Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
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Jennifer Coolidge is a versatile character actress and experimental comedienne, best known for playing Stifler's mom in American Pie (1999).
She was born on August 28, 1961, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, to Gretchen (Knauff) and Paul Constant Coolidge, a plastics manufacturer. Young Coolidge was dreaming of becoming a singer. She attended Norwell High School and Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, and earned her bachelor's degree in theatre in 1985. She moved to New York and joined the Gotham City improv group. Then, she headed to Los Angeles where she became a long-running member of "The Groundlings" comedy troupe. Coolidge made her television debut in a guest role on NBC's Seinfeld (1989), playing a voluptuous masseuse who won't offer her professional services to boyfriend Jerry in a 1993 episode. The following year, she had a regular gig on ABC's short-lived sketch series She TV (1994), then briefly became a cast member and writer on another short-lived sketch comedy series, Fox's Saturday Night Special (1996) produced by Roseanne Barr.
Coolidge made her big screen debut as a nurse in Not of This Earth (1995), then in the courtroom comedy Trial and Error (1997). Then, she appeared in small roles in several more feature films, and also continued her television work. Coolidge had her breakthrough role in American Pie (1999), as a boozed-up and sultry mom who seduces her son's classmate with the comment that she liked her scotch and men the same way: aged 18 years. She recreated the character in the sequel American Pie 2 (2001). Then, she reprized her role as "Paulette" opposite Reese Witherspoon in the "Legally Blonde" franchise. Although, she lost the part of "Lynette Scavo" on Desperate Housewives (2004) to Felicity Huffman, Coolidge graced several TV comedies as well, with major guest appearances on Frasier (1993) and Sex and the City (1998). Then, she landed a recurring role in the ABC sitcom Joey (2004), as "Bobbie Morgenstern", Joey's agent, appearing in 37 episodes over two seasons.
Eventually, Coolidge emerged as a versatile character actress with her no-holds-barred approach to comedy and her vanity-free comfort with playing uninhibited, unappealing characters, and delivering lines with sexual innuendo. Her talent shines in a range of characters, from a gold-digging dog owner in Best in Show (2000), to a scheming wife of an elderly mogul in Down to Earth (2001), to an opportunistic mother in American Dreamz (2006). Coolidge's gift for altering her appearance and manner, as well as her mastery of timing, shines in her perfectly hideous performance as "Fiona", a wicked stepmother in A Cinderella Story (2004) opposite Hilary Duff, for which Coolidge won a 2005 Teen Choice Award. Her lasting collaboration with director Christopher Guest continues in For Your Consideration (2006).
She has been sharing her time between her two homes, one is in Hollywood, California, and one in New Orleans, where she bought a historic mansion before the Hurricane Katrina hit the city, and then became involved in its restoration.2023: The White Lotus- Actress
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Julia Garner is an American actress and model. She has appeared in the films Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), and played leading roles in Electrick Children (2012), We Are What We Are (2013) and Grandma (2015). She also plays Ruth Langmore in the Netflix original series Ozark (2017) and in several episodes of the television series The Americans (2013).
Garner was born in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. Her mother, Tami Gingold, a therapist, had a successful career in Israel as a comedian. Her father, Thomas Garner, is a painter and an art teacher, originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio. She has an older sister, Anna (Ani), who is a writer, producer and an artist. Garner is Jewish. Garner resides with her parents in their house in New York City. She considers Italian actress Monica Vitti and especially Bette Davis to be major influences on her acting style, having cited Davis's performance in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) She started taking acting lessons at the age of 15 to overcome her shyness. She had her theatrical debut at the age of 17 in Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), playing the role of Sarah. In 2012, director David Chase invited her to play a small role which he wrote specifically for her in Not Fade Away (2012). Her first starring role was in the 2012 movie, Electrick Children (2012).
In 2013, she starred alongside Ashley Bell in the horror film The Last Exorcism Part II (2013), and played the lead in the American remake of the Mexican horror film We Are What We Are (2013). Garner co-starred in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) as new character Marcy, a young stripper who crosses paths with another new character, Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). This marked the first time she acted against a green screen. In 2015, Garner had a recurring role on the third season of FX's The Americans (2013). She continued the role on a recurring basis periodically through seasons 4 through 6. She was to have made her off-Broadway debut in Noah Haidle's play Smokefall at MCC Theater in 2016, but had to drop out during rehearsals because of scheduling conflicts.
