Lee Grant
 |
Lee Grant | |
|---|---|
 Grant at the premiere of F.I.S.T., April 1978 | |
| Born | Lyova Haskell Rosenthal |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, director |
| Years active | 1950–2005 |
| Spouse(s) | Arnold Manoff (1951-1960) Joseph Feury (1962-present) |
Lee Grant (born October 31, 1927) is an American theater, film and television actress, and film director who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s. Grant won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Felicia Carp in the film Shampoo (1975).
Early life
Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal in New York City, the daughter of Eastern European Jewish immigrants Witia (née Haskell), a teacher, and Abraham W. Rosenthal, a realtor and educator.[1] Her stage name, Lee Grant, is a compilation of the two leading U.S. Civil War generals, though she has confessed a lifelong crush on Cary Grant played a part in the selection. Grant performed as a ballerina with the New York Metropolitan Opera at the age of four, and during her childhood studied dance and acting.
Career
Grant established herself as a dramatic actress on Broadway at age 21, earning praise for her role as a shoplifter in the play Detective Story which began its run on March 23,1949. She made her film debut in the movie version of Detective Story, receiving her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination, and winning the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities to testify against her husband, the playwright Arnold Manoff, father of her daughter, actress Dinah Manoff, Grant refused to testify and was ultimately blacklisted. She continued to work in theater and resumed her film career in the early 1960s, appearing in the television series Peyton Place as the evil Stella Chernak. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Drama for that role. Among her other notable roles was her performance in the critically acclaimed The Balcony.
Grant received subsequent Academy Award nominations for The Landlord (1970), and Voyage of the Damned (1976). She won an Oscar for Shampoo (1975). She has directed several documentary films, including Down and Out in America (1986) which won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. In recent years she directed a series of Intimate Portrait episodes (for Lifetime Television) that celebrated a diverse range of accomplished women.
Grant appeared as a cunning lawyer/murderess on an episode of Columbo, for which she was nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie. Competing against herself, she received the award for her other Emmy-nominated performance in The Neon Ceiling. She had her own sitcom, a series entitled Fay (1975), which was canceled after only eight episodes.
Grant also guest starred on Empty Nest, in which Dinah Manoff was one of the lead actors.
Filmography
As actress
As director
| Year | Production | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | For the Use of the Hall | TV |
| 1976 | The Stronger | short subject |
| 1980 | Tell Me a Riddle | |
| 1981 | The Willmar 8 | documentary |
| 1984 | A Matter of Sex | TV |
| 1985 | What Sex Am I? | documentary |
| ABC Afterschool Special | Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale (TV episode) | |
| 1986 | Nobody's Child | TV - Won - DGA Award |
| Down and Out in America | documentary (also narrator) | |
| 1989 | Staying Together (film) | |
| No Place Like Home | TV | |
| 1994 | When Women Kill | documentary |
| Seasons of the Heart | TV | |
| Following Her Heart | TV | |
| Reunion | TV | |
| 1997 | Say It, Fight It, Cure It | TV |
| 1999 | Confronting the Crisis: Childcare in America | TV |
| 2000 | American Masters | Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light |
| The Loretta Claiborne Story | TV | |
| 2001 | The Gun Deadlock | TV |
| 2004 | Biography | Melanie Griffith |
| 2000–2004 | Intimate Portrait | 43 episodes |
| 2005 | ... A Father... A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | TV |
References
- ^ Lee Grant biography. Film Reference.com.
External links
- Lee Grant at IMDb
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- 1927 births
- Actors from New York City
- American film actors
- American film directors
- American Jews
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- American television directors
- Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
- Emmy Award winners
- American people of Russian-Jewish descent
- Female film directors
- Female television directors
- Hollywood blacklist
- Jewish actors
- Living people
- People from New York City