[16], Moonstruck (1987) was directed by Norman Jewison who predicted Dukakis would receive honors for the role. "My ambition wasn't to win the Oscar," the veteran stage and screen actor said. All Rights Reserved. When Rose learns that Loretta has gotten herself engaged to a middle-aged mediocrity shes not in love with, she offers the following advice: Good. November 30, 1962 - January 30, 2018 (his death, 3 children), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). [12], With her husband, Louis Zorich, and with other acting couples, she co-founded the Whole Theater Company. Among the actors performing with Dukakis and her husband were Jos Ferrer, Colleen Dewhurst, Blythe Danner, and Samuel L. She later returned to her alma mater and entered the graduate program in performing arts, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree.Olympia found early success by distinguishing herself first on stage performing in summer stock and with several repertory and Shakespearean companies throughout the county. Karen Valentine - Room 222. I rapped on the door and heard her signature alto voice bellow, Its open! Tentatively crossing the threshold, I made my way down a narrow hallway. Biography. Movie (and TV) fans then discovered what East coast theater-going audiences had uncovered decades before -- Olympia Dukakis was an acting treasure. [37], In 1962, Dukakis married fellow Manhattan stage actor Louis Zorich. Olympia Dukakis Birth Place: Lowell, Massachusetts, United States Profession Actor Actor 95 Credits Forgive Me 2021 Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City 2019 Sex & Violence 2017 Sex and Violence. Updated We miss your fighting spirit. His work has screened at numerous film festivals including Venice, Cannes, Sundance, and Berlin. Susan Dey - The Partridge Family. Beloved screen and stage actress Olympia Dukakis died May 1 at the age of 89. Shirley MacLaine, left, with Olympia Dukakis in Steel Magnolias, 1989. Sid Ganis co-founded OUT OF THE BLUE ENTERTAINMENT with partner (and wife) Nancy Hult Ganis, in 1996 following a distinguished career as an executive at major studios including Sony Pictures, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Columbia Pictures. A native of Massachusetts and the daughter of Greek immigrants, Dukakis was the first cousin of former state Gov. She was a founder member of the Charles Playhouse, Boston, where she worked from 1957 to 1960, and taught acting at New York University and at Yale. Transitioning to a professional life centered in New York City, she performed many times in productions in Central Park at the renowned Delacorte Theater. Olympia Dukakis, the dry-witted stage and screen actress who toiled under the radar for nearly 30 years before becoming a household name with her scene-stealing turn as the indomitable matriarch . Twenty-two years after earning her first Obie, she won her second in 1985, a Ensemble Performance Award, for playing Soot Hudlocke in The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Currently, she has two feature films in the development stage with White Night Films. Her husband,Louis Zorich, was also an actor, best known for his part in the sitcom "Mad About You." [32] The following year, Dukakis reprised the role of Anna Madrigal, which she had first played in 1993, in a Netflix update of Armistead Maupin's Tales of The City. [9][3], Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Female Performer Motion Picture or TV, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress, National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress, American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film, Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Seattle International Film Festival Award for Best Actress, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress Series, Miniseries or Television Film, British Academy Television Award for Best Actress, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Satellite Award for Best Actress Miniseries or Television Film, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie, "Olympia Dukakis, Oscar Winner for 'Moonstruck,' Dies at 89", "Olympia Dukakis, theater veteran and Oscar-winning 'Moonstruck' actress, dies at 89", "Olympia Dukakis and Memories of Montclair", "Theater Review; In 'Rose,' A Survivor Living on the Other Hand", "Olympia Dukakis, 'Moonstruck' and 'Steel Magnolias' actor, dies aged 89", "Dukakis Stays Grounded After 'Moonstruck' Success", "A Role About Winter for Julie Christie, a Star in Eternal Spring", "A Life for a Life: The True Story of Stefan Kiszko (1998)", "Olympia Dukakis, Oscar-winning star of 'Moonstruck,' dies at 89", "Carry On star Joan Sims dies after long illness", "Romola Garai: An actor's life for me at least for now", "Olympia Dukakis, Oscar-winning 'Moonstruck' actress, dies at 89", "Olympia Dukakis: The newest fan of the Chicago way", "Milk Train, with Dukakis and Anderson, Begins Hartford Stage Run May 15", "Academy Award Winner Premieres Shakespeare Adaptation in Whitefish", "Keck's Exclusives: SVU Secures