In 2017, she began starring in the Netflix series Ozark (2017) as Ruth Langmore opposite Jason Bateman and Laura Linney.2022, 2020 & 2019: Ozark- Actress
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Gillian Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Rosemary Alyce (Lane), a computer analyst, and Homer Edward Anderson III, who owned a film post-production company. Gillian started her career as a member of an amateur actor group while at high school. In 1987, her love of the theatre took her to the National Theatre of Great Britain Summer Acting Programme held at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. For several weeks she studied under such NT greats as Peter Chelsom, Bardy Thomas, and Michael Joyce. Afterwards, Anderson returned to the Goodman Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois where she finished her education. Her big break came with The X-Files (1993) as Dana Scully. There, she met her future husband (Clyde Klotz), marrying on January 1st 1994. One month later, Gillian was pregnant. Her daughter, Piper Anderson-Klotz, was born on the 25th September 1994. Her film career started with the movie The Turning (1992) in 1997 and, the following year, she starred in Playing by Heart (1998) with Sean Connery, Ellen Burstyn, Angelina Jolie and Dennis Quaid.2021: The Crown- Actress
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Thandiwe Newton was born in London. She is the daughter of Zimbabwean mother Nyasha, a health-care worker from the Shona tribe, and British father Nick Newton, who worked as a lab technician. She lived in Zambia until political unrest caused her family to move back to the UK, where she lived in Cornwall (in southwest Britain) until she was 11 and enrolled in London's Art Educational School to study modern dance until a back injury forced her to quit dancing. This led to her auditioning for films. Her first role was in John Duigan's Flirting (1991). She then moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting. When her British accent limited the amount of work she was getting, she returned to Britain, studied at Cambridge University, and earned a degree in anthropology. Between semesters she continued acting and became noticed in in- demand for future film roles.2018: Westworld- Actress
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Ann Dowd was born on 30 January 1956 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress, known for Compliance (2012), Hereditary (2018) and Garden State (2004). She has been married to Lawrence Arancio since 7 November 1984. They have three children.2017: The Handmaid's Tale- Actress
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One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor Robert Stephens and to playwright Beverley Cross. Her marriage to Stephens ended in divorce in 1974. She was married to Cross until his death in 1999. She had two sons with Stephens, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens who are also actors.
Maggie Smith's career began at the Oxford Playhouse in the 1950s. She made her film debut in 1956 as one of the party guests in Child in the House (1956). She has since performed in over sixty films and television series with some of the most prominent actors and actresses in the world. These include: Othello (1965) with Laurence Olivier, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), California Suite (1978) with Michael Caine and Jane Fonda, A Room with a View (1985), Richard III (1995) with Ian McKellen and Jim Broadbent, Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (1999) with Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Cher and Gosford Park (2001) with Kristin Scott Thomas and Clive Owen, directed by Robert Altman. Maggie Smith has also been nominated for an Oscar six times and won twice, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978).
Smith later appeared in the very successful 'Harry Potter' franchise as the formidable Professor McGonagall as well as in Julian Fellowes' ITV drama series, Downton Abbey (2010) (2010-2011) as the Dowager Countess of Grantham.2016 & 2012: Downton Abbey- Actress
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Aduba began earning recognition for her work in 2003, with a performance in "Translations of Xhosa" at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that won her a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Play. Her Broadway debut was in 2007 as Toby in "Coram Boy". She was a member of the Original Revival Cast of "Godspell" at the Circle in the Square Theatre from 2011 through 2012. She also played the mother of the title character of "Venice" at The Public Theater in New York.
Her first television appearance was on the TV Series "Blue Bloods" in 2012. In 2013 she began to receive wider recognition and acclaim for her portrayal of Suzanne Warren, also known as "Crazy Eyes", in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black (2013).2015: Orange is the New Black- Actress
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An actress on both stage and screen, Anna Gunn has portrayed a vast array of complex and powerful characters throughout her career.
Anna grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico after her parents, Sharon (Peters) and Clemens Gunn, Jr., transplanted the family from Cleveland, Ohio to the Southwest in the late seventies. She discovered acting in a drama class at the Santa Fe Preparatory School and was fortunate to study with two formidable teachers from the Actor's Studio as a teenager. She continued her education and training at Northwestern University's renowned theatre department, winning a coveted scholarship award in her junior year. During her time at Northwestern, Anna went abroad for a semester to study with the British American Drama Academy and had the marvelous opportunity to perform in the school's final project at the famed Royal Court Theatre in London.
Anna has moved between television, film, and theatre with much ease. In 2004, Anna landed her breakout television role, playing Martha Bullock on HBO's seminal show, Deadwood (2004) and later received a SAG nomination for Best Ensemble Cast in 2006. Anna's association with Deadwood (2004) creator David Milch began early on when she first worked with him on his hit drama NYPD Blue (1993), giving a memorable performance as Kimmy, a junkie longing to escape New York to swim with the dolphins. Anna made such an indelible impression on Milch, that almost nine years later she became the template for the pivotal and complex character of Martha. Another major recurring role for Anna was on David E. Kelley's The Practice (1997), delivering a notable turn as ADA Jean Ward opposite Dylan McDermott and Lara Flynn Boyle. Her extensive television credits also include starring roles in several made for TV movies and major guest starring appearances on such shows as Six Feet Under (2001), ER (1994), Boston Legal (2004), Law & Order (1990) and Seinfeld (1989).
Highlights of Anna's feature film work include the dark comedy, Nobody's Baby (2001), in which she starred with Gary Oldman and Mary Steenburgen; the film premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. In 1998, she played opposite Jon Voight in Tony Scott's summer blockbuster, Enemy of the State (1998). Her first starring role was in 1995's independent thriller, Without Evidence (1995), along side Angelina Jolie. Anna was recently in Kevin Smith's Red State (2011). Her upcoming films include Little Red Wagon (2012) and Sassy Pants (2012), for which she received a nomination at the 2012 Milan Film Festival for Best Supporting Actress.
