Later Life and Death
At 70, after more than 50 years of acting, she discovered a new popularity, and it was for playing a wildly unsympathetic character. Livia Soprano was a role that she compared to that of Caligula's great-grandmother in I, Claudius, a woman who also happened to be named Livia. Nancy died from lung cancer and emphysema on 18 June 2000, the day before what would have been her 72nd birthday in Stratford, Connecticut. As a result, her character's death was written into the third season story line of The Sopranos. Her husband of 48 years, actor Paul Sparer (1923–1999), had died the previous year, also from cancer. The couple had three children, Katie, an actress who lives in Stratford; David, of Madison, Wis.; and Rachel Sparer Bersier, an opera singer of Manhattan.
Read more about this topic: Nancy Marchand
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or death:
“The truth is, I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it; and, out of my observation that most men that do thrive in the world do forget to take pleasure during the time that they are getting their estate, but reserve that till they have got one, and then it is too late for them to enjoy it.”
—Samuel Pepys (1633–1703)
“As for death one gets used to it, even if it’s only other people’s death you get used to.”
—Enid Bagnold (1889–1981)