Best known for her role as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on HBO'sThe Sopranos, Lorraine Bracco worked first as a model and a disk jockey before turning to acting. Her first major role was in the French movie, Duos Sur Canape, made in 1979. She made some other European movies before returning to the US and landing a starring role in Someone to Watch Over Me. In 1990, Bracco received a best supporting actress nomination for the film Goodfellas for her role as Karen Hill.
Bracco was born October 2, 1955, in Brooklyn, NY. Her bouts with clinical depression led her to write her autobiographical On the Couch.
Career Highlights: GoodFellas, Someone to Watch over Me, Medicine Man
First Major Screen Credit: Duos Sur Canape (1979)
Biography
With her thick Brooklyn accent, it's no surprise that Lorraine Bracco has was born and raised in a working-class neighborhood of New York City, but her twenties were not as predictable. Relocating to Europe, she spent several years living in France as a fashion model and working in radio, TV commercials, and films. She appeared in the Lina Wertmuller crime thriller Un Complicato Intrigo Di Donne, Vicoli E Delitti along with American actor Harvey Keitel, to whom she would be married for ten years. Moving back to New York to study acting with Stella Adler and the Actor's Studio, she made her U.S. debut as a hooker in The Pick-Up Artist (also with Keitel) and later starred as a Queens housewife in Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me.
After a couple roles in Sing and The Dream Team, she received an Oscar nomination for her work as mobster Henry Hill's wife in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, making her a full-blown movie star overnight. She continued working in features for the remainder of the '90s, most notably opposite Sean Connery in Medicine Man, as the whip-cracking Delores Del Rio in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and as Leonardo DiCaprio's long-suffering mother in The Basketball Diaries.Then in 1999, when Bracco got the stellar role of Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the hit HBO series The Sopranos. Bracco stayed with the series until 2007, playing the understated psychiatrist of mob boss Tony Soprano, and picking up several Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards over the years. The show kept her busy, but the actress continued to pursue other projects, playing a nervous mother in Penny Marshall's Riding in Cars With Boys , and taking on a recurring role on the series Lipstick Jungle. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Bracco moved in 1974 to France, where she became a fashion model for Jean-Paul Gaultier. While there, she was introduced to the director and novelist Lina Wertmuller. In the early seventies, Wertmuller recruited Bracco in a new film production titled Camorra. "She dressed me up like an Italian woman of no means. A street woman clad in disheveled clothes, hair unkempt and all that, and threw me on the set. She was so creative. I mean, Lina accentuated my eyes with dark make-up, the way Sophia Loren used to appear in those epic roles in the sixties. And talk about talent. She's so bright and perceptive. I mean, she's just fantastic. And yes, I learned a lot fom her. She's a master of her profession, and I've been blessed not only with her, but also with so many masters," recounted Bracco to Daniel Simone during an interview, which was published in the December 14, 2007 issue of Dan's Papers.
During the audition process for The Sopranos, Bracco had originally vied for the lead female role of Carmela Soprano, but turned it down fearing the part was too similar to her role as the mob wife in Goodfellas. The part of psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi would be a greater challenge. It netted her three consecutive nominations for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" at the Emmy Awards in 1999, 2000 and 2001 and at the Golden Globe awards for Best TV Actress in a Drama in 2000, 2001 and 2002. She lost out at the Emmys in 1999 and 2001 and at the Golden Globes in 2000 to her co-star Edie Falco. She was nominated again at the 2007 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, thus being pitted against The Sopranos co-star Aida Turturro for the award.
Personal life
Bracco has been married and divorced twice. Her first marriage was to Daniel Guerard from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, after which she entered into a long-term relationship with Harvey Keitel.[3] Following a turbulent breakup with Keitel, she then married Edward James Olmos. She has two children, Stella Keitel and Margaux Guerard.
She is the owner of Bracco Wines, with association of straight up brands LLC[4][5]. Her line of wines was featured on the Season 1 finale of Bravo's show Top Chef in 2006. She appeared as a guest judge for the two-episode finale.[6]
On Thursday, May 24, 2007, Bracco appeared on Oprah to discuss how she conquered clinical depression and to promote her book on the subject, On the Couch.
Bracco appeared on a season 6 episode of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay as a guest judge for the ravioli Throwdown.
