · Sela Ward (1994) · Kathy Baker (1995) · Kathy Baker (1996) · Gillian Anderson (1997) · Christine Lahti (1998) · Edie Falco (1999) · Sela Ward (2000)
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series

Edie Falco (2001) · Allison Janney (2002) · Edie Falco (2003) · Allison Janney (2004) · Patricia Arquette (2005) · Mariska Hargitay (2006) · Sally Field (2007) · Glenn Close (2008) · Glenn Close (2009)
v • d • e
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama

Sharon Gless/Patricia Wettig (1990) · Angela Lansbury (1991) · Regina Taylor (1992) · Kathy Baker (1993) · Claire Danes (1994) · Jane Seymour (1995) · Gillian Anderson (1996) · Christine Lahti (1997) · Keri Russell (1998) · Edie Falco (1999) · Sela Ward (2000) · Jennifer Garner (2001) · Edie Falco (2002) · Frances Conroy (2003) · Mariska Hargitay (2004) · Geena Davis (2005) · Kyra Sedgwick (2006) · Glenn Close (2007) · Anna Paquin (2008)

Complete List · (1969–1989) · (1990–present)
v • d • e
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

Kathy Baker (1994) · Gillian Anderson (1995) · Gillian Anderson (1996) · Julianna Margulies (1997) · Julianna Margulies (1998) · Edie Falco (1999) · Allison Janney (2000) · Allison Janney (2001) · Edie Falco (2002) · Frances Conroy (2003) · Jennifer Garner (2004) · Sandra Oh (2005) · Chandra Wilson (2006) · Edie Falco (2007) · Sally Field (2008)

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