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Lee Grant ACTOR
PHOTOS
LEE GRANT BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Lee Grant is an American stage, television, and film actress, who has also done film directing. She was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal on October 31, 1927 in New York City. As the daughter of an actress and model, she made her stage debut at the age of four at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. By the time she had turned eleven, Grant was a member of the American Ballet Theatre. Upon graduating high school, she was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied alongside actor Sanford Meisner.
She soon established herself as a dramatic actress both off and on Broadway, earning special attention for her role as a shoplifter in the play "Detective Story". Grant caught the attention of Hollywood for this part, who cast her in the film version of the show, "Detective Story" (1951), two years later. She did an outstanding job for her first onscreen acting experience, even garnering the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
Sadly, the actress' promising film career was abruptly halted when the House Committee of Un-American Activities tried to force her to testify against her already blacklisted playwright husband, Arnold Manoff. Grant refused to do so, causing herself to also play victim to blacklisting. Until the 1960's she appeared only sporadically on screen, mainly in television, with additional acting roles onstage.
She revived her acting career in 1965 as Stella Chernack on the primetime soap "Peyton Place" (1965-66). For her involvement in the television series, Grant received an Emmy Award. By 1971 she had a second statuette, awarded for her part as a runaway wife and mother in NBC's TV movie "The Neon Ceiling" (1971). The same year, she was also given her second Academy Award nod for Hal Ashby's comedic debut "The Landlord" (1970). Only a few years later did she finally win an Oscar, for her supporting role in Hal Asby's romantic drama "Shampoo" (1975). A single year later she acquired yet another Academy Award nomination, for her part as a Jewish refugee in the war drama "Voyage of the Damned" (1976).
From 1980 on, Grant focused primarily on her directorial career, which she started in 1973 with the made-for-TV movie "The Shape of Things". After studying at the American Film Institute, she created the short "The Stronger" (1976). In 1980 she made her feature debut with "Tell Me a Riddle", a touching story about an elderly couple taking their last journey together.
In 1981 she directed her first documentary, "The Willmar 8", about strikes by female bank employees. Grant's second documentary, "When Women Kill" (1984), was followed by the television drama "A Matter of Sex" (1984), and third documentary about transexuals and tranvestites, "What Sex Am I?" (1985). In 1987 she earned an Academy Award for her HBO documentary "Down and Out in America" (1986), as well as a Directors Guild of America Award for Oustanding Directorial Achievements in Dramatic Specials for her CBS-made film "Nobody's Child" (1986).
In 1992 she directed a segment called "Women on Trial" for HBO's series "America Undercover" (1992), which followed her pattern of social-issues-documentary making. On top of numerous other directorial feats, she directed forty four episodes of Lifetime's show about accomplished women, "Inimate Portrait" (1999-2004). Most recently she has made a television biography titled "... A Father... A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2005).
As far as Lee Grant's acting credits go, beginning in the eighties her onscreen roles came in various qualities. Her sitcom "Fay" (1975-76) ended after only ten episodes, while her portrayals of First Lady Grace Coolidge in NBC's mini-series "Backstage at the White House" (1979), a mother in CBS' "Will There Really Be a Morning" (1983), and Dora Cohn in HBO' s movie "Citizen Cohn" (1992) were excellent. On the big screen she found parts in various pictures like the comedy "Teachers" (1984), thriller "The Big Town" (1987), AIDS centered story "It's My Party" (1996), dream and reality twister "Mulholland Dr." (2001), and her most recent, romantic comedy "Going Shopping" (2005).
For the actress' outstanding achievements, she has earned two special awards: a Crystal Award from ther Women in Film Crystal Awards and a Distinguished Acievement Award from Hamptons International Film Festival.
Filmography
2006 Baghdad ER
2005 Going Shopping
2005 ... A Father... A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
2004 Biography
2001 The Gun Deadlock
2001 Mulholland Dr.
2000 The Amati Girls
2000 Dr T and the Women
2000 Poor Liza
2000 American Masters
2000 The Loretta Claiborne Story
1999 Confronting the Crisis: Childcare in America
1999 Intimate Portrait
1997 Say It, Fight It, Cure It
1996 The Substance of Fire
1996 It's My Party
1995 American Masters
1994 Under Heat
1994 Reunion
1994 Following Her Heart
1994 Seasons of the Heart
1992 America Undercover
1992 Citizen Cohn
1992 In My Daughter's Name
1992 Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story
1992 Empty Nest
1991 Defending Your Life
1990 She Said No
1989 No Place Like Home
1989 Staying Together
1989 The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro
1987 The Big Town
1986 Nobody's Child
1986 Down and Out in America
1985 ABC Afterschool Specials
1985 What Sex Am I?
1985 Mussolini: The Untold Story
1984 A Matter of Sex
1984 When Women Kill
1984 Teachers
1984 One Day at a Time
1984 Billions for Boris
1983 Will There Really Be a Morning?
1982 Bare Essence
1982 Visiting Hours
1982 Thou Shalt Not Kill
1981 For Ladies Only
1981 The Million Dollar Face
1981 Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
1981 The Willmar 8
1980 Tell Me a Riddle
1980 Little Miss Marker
1979 You Can't Go Home Again
1979 Backstairs at the White House
1979 When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?
1978 The Mafu Cage
1978 The Swarm
1978 Damien: Omen II
1977 Airport '77
1977 The Spell
1976 Voyage of the Damned
1976 Perilous Voyage
1976 The Stronger
1975 For the Use of the Hall
1975 Fay
1975 Shampoo
1975 Great Performances
1974 The Internecine Project
1973 What Are Best Friends For?
1973 The Shape of Things
1973 Partners in Crime
1972 Lieutenant Schuster's Wife
1972 Portnoy's Complaint
1971 Plaza Suite
1971 Men at Law
1971 Robert Young and the Family
1971 Columbo
1971 The Neon Ceiling
1970 Night Slaves
1970 The Name of the Game
1970 There Was a Crooked Man...
1970 The Landlord
1970 The Mod Squad
1970 Bracken's World
1969 Medical Center
1969 Marooned
1969 The Big Bounce
1968 Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
1968 Mission: Impossible
1968 Judd for the Defense
1967 Valley of the Dolls
1967 Ironside
1967 In the Heat of the Night
1967 Divorce American Style
1967 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1967 The Big Valley
1966 ABC Stage 67
1965 Peyton Place
1965 For the People
1964 Slattery's People
1964 Ben Casey
1964 The Fugitive
1964 Festival
1964 Terror in the City
1963 An Affair of the Skin
1963 The Balcony
1963 The Doctors and the Nurses
1963 The Defenders
1962 Golden Showcase
1961 Great Ghost Tales
1959 Play of the Week
1959 The World of Sholom Aleichem
1959 Brenner
1959 Middle of the Night
1958 Where Is Thy Brother?
1958 Kraft Theatre
1956 Playwrights '56
1956 The Alcoa Hour
1955 Storm Fear
1955 Ponds Theater
1955 The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse
1953 Search for Tomorrow
1953 The Plymouth Playhouse
1952 Studio One in Hollywood
1951 Detective Story
1950 Actor's Studio
1950 Danger
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