Anna is also a highly regarded and much sought after actress of the stage. In early 2009 she created the leading role of photojournalist Sarah Goodwin in Donald Margulies' world premiere production of Time Stands Still, directed by Daniel Sullivan at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. In 1999 she starred as Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Ahmanson Theatre helmed by the famed director Sir Peter Hall. In 1997, Anna was brought east to make her Broadway debut alongside Roger Rees in The Rehearsal at the Roundabout Theater. Before that she played on the LA circuit, including the 1995 American premiere of Hysteria directed by Phyllida Lloyd at the Mark Taper Forum. Before settling in Los Angeles, Anna built an impressive background performing on stage in Chicago. She received exceptional reviews in Uncommon Ground at the Northlight Theatre, and playing opposite Jeremy Piven in Keith Reddin's Peacekeeper at the American Blues Theatre. She even landed her first professional acting role, playing Lucy Lockit in the critically acclaimed production of The Beggar's Opera at the Court Theatre while still an undergraduate at Northwestern University. In late 2011, Anna immersed herself in the role of Marie Curie for Alan Alda's world premiere of Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie, directed by Daniel Sullivan at the Geffen Playhouse and received rave reviews.
She starring as Skyler White on AMC's Emmy award-winning series Breaking Bad (2008); a role that garnered Anna a 2012 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Emmy Nomination until she won in 2013-2014, a 2012 Best Supporting Actress nomination by the Broadcast Television Journalist Association for a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a 2012 & 2013 Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Ensemble Cast. The cast was also the recipient of the 2008 Peabody Award and won an AFI Award both in 2008 and 2011. The show was also nominated in 2013 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Golden Globe's as Best Television Drama until it won in 2014.2014 & 2013: Breaking Bad- Margo Martindale was born July 18, 1951 in Jacksonville, Texas, to Margaret (Pruitt) and William Everett Martindale, a lumber company owner and dog handler. She is the youngest of three children, and the only daughter. Margo attended Lon Marris College, and later transferred to University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and did a summer study at Harvard University. She made her film debut appearance in Days of Thunder (1990), she played the minor role of Donna. Notable roles include: Sister Colleen, Susan Sarandon's fellow nun in Dead Man Walking (1995). She played a brief but memorable role as the selfish mother to Hilary Swank's character in Million Dollar Baby (2004).2011: Justified
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Archie is an Emmy Award winning British actress best known for her role as Kalinda Sharma in The Good Wife, for which she was nominated for an Emmy three times in a row and went on to to be honored with a Golden Globe Nomination. She made her film debut in the critically acclaimed East Is East which won a Bafta for Best Film. She then went onto star in the Bafta and Golden Globe nominated international hit Bend It Like Beckham. She appeared in John Le Carre's The Constant Gardener, which was nominated for 10 Bafta's and won an Oscar and went on to work alongside Angelina Jolie in the gut wrenching A Mighty Heart. Archie then went on to star in 2 Bafta winning Netflix/BBC series; The Fall, opposite Gillian Anderson as well as Shetland. She recently starred on the American TV hit Blindspot and in the International blockbuster earthquake movie San Andreas opposite Dwayne Johnson. The New Year will see Archie lead the highly anticipated 6 part drama Next Of Kin on ITV.2010: The Good Wife- Actress
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Cherry Jones was born on 21 November 1956 in Paris, Tennessee, USA. She is an actress, known for The Village (2004), Signs (2002) and The Perfect Storm (2000). She has been married to Sophie Huber since 2015.2009: 24- Actress
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One of three children (she has two brothers, Greg and Don), Dianne Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on 28 March 1946. Her original ambition was to be a ballerina, but she was bitten by acting bug after some stage work, most notably playing Desdemona to James Earl Jones' Othello on Broadway. She made her film debut in 1980, but did not make a name for herself until her performance as Emma, a prostitute during the 1930s Depression, in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Allen was so impressed by Wiest's acting ability that he has directed her on four more occasions since. Under Allen's direction, Wiest won a well deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her brilliant performance as the neurotic, wannabe actress Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). She followed her Academy Award success with performances in The Lost Boys (1987) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988) before stealing the show from the likes of Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard's Parenthood (1989).
Playing Helen Buckman, the divorced mother of two difficult teenagers, Wiest was both touching and hilarious, and received her second Oscar nomination. Arguably her most beloved role came as Peg Boggs, the kindly Avon Lady who discovers the titular Edward Scissorhands (1990). Wiest returned to Woody Allen for Bullets Over Broadway (1994), a superb comedy film set in 1920s New York, winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her magnificent portrayal of Helen Sinclair, a boozy, glamorous and neurotic star of the stage, who could made the words "Don't speak!" the funniest sentence ever captured on film. Recently enjoying great success with witchy roles in the comedy film Practical Magic (1998) and the television miniseries The 10th Kingdom (2000), Dianne Wiest lives in New York City with her two adopted daughters, Emily and Lily.2008: In Treatment- Actress
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Katherine Marie Heigl was born on November 24, 1978 in Washington, D.C., to Nancy Heigl (née Engelhardt), a personnel manager, and Paul Heigl, an accountant and executive. Her father is of German/Swiss-German and Irish descent, and her mother is of German ancestry. A short time after her birth, the family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Katherine was to spend the majority of her childhood; the youngest member of her family, Katherine--or "Katie" as she is nicknamed--has two elder siblings, John and Meg. Tragically, her older brother Jason died in 1986 of brain injuries suffered in a car accident, after being thrown from the back of a pickup truck. When doctors determined he was brain-dead, the family made the difficult decision to donate his organs. Not only did this painful chapter give Katherine a greater perspective and appreciation for life, but it motivated her to use her celebrity to promote the importance of organ donation.
