Livia Soprano's death--Was it unexpected???

[hoosierelvisfan]

Did the actress who played Livia die unexpectedly and that's why the death of Livia was written into the storyline??? I'm curious as to whether or not, for example, Livia was going to be a witness against her son in the airline ticket charges. If the eventual "death" of Livia's character was planned anyway, it probably didn't affect the storyline but if the actress portraying Livia died unexpectedly, how did that unexpected death affect the storyline?!?!

Signed,
Respectfully,
Dutch

[Brad]

No, I don't think the powers that be expected her to die. They knew Nancy Marchand was sick, but expected her to recover.

The third season was supposed to feature a running storyline involving Tony patching things up with Livia so she wouldn't testify against him in the Rico trial.

Unfortunately, Nancy Marchand took a turn for the worse between production for the second and third seasons and died suddenly. David Chase had to rewrite numerous episodes.

While we're on the subject, I really, really wish they hadn't used the "CGI Livia" in the episode "Proshai, Livushka." It looked so horrible and obviously fake.

[hoosierelvisfan]

Thanks for the reply. Oh, so the death of Nancy Marchand really changed everything around in terms of storyline. That is interesting. I remember her from years ago on the Lou Grant show where she played, I think, the newspaper owner.

What do you mean by the term "CGI Livia"? I don't know what this means. Could you elaborate, please?

Thank you.

Signed,
Respectfully,
Dutch