Oscar Winner Olympia Dukakis", "Olympia's golden moment: Dukakis recalls how Oscar win opened doors for her", "Olympia Dukakis Honored With Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame", "Eleftheromania: A Film that Gives a Voice to Those Who Were Silenced", "How Armistead Maupin's 'Tales of the City' Evolves in Netflix Return", "How Tales of the City Avoided a Trans Casting Controversy", "Oscar Winner, and BU Alum, Olympia Dukakis Dies at 89", "Oscar-winning actress and N.J. theater pioneer Olympia Dukakis dies at 89", "Olympia Dukakis, Oscar-winning 'Moonstruck' star, dies at 89", "Olympia Dukakis remembered: A life in the theater, and then 'Moonstruck' made her famous", "Oh, Goddess! The course of her career suggests that her ambitions never lay in the direction of Hollywood. And we miss your gracious heart. As if by reflex, she clenched her hands into two fists and placed them on top of her thighs. A member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA, a true artist at heart, her love for performing on-screen ismatched by her passion for theatre work. The Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis has died at the age of 89, according to the Hollywood Reporter. They had four grandchildren. She leaned across the table, looked me dead in the eye and said, Loretta, do you love him? I squeaked out the prescribed response, Ma, I love him awful. She gently shook her head and said, Aw God, thats too bad. And with that she smiled, grabbed my hand and gave it a quick squeeze, demurely signaling the end of our time together. Movie (and TV) fans then discovered what East coast theater-going audiences had uncovered decades before -- Olympia Dukakis was an acting treasure. Dukakis was married to actor Louis Zorich from 1962 until his death in 2018. [18] The role of a no-nonsense matriarch, Rose Castorini, plays off Cher's Best Actress Award-winning role as daughter Loretta. Thats a fitting reference, since Dukakis was of Greek heritage and, in a stage career that stretched back to 1961, appeared in classics from Electra to Titus Andronicus to Long Days Journey Into Night. Yet even when she was carving out her place in movies and TV, often cast as the Grande Dame Whos Smarter Than Anyone in the Room (its telling that she took on that role as far back as the 1969 Dustin Hoffman/Mia Farrow trifle John and Mary, when she was just 38), the Dukakis face, part cherub and part statue, made it seem that whatever reality she was confronting, she saw the absurdity of it, and the heartbreak as well. Olympia Dukakis, left, with Cher in Moonstruck. Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actress whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Cher's mother in the romantic comedy "Moonstruck," has died. Returning to Western Massachusetts in 2013 for her last stage performance, she played Mother Courage in Mother Courage and Her Children at Shakespeare & Company, in Lenox, Massachusetts. Ryan is based in New York City. Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 May 1, 2021) was an American actress. The Heartbreaking Death Of Olympia Dukakis. "After many months of failing health she is finally at peace and with her [husband] Louis [Zorich].". The Musical, an off-Broadway musical that had several runs and enjoyed sweet success. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. In 1999, she premiered a one-woman play "Rose," at the National Theatre in London and subsequently on Broadway in 2000. In Dad (1989), as a woman laid up with a heart attack watching her husband (Jack Lemmon) enjoying a certain freedom, she is wickedly funny, putting a tincture of venom into almost every line. After more than two decades of distinguished work in the US theatre as an actor, director and teacher, and appearances in a dozen or so films, Olympia Dukakis, who has died aged 89, became hugely famous overnight by winning the best supporting actress Oscar in 1988 for her performance as Chers mother in the romantic film Moonstruck (1987). A Warner Bros. 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"After many months of failing health she is finally at peace and with her [husband] Louis [Zorich]." Dukakis was married to actor Louis Zorich from 1962 until his death in 2018. With a career spanning thirty years, and 45recorded albumin the United States, Europeand Greece,Alexia changed Greek record sales history with her series of gold and platinum albums for CBS-Columbia, Air Music, Polygram, Universal Music, BMG, and Sony Music Internationalin the genres of Pop, Jazz, Improvisation/ Experimental, Worldand Film Music. [13], Dukakis' prolific stage directing credits include many of the classics: Orpheus Descending, The House of Bernarda Alba, Uncle Vanya, and A Touch of the Poet, as well as the more contemporary; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Kennedy's Children. She was 89. This work is among more than 40 other series, mini-series and guest starring roles she accumulated over her long career. Discovery Company. 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