Katherine was first thrust into the limelight as a child model. An aunt, visiting the family in New Canaan, took a number of photographs of Katherine, then aged nine, in a series of poses to advertise a hair care product she had invented. Upon returning to New York, with permission from Katherine's parents, she sent the photos to a number of modeling agencies. Within a few weeks, Katherine had been signed to Wilhelmina, a renowned international modeling agency. Almost immediately, she made her debut in a magazine advertisement and soon followed this with an inaugural television appearance in a national commercial for Cheerios breakfast cereal.
Following a number of commercials and modeling assignments for Sears and Lord & Taylor, she made her big-screen debut in That Night (1992), which starred Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell. It was then that she realized that acting rather than modeling was her passion. In 1993, Katherine appeared in Steven Soderbergh's critically-acclaimed Depression-era drama, King of the Hill (1993), before landing her first leading role as a rebellious teenager, alongside Gérard Depardieu, in My Father the Hero (1994). During this time, Katherine continued to attend New Canaan High School, balancing her academic studies with work on films and modeling, which she undertook during holidays, vacations and weekends.
In 1995, she played "Sarah Ryback", the niece of Steven Seagal's character, in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), which was her "debut" in the action film genre. Acting was now becoming a stronger focus for Katherine, although she still modeled extensively, appearing regularly in magazines such as "Seventeen". Television appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992) and Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) soon followed, before she took the lead role in Disney's Wish Upon a Star (1996) in 1996. It was also during that year that Katherine's parents divorced and, following her graduation from high school in 1997, she moved with her mother into a four-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Malibu Canyon area. This enabled her to focus upon acting with the guidance and support of her mother, who now managed her career.
In 1997, Katherine portrayed "Taffy Entwhistle", Rita Hayworth's stand-in, in Stand-ins (1997) and was also cast as the beauteous "Princess Ilene" in the European production, Prince Valiant (1997). She then made her made-for-TV movie debut, co-starring with Peter Fonda in a re-working of the classic Shakespearean play, The Tempest (1998), updated with an American Civil War theme. In this film, she played "Miranda Prosper", a young woman torn between her love for both her father and a Union soldier. Bug Buster (1998) and Bride of Chucky (1998) represented a venture into the horror genre for Katherine. While both films could be described as rather tongue-in-cheek despite their gory emphases, Bride of Chucky (1998) was the better received, both critically and commercially.
In 1999, Katherine decided to branch out into series television when she accepted the role of the haughty, yet vulnerable, "Isabel Evans", on Roswell (1999), a show that blended teen angst with sci-fi drama. Though she had never planned to embark on a career in television, the role of Isabel, a teenager with a secret life, was an offer she found impossible to refuse. In the series, Isabel, her brother Max (Jason Behr) and their friend Michael (Brendan Fehr) are aliens passing as humans in Roswell, New Mexico, as they desperately try to hide the truth from government agencies, the people of Roswell and even their own adopted families. To publicize her role on the show, Katherine graced the covers of magazines such as "TV Guide", "Maxim" and "Teen" and was interviewed on Later (1994) and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (1999). Along with her mother Nancy, she also appeared in an episode of the Sci-Fi TV talk show, Crossing Over with John Edward (2001), during which she spoke with John Edward, a psychic medium, about her late brother, Jason. During the three years Roswell (1999) was in production, Katherine found time to work on several movies. 100 Girls (2000), an independent film released in 2001, is the story of a college freshman who meets the girl of his dreams in an elevator during a blackout, and spends the rest of the movie trying to find her again. Her cameo role is that of Arlene, the competitive tomboy. The second film, Valentine (2001), a horror film starring David Boreanaz and Denise Richards, appeared in U.S. theaters on February 2, 2001. In this movie, which is based upon the 1996 novel by Tom Savage, Katherine plays "Shelley", a medical student who meets a sudden demise.
In the spring of 2001, Katherine accepted a role in NBC's Critical Assembly (2002), a two-hour original television thriller. Katherine and Kerr Smith (Dawson's Creek (1998)) co-starred as brilliant and politically concerned college students who build a nuclear device to illustrate the need for a change in national priorities, but are betrayed by a fellow student when the bomb ends up in the hands of a terrorist. Unfortunately, the telefilm, directed by Eric Laneuville, written by Tom Vaughan, and based on the best-seller "The Seventh Power" by James Mills, was shelved when its storyline was deemed too close for comfort to the events of September 11, 2001. It was eventually broadcast in 2003. Since the cancellation of Roswell (1999) in the spring of 2002, Katherine has been busy with various projects, including an appearance on UPN's update of the classic television series, The Twilight Zone (2002). That episode, entitled Cradle of Darkness (2002), aired on October 2, 2002, and featured Katherine in the role of a woman who goes back in time to stop one of the most notorious murders in history. In addition, she completed a movie, Descendant (2003), a psychological thriller inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". She has also starred as "Romy" in ABC/Touchstone's two-hour telepic, Romy and Michele: In the Beginning (2005), a prequel to the 1997 feature, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997). During the summer of 2002, Katherine made a major decision in the direction of her career when she signed on for representation in all areas with the William Morris Agency, one of the biggest and most prestigious agencies in the entertainment industry. She is now being represented by Norman Aladjem at Paradigm Agency and being managed by Nancy Heigl and Stephanie Simon and Jason Newman at Untitled Entertainment.2007: Grey's Anatomy- Actress
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Blythe Danner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Katharine (Kile) and Harry Earl Danner, a bank executive. She has German, as well as English and Irish, ancestry. Danner studied acting and got her degree from Bard College and began her career in Boston theater companies. By 25, she won the Theater World Award for her work in Molière's "The Miser", at Lincoln Center. She also won the 1970 Tony award for her role in "Butterflies Are Free". She made her film premiere in the same year in the television production of Dr. Cook's Garden (1971). For 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival. She has also been nominated for Tonys for performances in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Betrayal". Married to director Bruce Paltrow, she is the mother of two acting children, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Paltrow.2006 & 2005: Huff- Actress
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Andrea Donna de Matteo, called Drea (pronounced "dray"), was born on January 19, 1972 in Queens, New York, into an affluent family, the youngest of three children and the only girl. She is the daughter of Donna, a playwright and playwriting teacher at HB Studio in New York, and Albert A. De Matteo, a furniture manufacturer. She is of Italian descent. De Matteo spent her early childhood in Queens, and the family then moved to the Upper East Side in Manhattan, into Aretha Franklin's former townhouse.
