Lorraine Bracco Pics

Lorraine

Bracco

1954-10-02

68

Average

Bay Ridge-Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Libra

White

Goodfellas, The Sopranos, Rizzoli and Isles

American

Female

1

Actor/Actress, Director

1

1

23

Producer

58

Elizabeth Bracco

Lorraine Bracco (born October 2, 1954) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the HBO series The Sopranos and as Karen Hill in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas. She currently appears as Angela Rizzoli on the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles.

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Lorraine Bracco

Lorraine Bracco was born on Oct. 2, 1954, spending her early years in a Norwegian neighborhood in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, NY. The middle child of three, Bracco's Italian-American father was a fish dealer at Manhattan's Fulton Fish Market and her mother was a nurse and war bride from England. Her atypical New York Italian-American upbringing got more atypical when the family moved to a Jewish neighborhood in Hicksville, Long Island - an experience that Bracco credited with convincing Martin Scorsese to cast her as Henry Hill's Long Island Jewish wife in her breakout role in "Goodfellas." But 25 years before that day, young Bracco still harbored fantasies of becoming a model, despite being labeled an ugly duckling by her schoolmates. When she finally got the nerve to approach modeling agencies in New York, she immediately landed a contract with the prestigious Wilhelmina Agency, appearing in Mademoiselle, Seventeen and Teen magazines. In 1974 at the age of 19, the bold Brooklynite moved to Paris where she became a favorite model of designer Jean Paul Gaultier and became fluent in French. She also began exploring other entertainment-related avenues, first working as a DJ for Radio Luxembourg before parlaying her music experience into a producer position on the popular variety TV show, "Les Enfants Du Rock." Beginning in 1979, she appeared in a string of French films, mostly comedies, including her debut "Duos sur Canape" (1979) and the comic book adaptation "Fais Gaffe à la Gaffe" (1981). Bracco returned Stateside in 1984, spending several years focusing on drama at esteemed New York training grounds The Stella Adler Institute and The Actor's Studio. In 1986, she made her American TV debut in a guest spot on the NBC crime drama "Crime Story" before returning to France to shoot Lina Wertmuller's Mafia thriller, "Camorra." The film paired Bracco and Harvey Keitel, who would eventually marry and have a daughter. They co-starred again the same year onstage in a Lincoln Center workshop performance of "Goose and Tomtom," a dark, downtown drama from the playwright of "Hurlyburly." Bracco's American film career began to take off the following year with Ridley Scott's "Someone to Watch Over Me" (1987), in which she delivered an effective upper-cut to philandering husband Tom Berenger and laid the groundwork for a career playing fast-talking, strong-willed women. She picked up supporting roles in comedies "The Pick Up Artist" (1987) and "The Dream Team" (1987) before a diversion back to France to star in Lina Wertmuller's "In una notte di chiaro di luna" (1989). Bracco was, by now, an acquaintance of director Martin Scorsese. He had her in mind for a role in "Goodfellas," playing mob wife to Ray Liotta in the film adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi's Mafia memoir. A meeting between Bracco and Liotta proved successful, and when Scorsese learned that Bracco's upbringing had been strikingly similar to that of the actual Karen Hill, he gave her the role. The film, which chronicled the life of Mafia associate-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill, was a critic's pick and box office success, consistently cited as one of the best films of all time. Bracco's captivating portrayal of Karen Hill, whose initial attraction to Henry's dangerous, mysterious life eventually gave way to fear of her drug running husband with many mistresses, earned Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress. She took home wins from both the Chicago and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. Bracco's talent was now in demand for increasingly higher caliber work. In 1991, she appeared opposite Edward James Olmos in "Talent for the Game" and in Blake Edwards' dark comedy "Switch." Richard Donner tapped Bracco for "Radio Flyer" (1992) and she starred opposite Robin Williams in 1993's "Being Human." In an odd bit of casting, she was memorable as Dolores del Rio, an exotic Hispanic actress from Hollywood's Golden Age, in Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (1993). In 1994, she appeared as a female prosecutor in the TV film "Getting Gotti" about the trial of the renowned mob boss. On a seemingly continuous role, she portrayed the mother of p t, basketball star, and junky Jim Carroll in "The Basketball Diaries" (1995) and returned to France to shoot the romantic drama "Le Menteurs" (1996). Unfortunately, a string of TV movies followed, leaving the career promise of the strong, vibrant actress from "Goodfellas" seemingly curiously unfulfilled. As she would reveal in her own 2006 memoir, On the Couch, the mid and late nineties were a period of great personal upheaval for the actress, who ended up millions of dollars in debt following custody battles with ex-husband Keitel and was str

1

Hicksville High School

Actress, Producer, Director

Brooklyn accent

Brown - Dark

Salvatore Bracco, Sr

Eileen Molyneux

Margaux Guerard (daughter), Stella Keitel 1985 (daughter)