Marianne Leone Cooper

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Marianne Leone Cooper
Marianne Leone Cooper at the 2007 Tribeca Festival
Born	Marianne Leone (1952-01-02) January 2, 1952 (age 72) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other names	Maryanne Leone
Occupation(s)	Actress, writer
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Chris Cooper ​ (m. 1983)​
Children	1

Marianne Leone Cooper (born January 2, 1952) is an American film and television actress, screenwriter and essayist. Her longest-running recurring role was playing Christopher Moltisanti's mother on The Sopranos.

Cooper was born Marianne Leone in Boston, Massachusetts, to Italian immigrants.^[1] She married actor Chris Cooper in 1983. In 1987, their son, Jesse Lanier Cooper, was born. Three months premature, Jesse developed a cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral palsy. After searching for the best schools for children with special needs, Cooper and Leone moved to Kingston, Massachusetts, where they became strong advocates for disabled children.^[2] In 2024, Cooper served as an executive producer of the documentary My Own Normal about Alexander Freeman, a filmmaker from Newton, Massachusetts who has cerebral palsy, following his journey of becoming a partner and father and confronting the pain of his parent's reaction. The documentary premiered at Independent Film Festival Boston. ^{[3] [4]}

Leone has had roles in several films, including The Thin Blue Line (1988), True Love (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Household Saints (1993) and The Three Stooges (2012). She has also acted in a small number of television series, including Kate & Allie (1985) and Brotherhood (2007). Her longest-running recurring role was playing Christopher Moltisanti's mother in nine episodes of The Sopranos from 2002 to 2007.^{[citation needed]}

Leone's essays have appeared in The Boston Globe.^[5] Her essay "Knitting: Epic Fail" appears in the anthology Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2013.^{[citation needed]}

Her screenplay, Hurricane Mary, is a true life story of a mother's struggles to have her disabled twin daughters integrated into the public school system. It is being made into a movie starring Chris Cooper, William H. Macy and Meryl Streep.^{[citation needed]}

On January 3, 2005, Jesse Cooper died from SUDEP. A memorial fund was set up in his name, the Jesse Cooper Foundation Archived 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine. Leone's memoir, Knowing Jesse: A Mother's Story of Grief, Grace, and Everyday Bliss, was published in September 2010 by Simon & Schuster.^[6]

She and her husband Chris Cooper adopt and live with rescue dogs.^[7]

• Ma Speaks Up: And a First-Generation Daughter Talks Back, Beacon Press, 2017, ISBN 978-0807060049
• Knowing Jesse: A Mother's Story of Grief, Grace, and Everyday Bliss, Simon & Schuster, 2010, ISBN 978-1439183922

• True Love (1989) - Carmella
• Goodfellas (1990) - Tuddy's Wife
• Mortal Thoughts (1991) - Aunt Rita
• City of Hope (1991) - Joann
• Household Saints (1993) - Sr. Cupertino
• The 24 Hour Woman (1999) - Cable Executive #1
• Hair Under the Roses (2000) - Fille du bal 1
• Loosies (2011) - Rita Corelli
• The Three Stooges (2012) - Sister Ricarda
• Joy (2015) - Sharon
• My Own Normal (2024) - Documentary, Executive Producer

• Marianne Leone at IMDb
• Knowing Jesse: Among the Books of 2010, a Life Lesson
• interview on Radio Open Source