De Matteo decided to pursue a directing career at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, perhaps because of the brief moment when, as a girl, she was brought onstage out of the audience and dazzled by the stage lights when she was seeing the play "Cats," perhaps because of her mother's involvement in the entertainment business. Once she was in school, however, it was the acting classes which attracted her greatest interest, and she decided on an acting career. After a screen debut in an obscure independent and a small part in a small movie, Meet Prince Charming (1999), de Matteo auditioned for a one-episode part in the HBO series The Sopranos (1999). She impressed the producers enough that they expanded the role, as Adriana La Cerva, girlfriend to up-and-coming Soprano family soldier Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), and she eventually became a regular on the show. De Matteo had the right sultry beauty to portray Adriana, but her acting skills greatly fleshed out the character, making her as rich and complex a character as a slightly ditzy gangster's girlfriend can be in the first place - humorous, even charming in a way and, ultimately, tragic. She won an Emmy award for her portrayal of Adriana in 2004.
Although De Matteo's role on the HBO series ended in 2004, in that same year she got a leading role in Joey (2004), a spin-off of the long-running NBC sitcom Friends (1994). She has also appeared in several movies since starting on "The Sopranos" - regardless of the caliber of the production, de Matteo has consistently shown her strong acting skills, such as her award-winning lead in Abel Ferrara's 'R Xmas (2001) and her supporting role in Prey for Rock & Roll (2003).
Although De Matteo describes herself as shy, she also says she was and remains a wild, multi-tattooed party-girl who peppers her conversation with strong language and prefers jeans to dressing up. She owned a rock and roll vintage clothing store in the East Village called "Filth Mart" for several years but has closed it and is considering re-opening it in the Los Angeles area. She has said that she considers actor Vince Vaughn to be like a brother to her.2004: The Sopranos- Actress
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Tyne Daly was born on 21 February 1946 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Judging Amy (1999), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Cagney & Lacey (1981). She was previously married to Georg Stanford Brown.2003: Judging Amy
1996: Christy- Actress
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One of Broadway and Hollywood's perennial and cleverer talents who tends to shine a smart, cynical light on her surroundings, Stockard Channing was born Susan Williams Antonia Stockard on February 13, 1944 in New York City to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother of Irish descent. Her parents were Mary Alice (née English) and well-to-do shipping executive Lester Napier Stockard; the latter died when his daughter was 16 and left her a sizable estate.
Channing attended the eminent Chapin School in NYC, then later attended the Madeira School, a girls' boarding school in Virginia. She majored in both literature and history at Radcliffe College, from which she graduated summa cum laude in 1965. In 1964 she married Walter Channing Jr., a businessman whose surname she kept for part of her own stage moniker after their divorce four years later.
Interested in acting, she made her stage debut in a production of "The Investigation" at the experimental Theatre Company of Boston in 1966. She went on to play a number of offbeat roles with the company. She eventually migrated to New York where she took her first Broadway bow as a chorus member and understudy in the musical version of 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' in 1971. Two years later she would take over the prime role of Julia in the L.A. national company. Other theater roles during this time included 'Adaptation/Next' (1970) 'Arsenic and Old Lace' (1970), 'Play Strindberg' (1971), and 'No Hard Feelings' (1973).
Somewhat plaintive yet magnetic and unique-looking, the dark-haired actress began first appearing in pictures with small parts in the dark comedy The Hospital (1971) and the edgy Barbra Streisand fantasy-drama Up the Sandbox (1972). Taking on the top female lead as an heiress and potential victim of shysters Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty in Mike Nichols' comedy The Fortune (1975), the film, despite its male star power and her Golden Globe nomination, would not become the star-making hit for Channing as initially predicted.
While her next two films, (The Big Bus (1976) and Sweet Revenge (1976)), didn't get her to first base with the public either, Channing hit a major home run with the TV-movie The Girl Most Likely to... (1973), a clever black comedy written by Joan Rivers wherein she played a former ugly duckling-turned-beauty (à la plastic surgery) who decides to attract and knock off the men who cruelly cast her aside earlier. Channing found her niche with this smart, sardonic character and it would take her quite far in Hollywood.
