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Background:
“The high-grossing films are not all that interesting to me, I have to say. It’s
not stuff I would want to be in. Yes, you would want the big paycheck, but
that’s never really been my concern.” Edie Falco
One of America’s most well-respected television and film actresses, Edie Falco
is celebrated for being the only performer to have won the top three television
award (an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Awards) in the same year in 2000 thanks to
her acclaimed performance as the cautious Mafia wife in the HBO award-winning
series “The Sopranos” (1999-2006). Prior to that, she received attention for her
regular performance in “OZ” (1997-1999), and had impressive recurring roles on
“Homicide: Life on the Street” (1993-1999) and “Law & Order” (1993-1998).
The three-time Emmy winner is also an accomplished movie actress. Falco picked
up an AFI Festival Award for her starring role in Cost of Living (1997), and
more recently won a Satellite Award and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association
for her scene-stealing role in John Sayles’ Sunshine State (2002). Other
remarkable works include Hal Hartley’s The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust
(1990), Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Morgan J. Freeman’s
Hurricane Streets (1997) and Random Hearts (1999).
Off camera, American beauty of Swedish and Italian heritage Falco came out on
the political scene as a spokesperson for M.O.B. (Mothers Opposing Bush) on
presidential election in 2004. She supported Democratic presidential nominee
John Kerry. The self-described introverted but is obviously a humorous and
down-to-earth person was treated for breast cancer in 2004 and has now fully
recovered from the disease.
Privately speaking, the 5’ 5” tall, blonde performer became romantically
involved with actor/director John Devlinfrom 1996 to 2000 and with her Frankie
and Johnny co-star, Stanley Tucci, from 2002 to March 2004. She is becomes the
mother of a 2004 born adopted son, Anderson Falco.
Kitten
Childhood and Family:
Daughter of art director and jazz drummer Frank Falco and former actress Judith
M. Anderson (aka. Judith Lonely), Edie Falco was born Edith Falco on July 5,
1963, in Brooklyn, New York. She was raised in Islip, New York, along with her
two brothers, Joe (born in 1961) and Paul, and her sister Ruth (born in 1967).
Her uncle, Ed Falco, is famous fiction writer who teaches at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University, and she has an adopted son, Anderson
Falco (born in December 2004), who was named after her mother.
Edie, whose nickname is Kitten, graduated from Northport High School in
Northport, New York, in 1981, and studied drama at State University of New York
at Purchase, where she was trained in acting at the prominent Conservatory of
Theatre Arts and Film. Upon receiving her B.F.A in 1986, Edie worked as a clown
and other comparable roles at birthday parties and weddings in Manhattan, while
making audition circuits.
Sunshine State
Career:
A 1986 graduate from the acting program at SUNY Purchase, Edie Falco got her
start working as a clown and other similar roles at wedding and birthday parties
for an entertainment company, before cracking into the cinematic industry with
great work at fellow-Purchase alum Hal Hartley’s films, The Unbelievable Truth
(1989) and Trust (1990). The latter saw her memorably play the shamelessly
trampy older sister of a pregnant cheerleader (Adrienne Shelly).
Following a series of supporting parts in films, including one in Nick Gomez’s
Brooklyn-set drama Laws of Gravity (1992), Falco eventually landed her first
notable part in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway (1994), starring John Cusack.
She subsequently appeared in Abel Ferrara’s films The Addiction (1995, starred
Lili Taylor and Christopher Walken) and The Funeral (1996) and the crime-themed
comedy Layin’ Low (1996). Also in 1996, she originated the role of the alcoholic
mother in Warren Leight’s semi-autobiographical play “Side Man.”
Paradoxically, it was on TV where Falco’s career first blossomed. Getting her
first recurring roles in 1993, on the acclaimed police dramas “Homicide: Life on
the Street” (1993-1997, as a blinded police officer’s spouse Eva Thormann) and
“Law & Order” (1993-1998, played a Legal Aid lawyer named Sally Bell), and
having a two-part guest starring role as a police sergeant on the Fox series
“New York Undercover” (1995),
Falco began receiving stature in 1997 as the sympathetic Officer Diane
Whittlesey on the HBO dramatic series “Oz,” a job she retained until 1999.
The increasing admiration and recognition she collected for her television work
was capably harmonized by the approval she was increasingly earning for her work
on the big screen. After taking home an AFI Festival for Best Actress for her
work in the thriller film Cost of Living (1997), the conservatory-trained Falco
delivered fine performances that same year in such films as Cop Land, Morgan J.
Freeman’s Hurricane Streets (as a jailed mother) and Trouble on the Corner (all
1997). She
However, Falco did not score massive victory until she was cast as Carmela
Soprano in the successful and critically acclaimed HBO series “The Sopranos” in
1999. As the precautious Mafia wife who decided to keep her family together and
to keep her husband’s criminal activities hidden from her children, she brought
a many-sided spin to her presentation that won her well-deserved critical
accolades and many awards, like three Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress, two
Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actress, two SAG for Outstanding
Performance by a Female Actor, a 2002 Satellite for Best Performance by an
Actress, a 2002 AFI for Actress of the Year and a 2003 Television Critics
Association for Individual Achievement in Drama.
The same year, Falco received her strongest screen notices to date for her title
role in the Eric Mendelsohn-helmed independent drama Judy Berlin (released
theatrically in 2000), where she played an aspiring actress struggling to break
out of her small Long Island town, and had her first major role in a mainstream
Hollywood film with a supporting part opposite Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott
Thomas in Sydney Pollac’s Random Hearts. Also, she replaced Wendy Makkena as
Terry in her Broadway debut, “Side Man,” a role she reprised in 2000 at the
London production with Jason Priestley.
Now a well-known figure thanks to the devastating popularity of “The Sopranos,”
Falco made an auspicious comeback to the big screen with a co-starring role
opposite Alex Lewis and Angela Bassett in the John Sayles drama Sunshine State
(2002), where she was perfectly cast as a broken Floridian who abruptly awakens
to romance. For her effort, the actress was handed a Satellite and a Los Angeles
Film Critics Association for Best Supporting Actress. She also resurfaced on the
NYC stage with 2002’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” opposite
Stanley Tucci.
While still enjoying her highly acclaimed TV work on “The Sopranos,” Falco could
also be seen in such features as The Girl from Monday (2005), The Great New
Wonderful (2005, as the Queen of Cake), The Quiet (2005, with Camilla Belle),
and hosted the PBS special “Frozen Angels” (2005), an study into the future of
reproductive technology that was shown at Sundance Film Festival.
The 43-year-old actress portrayed a child kidnap activist, Karen Collucci, in
Freedomland (2006), a drama directed by Joe Roth and based on Richard Price's
acclaimed novel of the same name, and in 2008, she is set to play a role in
director Todd Graff’’s upcoming drama film Cult Fig.
Awards:
- Emmy: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, The Sopranos, 2003
- Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series -
Drama, The Sopranos, 2003
- Television Critics Association: Individual Achievement in Drama, The
Sopranos, 2003
- Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a
Drama Series, The Sopranos, 2003
- Satellite: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role - Drama,
Sunshine State 2003
- Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Supporting Actress, Sunshine
State, 2002
- AFI: AFI Actor of the Year - Female - Series, The Sopranos, 2002
- Satellite: Best Performance by an Actress in a Series - Drama, The
Sopranos, 2002
- Emmy: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, The Sopranos, 2001
- Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series -
Drama, The Sopranos, 2000
- Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a
Drama Series, The Sopranos, 2000
- Emmy: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, The Sopranos, 2000
- AFI Fest: Best Actress, Cost of Living, 1997
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