Nancy Marchand

Nancy Lou Marchand (June 19, 1928 – June 18, 2000) was an American actress. She began her career in theatre in 1951. She was most famous for her television portrayals of Margaret Pynchon on Lou Grant and Livia Soprano on The Sopranos.

Marchand was born in Buffalo, New York, to Raymond L. Marchand, a dentist, and his wife, Marjorie Freeman Marchand, a pianist. She was raised Methodist.[citation needed] She graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1949.[1] She studied theatre at the Herbert Berghof Studio[2] in New York City.