At age 33(!), Stockard was handed the feisty role of high-school "tough girl" Betty Rizzo in the box-office film version of the hit musical Grease (1978), starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. While long in the tooth for such a role (as were most of the others in the lead cast), she compelled the audience to suspend disbelief in her sly performance, which earned her a People's Choice Award (Favorite Motion Picture Supporting Actress). This blockbuster clinched her place as a top-ranking star contender.
Handed two sitcom vehicles of her own within a year on CBS, Stockard Channing in Just Friends (1979) had her playing a newly-separated wife starting life anew in another city (L.A.) while The Stockard Channing Show (1980) starred her as a divorced lady again trying to find herself in L.A. Neither caught on and lasted but a few months. Stalled at a critical juncture in her career, she decided to return to her first love -- the theater. With 'Vanities', 'Absurd Person Singular', and 'As You Like It' (as Rosalind) already on her resume, she earned fine notices on Broadway with the musical 'They're Playing Our Song', succeeding Lucie Arnaz in 1980, then garnered rave reviews as the mother of a developmentally disabled child in the New Haven production of Peter Nichols' 'A Day in the Death of Joe Egg' in 1982. The actress repeated her role on Broadway a few years later (the title now shortened to "Joe Egg") and copped the 1985 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Subsequent Tony nominations came her way for her offbeat work in 'The House of Blue Leaves' (1986); 'Six Degrees of Separation' (for which she also won an Off-Broadway Obie), 'Four Baboons Adoring the Sun' (1992); and for her Eleanor of Aquitaine in 'The Lion in Winter' in 1999.
Award-worthy projects again came her way on TV. Nominated for an Emmy for the CBS miniseries Echoes in the Darkness (1987), she also won a CableACE Award for her work in Tidy Endings (1988). In film, she received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations when her stage triumph, Six Degrees of Separation (1993), was turned into a film. This was followed by a rare vulnerable role as an abused, small-town housewife in the popular drag queen dramedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), a co-star role alongside Jennifer Tilly as two divorce-bound women who meet in Reno in Edie & Pen (1996), a prime role in the remake of Moll Flanders (1996) and as an eccentric aunt in the comedy/fantasy Practical Magic (1998). She also provided the voice of Barbara Gordon in several episodes of Batman Beyond (1999).
Channing has remained a highly productive, award-winning presence into the millennium on film, TV and the occasional stage. Beginning with a London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in the film The Business of Strangers (2001), her other movies have included co-star or featured roles in Life or Something Like It (2002), Behind the Red Door (2003), The Divorce (2003), Must Love Dogs (2005), Sparkle (2007), Multiple Sarcasms (2010), and Pulling Strings (2013).
As part of the acclaimed cast of The West Wing (1999) as "First Lady" Abigail Bartlet, audiences were so drawn to her shrewd, classy character that producers wisely started featuring her regularly into the third season, winning both Emmy and SAG awards and a slew of nominations for this long-running role. Other awards came for social dramas. She received a second Emmy for her supporting turn as mother Judy Sheppard in The Matthew Shepard Story (2002), a docudrama about the gay-bashing murder of young Matthew Shepard, a Daytime Emmy for her role in the TV movie Jack (2004) in which she plays a wife who finds out her husband is gay, and a SAG nomination as a mother who discovers her teenage daughter is lesbian in The Truth About Jane (2000).
Stockard thought she finally found sitcom success with the series Out of Practice (2005) and was even Emmy-nominated for her role as a sharp-tongued but caring doctor. As luck would have it, however, a core audience was not to be found and the show lasted but a mere season. She fared better in a recurring part as Julianna Margulies' mother on the popular dramatic series The Good Wife (2009).
Returning to the stage, Stockard played "Lady Bracknell" in a 2010 Dublin production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest', and the following year was nominated for a Tony and Drama Desk for 'Other Desert Cities'. In 2018, she appeared in the play 'Apologia', co-starring Hugh Dancy in London.
Divorced four times, including to actor Paul Schmidt and writer/producer David Debin, she has no children. She has been in a three-decade-long relationship with cinematographer/gaffer Dan Gillham.2002: The West Wing- Actress
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Allison Janney is an award-winning actress who has earned a solid reputation in stage productions and in many supporting roles on screen, and who more recently has become prominent by portraying one of the major characters in the popular TV series The West Wing (1999).
Entertainment Weekly magazine describes Janney's screen presence as "uncommonly beautiful and infinitely expressive." As an actor, the magazine deems her to be "one to watch."
Janney was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Macy Brooks (Putnam), a former actress, and Jervis Spencer Janney, Jr., a real estate developer and jazz musician. While studying at Kenyon College, Janney answered a casting call for an on-campus play that was to be directed by Kenyon's most famous alumnus, the legendary actor Paul Newman. During her audition/interview, Janney played upon Newman's known passion for race car driving - she explained how she cut thirty minutes off of the 130 mile journey from her home town to the college. She got chosen for the play's cast.
After earning her degree in drama, Janney took Joanne Woodward's suggestion to do further study at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. She also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
Early in her career Janney got comedic roles in the soap operas As the World Turns (1956) and Guiding Light (1952). Later, she gave memorable movie performances in supporting roles in Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), American Beauty (1999) and Nurse Betty (2000), and in the made-for-TV movie ...First Do No Harm (1997), among others.
