Appeared in the second episode of season 3 of The Sopranos (1999) despite having died almost six months before. Using CGI techniques, a scene between Tony Soprano and his mother was constructed using a body double. Producer David Chase decided to use this technique, having seen it being used in Gladiator (2000) when star Oliver Reed died during production.
A chain smoker for many years, Marchand died on the day before what would have been her 72nd birthday from lung cancer and emphysema.
Her television career reads like a book about the history of television: Her
first credit was co-starring in the groundbreaking classic Marty (1953) with
Rod Steiger, when CBS was at the height of its prestige as the "Tiffany
network"; she won Emmy Awards as Mrs. Pynchon, the newspaper publisher
on Lou Grant (1977); and she ended her career on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999).
Her portrait is one of the pictures used in Julia Roberts's character's photography exhibit in Closer (2004).
Was of English and French descent.
Attended Carnegie Mellon University and later studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village, New York City.