Lorraine Bracco
To see Dr. Jennifer Melfi week after week since 1999 sitting in her proper therapy office, keeping her professional reserve as she listens to New Jersey's most notorious gangster, it might come as a surprise that the actress who plays her, Lorraine Bracco, has had a far more exciting life - in some ways, too exciting.
The daughter of an Italian-American fish vendor from Brooklyn, she began her career as a high fashion model, moving to France while still just a teenager in the 1970s. A prince dined with her in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Salvador Dali asked her to pose nude for a painting (she declined). She had a long-time relationship with Harvey Keitel, and was forced to file for personal bankruptcy after a legal battle with Keitel for custody of their child. She was also married to Edward James Olmos.
Until "The Sopranos" came along, Bracco was best-known for playing Ray Liotta's boisterous wife in Martin Scorcese's "Goodfellas" in 1991, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.
This year's Emmy nomination for her part in "The Sopranos" is her fourth, though the previous three were as lead actress.
Photos: Lorraine Bracco's Last Shot
For those who wonder whether she can leave behind the psychiatrist now that the hit HBO series has come to an end, her memoir published in May - which includes details of her triumph over clinical depression - was entitled "On The Couch."