Among her stage work, Janney has played in a revival of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge" on Broadway opposite Anthony LaPaglia, which earned her a Tony Award nomination, and a Drama League Award for outstanding artist for the 1997-98 season. She played in Noel Coward's "Present Laughter" opposite Frank Langella, which earned her the Outer Critics Circle Award and an Actors' Equity award. Janney also appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of "The Taming of the Shrew."
In 1999 Janney became part of the original cast of the acclaimed TV series The West Wing (1999) where she played the President's press secretary who eventually gets promoted to the White House Chief of Staff. Her impressive work during the seven seasons of that renowned series earned her four Emmys and two SAG Awards.
With her reputation becoming more broadly established during her work on "The West Wing" Janney won more substantive roles in feature films, in the acclaimed The Hours (2002) where she was Meryl Streep's lesbian lover, and in How to Deal (2003) where she played Mandy Moore's mother.2001 & 2000: The West Wing- Actress
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Holland Taylor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the third-born (and last) daughter of her mother, Virginia (Davis), a painter, and the only child of her father, C. Tracy Taylor, an attorney. She spent her teen years in nearby Allentown, PA, where Holland got the nickname, "Penny Taylor" because of her coppery hair color. Holland attended Quaker schools, then majored in drama at Bennington College. At the age of 22 Holland moved to New York with the desire to become a "great big Broadway star." After fifteen years of "disappointments and near misses" in New York and California, Holland was cast as Ruth Dunbar in the sitcom Bosom Buddies (1980) with Tom Hanks. It was Holland's "breakout" role and it led to many other TV and film offers including the movie Romancing the Stone (1984) as Kathleen Turner's book publisher and friend. Holland had hesitated to accept the role but her acting coach and mentor Stella Adler encouraged her not to be so "stage minded." In 1992 Holland was still living in Greenwich Village, New York and traveling back and forth between a rented apartment in Hollywood and New York in order to work on both coasts. Holland has said her first love was the theater but the work for her in TV and films was better. However, by 1992, Holland said she was dealing with traveling back and forth "less and less well". Over the next few years, Holland moved to California full-time. In the last couple of years, she gave up her apartment in West Hollywood for her own home in the Hollywood Hills. Holland won an Emmy in 1999 for her work in The Practice (1997).1999: The Practice- Actress
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Camryn grew up in Peoria, Illinois before moving to Long Beach California for middle school. She went on to receive a B.F.A. from U.C. Santa Cruz and then went on to earn a M.F.A from New York University in 1987. Her mother, Sylvia (Nuchow), was a schoolteacher, and her father, Jerry, was a math professor.
She developed an interest in acting at an early age. While studying at New York University, Camryn learned sign language and worked as an interpreter and job coach while pursuing her acting career. In her early years in New York City she met and worked with Tony Kushner, Michael Mayer, and long list of theater luminaries. Her first play in New York was Hydriotaphia, written and directed by Tony Kushner. She went on to work at such renowned theaters as The New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center, Yale Repertory, New York Theater Workshop, The Atlantic Theater, Classic Stage Company, & Second Stage.
In 1994 she won an OBIE Award for her portrayal of Gemma in Craig Lucas' Missing Persons, directed by Michael Mayer. In 1995 she wrote and starred in her one-woman show, Wake Up, I'm Fat!, which played to sold out audiences at The Public Theater. She played the "Nurse" in Romeo and Juliet, directed by Michael Greif at the New York Shakespeare Festival and just completed a spectacular run of the Tony nominated rock musical, Spring Awakening on Broadway.
Manheim spent eight years playing defense attorney "Ellenor Frutt" on the Emmy Award winning drama, The Practice. Her portrayal of the feisty attorney garnered her an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Manheim was nominated once again for an Emmy and Golden Globe for her portrayal of "Gladys Presley" in the CBS miniseries Elvis.
In 1999 Manheim fulfilled a lifelong dream and became a New York Times best-selling author when her book Wake Up, I'm Fat! was published by Broadway Books. Camryn teaches and lectures all over the United States and abroad.1998: The Practice- Actress
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Kim Delaney was born on November 29, 1958, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Roxborough. She is the daughter of Joan and Jack Delaney, who retired from Delphi Automotive, where he served as a committeeman for the United Auto Workers. She has four brothers: Ed Delaney and John Delaney, who are older than her, and Keith and Patrick Delaney, who are younger. As a cheerleader at John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School in Philadelphia, she dreamed of being a court reporter and settling close to home. Kim began her modeling career working for the Elite agency while still in high school. After graduation, Kim continued to model in Philadelphia and then headed for New York City, quickly winning commercials. She studied acting in New York with William Esper. She auditioned for Dynasty (1981) and Dallas (1978) , but lost out. When she auditioned for All My Children (1970), however, she got the part of Jenny Gardner, and in August 1981 her acting career took off. In the spring of 1983, she made her busy schedule even busier by performing in an off-Broadway play directed by Dorothy Lyman. She has been nominated for many acting awards, winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for playing Diane Russell on NYPD Blue (1993). She has continued to star in both television and theater, as well as in films such as Rules of Engagement (1997) and Mission to Mars (2000). Kim Delaney lives in Los Angeles, California.1997: NYPD Blue- Actress
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Julianna Margulies was born on June 8, 1966 in Spring Valley (near New York City), as the youngest of three daughters of Francesca (Goldberg), a teacher and dancer in American Ballet, and Paul Margulies, an advertising writer and philosopher. She is of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage (from Romania, Austria, Hungary, and Russia). Until beginning high school in New Hampshire at age 14, she lived several years with her family in Paris and in England. She obtained a B.A. degree in liberal arts from Sarah Lawrence College, where she appeared in several plays on campus. She jobbed as a waitress until her first role as a prostitute looking to go straight in Out for Justice (1991). It took more than a year to find another role; during that time, she managed to support herself from several regional theater productions and national TV ads. Until she became a regular in ER (1994), she guest starred in several television series and a pilot. Since then, she has starred in several films, including Ghost Ship (2002), Evelyn (2002), and Snakes on a Plane (2006), and headlines the CBS drama The Good Wife (2009), for which she has won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe.1995: ER- Entrancing Leigh Taylor-Young was born on January 25, 1945, in Washington, D,C,. to a diplomat father and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the older sister of future actress Dey Young and writer/director Lance Young. She studied classical ballet and, following high school, attended Northwestern University where she initially majored in economics. She switched gears after developing an interest in theater, however, and studied under drama teacher Alvina Krause, and would apprentice as the youngest member of the Eaglesmere Summer Repertory Theatre.
