Jill Eikenberry

Jill Eikenberry
Eikenberry at the 41st Emmy Awards, September 1989
Born	January 21, 1947 (1947-01-21) New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Other names	Jill Susan Eikenberry
Years active	1971-present
Spouse	Michael Tucker (1973-present) 1 child

Jill Eikenberry (born January 21, 1947) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is best known for her role as lawyer Ann Kelsey in L.A. Law (1986–1994). She has won an Obie Award, been nominated five times for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globes, winning one, and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 2011.

Life and career

Eikenberry was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and was raised in Madison, Wisconsin and St. Joseph and Kansas City, Missouri. She began studies in anthropology at Barnard College but in her second year she auditioned for and was accepted into the Yale School of Drama.

She met Michael Tucker at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., where they appeared together in The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail (1970) and Moonchildren (1971), the latter of which transferred to Broadway in 1972. She married Tucker in 1973 and they settled in New York City. She has a son, Max, and a stepdaughter, actress Allison Tucker (by Michael's first marriage).

Her first role in film was a minor role in the television movie, They've Killed President Lincoln (1971). Among her early feature films was Between the Lines (1977), directed by Joan Micklin Silver. She and Michael Tucker had small roles in Lina Wertmuller's 1978 success A Night Full of Rain, and she also appeared in An Unmarried Woman starring Jill Clayburgh the same year.

Throughout the 1970s, Eikenberry's main focus was on theater. She made her Broadway debut in 1974 in All Over Town, and later appeared Off-Broadway in Uncommon Women and Others, which was later filmed for American public television. She also starred in the musical Onward Victoria (1980), which closed on opening night.

The 1980s saw a number of television films to her credit, and a major film success, Dudley Moore's star vehicle Arthur (1981). In 1986, she and Michael Tucker scored a major success by each securing major parts in the successful television series L.A. Law. They were given the roles by producer Steven Bochco, who had been impressed by the pair when he used them for two episodes on his earlier hit Hill Street Blues. Jill and Michael moved to Hollywood at this time, and it was in this period that Jill discovered she had breast cancer, which was successfully treated over the next two years.

The event was significant in her life. In 1989, she co-produced a documentary for NBC television called Destined to Live, which featured interviews with cancer survivors like herself, including Nancy Reagan. She remains an activist for breast cancer research and early detection.

Eikenberry continued to appear in television movies over the next decade, while continuing her role on L.A. Law. With the financial success accruing from their L.A. Law work, Jill and Michael produced a number of television movies as vehicles in which they appeared together. They include Assault and Matrimony (1987), The Secret Life of Archie's Wife (1990), A Town Torn Apart (1992) and Gone in a Heartbeat (1996).

Since L.A. Law's run ended in 1994, her film and television appearances have been sporadic. One of her more recent roles was in the comedy Manna from Heaven (2003), in which she appeared with Cloris Leachman and Shirley Jones.

She has sung on stage and in films, and in recent years, she and her husband have written a number of songs. They currently reside in New York and Umbria.

After meeting artist Emile Norman, Eikenberry and Tucker purchased land from him to become his neighbors in Big Sur, California. Becoming friends with him, they produced a 2008 PBS documentary, Emile Norman: By His Own Design.

Eikenberry was also a guest star Numb3rs in 2008, Law & Order in 2009 and Body of Proof in 2011. She played a role in the comedy film Something Borrowed, which was released in May, 2011.

Awards

• Won an Obie Award for roles "Lemon Sky" (1985) and Life Under Water (1986).
• She was nominated five times for an Emmy for her role on L.A. Law although she did not win.
• She was nominated four times for a Golden Globe for L.A. Law and she won in 1988.
• Humanitas Award for Destined to Live
• Cancer Survivors Hall of Fame, New York City (1998) .
• She was nominated Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical The Kid (2011)

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1977	Between the Lines	Lynn
1978	A Night Full of Rain
	An Unmarried Woman	Claire
	Rush It	Merrill
1979	Uncommon Women and Others	Kate Quin
	Butch and Sundance: The Early Days	Mary Parker
	Rich Kids	Juilliard Student
1980	Hide in Plain Sight	Alisa/Ali
1981	Arthur	Susan Johnson
1985	Kane & Abel	Susan Lester	TV mini-series
1986	The Manhattan Project	Elizabeth Stephens
1986-1994	L.A. Law	Ann Kelsey	171 episodes
1991	An Inconvenient Woman	Pauline Mendelson
1993	Chantilly Lace	Val
1994	Without Consent	Michelle Mills
	Parallel Lives
1995	The Other Woman	Tessa Bryan
1996	My Very Best Friend	Barbara
2000	Strong Medicine	Evelyn Barrett	1 episode
	Judging Amy	Sheila Townsend	1 episode
2002	Manna from Heaven	Dottie
	Roughing It	Livy Clemens
	L.A. Law: The Movie	Ann Kelsey
2007	Suburban Girl	Marlene Eisenberg
2008	Numb3rs	Susan Doran	1 episode
2009	Law & Order	Irene Matson	1 episode
2011	Body of Proof	Lillian Parkson	1 episode
	Something Borrowed	Bridget Thaler
	Young Adult	Hedda Gary

Broadway plays

• Moonchildren (1972)
• All Over Town (1974)
• Summer Brave (1975)
• Watch on the Rhine (1980)
• Onward Victoria (1980)

External links

• The Official Website for Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker
• Jill Eikenberry at the Internet Movie Database
• Jill Eikenberry at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jill Eikenberry at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Cancer survivor bio
• Jill Eikenberry's Blog for Hope about surviving cancer
• Bio from Hollywood.com
• BroadwayWorld.com interview with Jill Eikenberry, June 5, 2007