Annabella Sciorra
While Annabella Sciorra is most known for playing Tony’s lover on The Sopranos, her impressive list of credits show that she is an accomplished actress, playing many distinguished supporting roles, as opposed to always being the leading lady. Having formed her own theater company when just starting out, she still appears on the stage when time allows.
Born on March 24, 1964, in Wethersfield, Connecticut to an Italian-American family, Sciorra moved to New York City as a child, and it was then she first pursued acting while also taking dance lessons. A few years after graduating high school in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn , she formed her own theater company which helped her land roles performing at theaters such as La MaMa Experimental Club and Actor’s Repertory Theatre.
Sciorra broke into television playing Sophia Loren’s daughter in Mario Puzo’s miniseries, The Fortunate Pilgrim. This gave her the chance to star with some of the entertainment world’s finest talents, such as Edward James Olmos, John Turturro, and Hal Holbrook. Sciorra moved on to her first starring role, alongside Ron Eldard in True Love. Ironically, John Turturro’s sister, Aida, had a supporting role, as did Vincent Pastore. In Cadillac Man, she starred as one of Robin Williams’s girlfriends and was married to another man played by Tim Robbins. Pamela Reed and Fran Drescher also starred. In Reversal of Fortune, the true story of the attempted von Bulow murder, Sciorra had a supporting role as Alan Dershowitz’s (played by Ron Silver) lover. Starring as the von Bulows were Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons.
After having only a few films under her belt, Sciorra was already making a name for herself starring with Hollywood ’s most popular actors. Her next big role was in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, starring as the woman with whom Wesley Snipes had an illicit affair. Not only was he married in the movie, but their racial differences brought up other complicated issues as well. Also starring in the movie were Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L Jackson, Halle Berry, and once again, John Turturro. Sciorra’s next role was a much more innocent one, as the mother that hires a revengeful nanny (Rebecca De Mornay) who’s out to ruin her life, in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
Sciorra starred as Matt Dillon’s ex-wife in Mr. Wonderful, then took on the more difficult role of the mother of a young boy afflicted with AIDS in The Cure. Many times her roles play to her Italian-American heritage, such as a Mafia wife in The Funeral, starring with Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, and Isabella Rossellini. It was back to less difficult roles for her when she had a supporting role in Cop Land, yet it had her appearing once again with the biggest names in movies, such as Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta.
In What Dreams May Come, Sciorra stars once again with Robin Williams, this time as his widow. After Williams’s character and their children die and go to heaven, Sciorra commits suicide, leading Williams to search for her. Proving her versatility as an actress, she next appeared as a judge in the short lived television series, Queens Supreme, working once again with Vincent Pastore.
Sciorra stuck with television, but returned to her Italian roots, and to playing the part of “the other woman” with the role of Tony Soprano’s mistress in The Sopranos. This gave her the chance to work with Aida Turturro once again, as well as James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. After starring in The Madam’s Family: The Truth About the Canal Street Brothel, Sciorra returned to episodic television, this time as a detective in Law and Order: Criminal Intent, alongside Chris Noth, when the casting of the show was reorganized.
When not busy with television or movies, Sciorra returns to theater. She has been in productions of Those the River Keeps and The Vagina Monologues. She starred as a woman exiled from and landing in just after the Gulf War in Betty Shamieh’s, Roar, along with Sarita Choudhury. Not much is known of Annabella Sciorra’s private life; she remains very guarded, leading to the misconception that she is cold and difficult to work with. |