Leigh eventually moved to New York with designs on a professional career and studied under acting guru Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Her major break came when she was cast in the already firmly established prime-time TV soap Peyton Place (1964). She played the mysterious Rachael Welles, whose character was brought in to provide clues to the disappearance of Allison MacKenzie (played by Mia Farrow who shocked ardent viewers by abruptly leaving the series). A mysterious girl herself, Leigh proved to be a fetching figure with her slightly off-kiltered beauty and unsympathetic countenance.
Like Farrow, Leigh developed a bit of bad publicity when she too walked off the weekly series after only one season. She also fell into the arms of the very popular -- and very married -- series star Ryan O'Neal. The couple would marry in 1967 following his divorce from actress Joanna Moore. By then, Leigh was already pregnant with their child Patrick O'Neal, who would later become an actor before turning to sportscasting.
Leigh started off in films auspiciously as a "flower child" of the psychedelic (late) 1960s. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Newcomer," when she played opposite Peter Sellers, in the eccentric comedy, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968), but then appeared opposite her husband in The Big Bounce (1969), a kinky misfire. She went on to appear in a cameo in her husband's British-made movie, The Games (1970), but her career sputtered again with a series of misguided features, including the star-heavy epic, The Adventurers (1970); another kinky British film, The Buttercup Chain (1970), which dealt with kissing cousins who don't quite stop at kissing; the beautifully photographed but rather hollow action-adventure The Horsemen (1971) co-starring Omar Sharif; and the mild romp, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) which is best remembered for starting Robert De Niro off and running in films. Arguably, Leigh's best remembered role during that period came alongside Charlton Heston in the controversial film Soylent Green (1973), although she was a bit overshadowed by the grisly topic material and showier performances of co-stars Heston and Edward G. Robinson.
Following her separation from O'Neal in 1971 (they didn't actually divorce until '74), the actress made herself somewhat scarce while raising her young son. In 1978, she married agent/director Guy McElwaine, but that marriage would also end in divorce. In the 1980s, she made a comeback of sorts as a mature -- but still spicy -- presence. Taking a back seat to Albert Finney in the film thriller Looker (1981) and to Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges in the whodunnit Jagged Edge (1985), she found her best results back on TV.
Leigh would nab a supporting Emmy award in 1994 for her portrayal of vixen Rachel Harris on the acclaimed series drama Picket Fences (1992). In addition, she performed in several plays, in the US, England and Scotland, including "The Beckett Plays", "Knives" and "Sleeping Dogs". More recently, she appeared in her writer/director brother Lance Young's film Bliss (1997). Leigh also would play a regular role on the daytime soap, Passions (1999) as wealthy Katherine Crane.
A few movie roles have come her way into the millennium, including the film comedy Slackers (2002); a cameo role (as Mrs. Leigh Taylor Young) in (then) husband Craig Sheffer's film Ritual (2002); the comedy crimer Klepto (2003); the comedy A-List (2006); as a psychiatrist in the sci-fi adventure Spiritual Warriors (2007) and, more recently, the drama The Wayshower (2011).
Finding a fulfilling life off-camera, Leigh became an ordained minister in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, and her voice can be heard in the Search of Serenity series of audio meditations from The Course in Miracles trainings. She is also a grandmother of two granddaughters from son Patrick's relationship with the older Rebecca De Mornay.1994: Picket Fences - Mary Alice was born on 3 December 1936 in Indianola, Mississippi, USA. She was an actress, known for The Matrix Revolutions (2003), Awakenings (1990) and Malcolm X (1992). She died on 27 July 2022 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.1993: I'll Fly Away
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Valerie Mahaffey is an American character actress and producer. She began her career starring in the NBC daytime soap opera The Doctors (1979-81), for which in 1980 she was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.In 1992, Mahaffey won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the CBS drama series Northern Exposure. She later won fame through her portrayal of extroverted and friendly but ultimately insane women on the television shows Wings, Desperate Housewives, Devious Maids and Big Sky. Mahaffey also appeared in a number of movies, including Senior Trip (1995), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), Jack and Jill (2011), Sully (2016), and most notably French Exit (2020), for which she received critical acclaim and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.1992: Northern Exposure