Bio
Nancy Marchand (June 19, 1928 – June 18, 2000) was an American actress best known for her Emmy Award-nominated role of acerbic family matriarch Livia Soprano, mother of Tony Soprano, on the HBO series The Sopranos.
Marchand also created the role of Hester Crane, mother of Frasier Crane, on Cheers, and the role of Clara in the original 1954 live television production of Marty.
She also is remembered for the 1970s series Lou Grant, in which she starred, opposite Edward Asner, as autocratic newspaper publisher "Mrs. Pynchon," a role that earned her four Emmy Awards as Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series.
Marchand had a long career in Broadway and off-Broadway theatre and on television; she also made some films.
A lifelong chain smoker, Marchand died of emphysema and lung cancer the day before her 72nd birthday in Stratford, Connecticut, and as a result her character's death was written into the third season story line of The Sopranos.
Her husband of 48 years, actor Paul Sparer, died of cancer in 1999, not long before her death. She was survived by her three children.