SUNY Purchase Alumni Nominated for Golden Globe Awards

When watching this weekend's Golden Globe Awards, Purchase will have a closer tie to two nominees than most. SUNY Purchase alumni Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci are both up for honors at the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills.

Falco is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical for her lead role in Showtime's dark comedy Nurse Jackie. Also nominated were Toni Collette (United States of Tara), Courteney Cox (Cougar Town), Tina Fey (30 Rock), and Lea Michele (Glee).

Falco is best known for playing Carmella Soprano in the acclaimed HBO series The Sopranos, a role that garnered her Golden Globes in 2000, 2001 and 2003. This role as New Jersey mobster Tony Soprano's wife also won Falco an Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Television Series in 1999, 2001, and 2003.

Falco attended SUNY Purchase's Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film with Stanley Tucci, who is also nominated for a Golden Globe award this year for his supporting role in the movie The Lovely Bones.

Tucci, a Peekskill native, is up for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture against Matt Damon (Invictus), Woody Harrelson (The Messenger), Christopher Plummer (The Last Station), and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds).  

This is Tucci's third Golden Globe nomination. In 1998 he won for his lead work in Winchell and in 2001 for his supporting role in Conspiracy, both HBO films.

Falco and Tucci aren't the only Purchase graduates to move on to successful careers in Hollywood.  Included in the list of famous Purchase alumni are actors Wesley Snipes (Miami Vice, White Men Can't Jump), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission: Impossible), and Josh Hartnett (The Virgin Suicides, Black Hawk Down).

This year will mark the 67th Golden Globe Awards ceremony.  The show will be broadcast on NBC at 8 p.m. this Sunday, with British comedian Ricky Gervais set to host.