'Sopranos' Marchand dead at 71

Marchand won a Golden Globe for her work on HBO's "The Sopranos"

June 19, 2000
Web posted at: 3:26 p.m. EDT (1926 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Actress Nancy Marchand died Sunday night at her home in Connecticut, a day short of her 72nd birthday, the cable network HBO said Monday.

In recent years, Marchand was best-known for playing Livia, the bitter and conniving mother of Tony Soprano in the hit HBO series "The Sopranos."

Born on June 19, 1928 in Buffalo, New York, Marchand received a bachelor of fine arts from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. She went on to build an award-winning career in television.

In 1953, she played opposite Rod Steiger in "Marty," Paddy Chayevsky's TV drama about a shy and lonely butcher living in the Bronx.

During the 1970s, Marchand played Mrs. Margaret Pynchon, the autocratic newspaper publisher on TV's "Lou Grant." She won four Emmys for the role.

Marchand also nabbed a Golden Globe in 1999 for her role in "The Sopranos." In that series, she was suspected of plotting a hit on her own son. Her pivotal role was one of the major plotlines for the two-year-old series.

Among her silver screen roles, she appeared in Sydney Pollack's 1995 remake of "Sabrina," starring Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond.

Marchand had been battling emphysema and cancer for two years, HBO said.

She leaves behind a husband, Paul Sparer, and three children, according to the Internet Movie Database.

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