Joan Allen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joan Allen | |
---|---|
Allen at the Sundance Film Festival, January 2005
|
|
Born | August 20, 1956 Rochelle, Illinois, USA |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1977–present |
Spouse(s) | Peter Friedman (1990-2002: divorced) |
Children | Sadie (b. 1994) |
Allen began her acting career in 1977 with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She made her Broadway debut in the 1987 original production of the play Burn This, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She also received a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1988 original production of The Heidi Chronicles.
She has received three Academy Award nominations; she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Nixon (1995) and The Crucible (1996), and for Best Actress for The Contender (2000). Her other films include Manhunter (1986), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), In Country (1989), The Ice Storm (1997), Face/Off (1997), Pleasantville (1998), The Notebook (2004), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Death Race (2008) and The Bourne Legacy (2012).
Contents
Early life
Allen, the youngest of four children, was born in Rochelle, Illinois, the daughter of Dorothea Marie (née Wirth), a homemaker, and James Jefferson Allen, a gas station owner.[1][2] She has an older brother, David, and two older sisters, Mary and Lynn.[3] Allen attended Rochelle Township High School, and was voted most likely to succeed.[citation needed] She first attended Eastern Illinois University, performing in a few plays with John Malkovich, who was also a student, and then Northern Illinois University, where she graduated with a BFA in Theater.Allen began her performing career as a stage actress and on television before making her film debut in the movie, Compromising Positions (1985). She became a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 1977 when John Malkovich asked her to join.[4] She's been a member ever since. In 1984, she won a Clarence Derwent Award for her portrayal of Hellen Stott in And a Nightingale Sang.[citation needed]
Career
In 1989, Allen won a Tony Award for her Broadway debut performance in Burn This.[5] She also starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Heidi Chronicles.[6]She received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her roles as Pat Nixon in Nixon (1995) and as Elizabeth Proctor, a woman accused of witchcraft, in The Crucible (1996). She was also nominated for Best Actress for her role in The Contender (2000), in which she played a politician who becomes the object of scandal.[citation needed]
She had starring roles in the drama The Ice Storm directed by Ang Lee and the action thriller Face/Off directed by John Woo, both released in 1997, as well as in the comedy Pleasantville (1998).
In 2001, Allen starred in the mini-series The Mists of Avalon on TNT and earned an Emmy nomination[7] for the role.[citation needed] In 2005, she received many positive notices[citation needed] for her leading role in the comedy/drama The Upside of Anger, in which she played an alcoholic housewife.
She played CIA Department Director Pamela Landy in The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Legacy. Allen appeared in Death Race, a prequel of the film Death Race 2000, playing a prison warden.[8]
In 2009, Allen starred as Georgia O'Keeffe in Lifetime Television’s 2009 biopic chronicling the artist’s life. Allen returned to Broadway in March 2009, when she played the role of Katherine Keenan in Michael Jacobs' play Impressionism opposite Jeremy Irons at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.[9]
Allen voiced the character Delphine in Bethesda Softworks' 2011 video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Personal life
In 1990, Allen married actor Peter Friedman. They divorced in 2002, but live close to each other to share time with their daughter, Sadie, born in 1994.[10]Filmography
Theatre
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
- Burn This
- The Heidi Chronicles
- Three Sisters
- Waiting For The Parade
- Love Letters
- The Marriage of Bette and Boo
- (And a Nightingale Sang...)
- The Wheel [12]
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered