Lorraine Bracco

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lorraine Bracco

Born	October 2, 1954 (age 52) Brooklyn, New York, USA

Lorraine Bracco (born October 2, 1954 or 1955) is an Academy Award and Emmy Award-nominated American actress who is best known for her roles as Karen Hill in Goodfellas and Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos. Her role as the mobster-wife in Goodfellas earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The Soproanos producers originally offered Bracco the leading female role of Carmella Soprano. She turned it down, fearing the part was too similar to her role in Goodfellas.

She has also appeared in a number of other films, including Riding in Cars with Boys, The Basketball Diaries, Medicine Man, Radio Flyer and Hackers.

Bracco was born in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bay Ridge and grew up in Hicksville on Long Island. She was voted the "ugliest girl in the 6th grade" at her Long Island grade school. She moved to France in 1974 where she became a fashion model for Jean-Paul Gaultier.

She is of Italian and English ancestry, speaks fluent French, and was previously married to Harvey Keitel, and later Edward James Olmos. Bracco engaged in a five-year legal battle that ended in 1999 for custody of her daughter Stella from the marriage with Keitel, the legal fees and taxes of which forced her to file for bankruptcy; later she and Olmos filed for divorce in March 2002. After another failed relationship, Bracco is dating former Syracuse Orange basketball star Jason Cipolla and has long since recovered financially as well through the success of The Sopranos. She has been dealing with clinical depression and has been doing ads for Pfizer.

She is the owner of Bracco Wines, and a personal friend of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.^{[citation needed]} She and her line of wines were featured on the Season 1 finale of Bravo's show Top Chef in 2006. She appeared as a guest judge for the 2 episode finale.^[1]