American actress
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Also known as: Edith Falco
Written by
Melissa Albert
Fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: •Article History
Quick Facts
- In full:
- Edith Falco
- Born:
- July 5, 1963, Brooklyn, New York, U.S. (age 61)
- Awards And Honors:
- Emmy Award (2010)
- Emmy Award (2003)
- Emmy Award (2001)
- Golden Globe Award (2000)
- Emmy Award (1999)
See all related content →
Edie Falco (born July 5, 1963, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.) is an American actress who was perhaps best known for playing Carmela Soprano on the HBO TV series The Sopranos (1999–2007).
Falco was the daughter of artistic parents, a jazz drummer and an actress, and she grew up in the blue-collar Long Island suburbs of Northport and West Islip. She studied acting at the State University of New York at Purchase. After graduating in 1986, Falco moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. Auteur and fellow SUNY Purchase graduate Hal Hartley gave her two of her first professional roles, in his films The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990). While waiting tables and performing at birthday parties to supplement her acting income, Falco landed parts in such movies as the independent film Laws of Gravity (1992) and Woody Allen’s Bullets over Broadway (1994).
Britannica QuizPop Culture QuizFalco found greater success in television, guest starring on programs including Homicide: Life on the Street and and performing in the occasional pilot. In 1997 she won a recurring role on the acclaimed HBO prison drama Oz, on which she played a single mother and correctional officer for three seasons. Among those impressed by her performance was writer-producer David Chase, who in 1998 cast her in a lead role on a pilot he was creating for HBO, The Sopranos. The following year the show was picked up for its first season.
The Sopranos was an immediate phenomenon, its influence extending beyond television and into pop culture at large. The show centred on a New Jersey crime family helmed by Mafia boss Tony Soprano (played by James Gandolfini). For her turn as Soprano’s long-suffering wife, Carmela, Falco won three lead actress Emmy Awards (1999, 2001, and 2003) and two Golden Globes (2000 and 2003). Her performance was praised for its complexity as she portrayed a woman who, through denial and a focus on domestic distractions, attempts to reconcile her image of her husband as a basically decent man with what she knows of his consistent infidelities and violent life in crime.
While working on the show, Falco continued to perform in films, including Sunshine State (2002) and Freedomland (2006). The Sopranos ended its run in 2007, and two years later Falco was back in a starring role on the small screen. She played the titular lead in Showtime’s Nurse Jackie (2009–15), a black comedy set in a New York City hospital. Falco’s character balances her medical responsibilities with an array of personal problems, including prescription-drug addiction. In 2010 Falco won her fourth lead actress Emmy Award, becoming the first female performer to win that award in both the drama and comedy categories. She subsequently starred in the miniseries Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (2017), in which she played defense attorney Leslie Abramson.
Falco’s later film credits included The Comedian (2016), Landline (2017), and Megan Leavey (2017). In 2018 she appeared as the estranged wife of a man facing a midlife crisis in The Land of Steady Habits. She then starred in the TV series Tommy (2020), about the first female chief of police in Los Angeles. Falco was cast as Hillary Clinton in the miniseries Impeachment: American Crime Story (2021), which focuses on the impeachment of Pres. Bill Clinton.
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Falco also worked onstage, appearing in Broadway productions that included Side Man (1998), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2002), and The House of Blue Leaves (2011). For the latter play, she was nominated for a Tony Award.
Melissa Albert The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
