Livia Soprano

Livia Soprano
Nancy Marchand as Livia Soprano
First appearance	"Pilot" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	"Funhouse" (episode 2.13) "Proshai, Livushka" (episode 3.02) (archive footage\computer-generated imagery) "In Camelot" (episode 5.07) (flashback)
Created by	David Chase
Portrayed by	Nancy Marchand Laila Robins Laurie Williams
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Homemaker
Family	Faustino "Augie" Pollio (father) Teresa Pollio (mother) Gemma Pollio (sister) Quintina Blundetto (sister) Settimia Pollio (sister, deceased) Mickey Pollio (brother) A.J. Soprano (grandson) Meadow Soprano (granddaughter) Tony Blundetto (nephew) Corrado Soprano Jr. (brother-in-law) Ercole Soprano (brother-in-law) Carmela Soprano (daughter-in-Law) Thomas Giglione (son-in-Law)
Spouse(s)	Johnny Soprano (deceased)
Children	Janice Soprano Tony Soprano Barbara Soprano Giglione
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Livia Soprano (née Pollio), played by Nancy Marchand, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. She is the mother of Tony Soprano. A young Livia, played by Laila Robins and later by Laurie J. Williams is sometimes seen in flashbacks. Series creator David Chase has stated that the main inspiration for the character was his own mother.

In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked her #3 of their "40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time".

Livia Pollio Soprano was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Faustino "Augie" and Teresa Pollio, Italian immigrants from Avellino. Livia's childhood was poverty-stricken and miserable, and she spent her adult life punishing everyone for it. Marriage to the tough and charismatic Johnny Soprano was Livia's ticket out of her parents' house. Married life, however, was not happily ever after; Livia wasn't particularly interested in housework, and thought that children, including her own, were "animals...no different from dogs."

Cagey, manipulative, and utterly self-absorbed, Livia Soprano seemingly derives little pleasure from life other than making the people around her miserable, especially her three children: Janice, Tony, and Barbara. On her son's wedding day, she tells her new daughter-in-law Carmela that marrying Tony was a mistake and eventually Tony would get bored with her. Years later (in season one of the show), she manipulates her brother-in-law, Junior, into putting out a hit on her own son after he tries to put her in a nursing home by mentioning that Tony is seeing a psychiatrist. She later tells Junior that Tony looks exactly like her cousin Cakey after he had a lobotomy, saying that his mother said it would have been better if Cakey had died rather than go on living like that. It is later discovered that the FBI had bugged Green Grove (Livia's nursing home), and the recordings of Livia conspiring with Junior were played to Tony. While she was in hospital, she received a visit from Artie Bucco. She then tells him that Tony burned down his restaurant, presumably in another attempt to have Tony killed. Tony's plot for revenge is foiled when Livia suffers a stroke (said to be induced by repressed rage) and is taken into a hospital. It appeared Tony had originally been planning to suffocate her with a pillow he grabbed on his way to her room, but he is not given the chance when he hears she had suffered a stroke and he sees her being wheeled out on a gurney. He then publicly threatens to kill her, informing her that he had heard her conspiring with Junior, thanks to the FBI tapes, saying, "I'm gonna have a nice, long, happy life, which is more than I can say for you". When she gets out of the hospital, Tony settles for acting as if she were already dead, attempting to end all contact and financial support.