"Sopranos" Actress Denise Borino-Quinn Loses Liver Cancer Battle

(CBS/AP) ROSELAND, N.J. Denise Borino-Quinn, who won a role as a mafia wife on "The Sopranos" after she attended an open casting call, has died. She was 46.

Borino-Quinn died Wednesday after a long battle with liver cancer, according to the Farmer Funeral Home in Roseland, N.J.l Her husband, Luke Quinn Jr., had died in March.

For Borino-Quinn landing a role on hugely successful HBO series, "The Sopranos" was one of the most exciting, yet unexpected things to happen in her life.

A Roseland native who lived in Bordentown, Borino-Quinn had no acting experience when she was hired in 2000 to play Ginny Sacrimoni, the mafia wife with a weight problem on the HBO cable TV series. The character quickly became popular with fans and was featured in an October 2002 episode.

It wasn't her idea to attend the casting call;, she had said she went mostly to support a childhood friend and was shocked when she was hired for the HBO show.

When she wasn't acting, Borino-Quinn - unlike her character - was on the right side of the law. She  worked at a New Brunswick law firm.