Joan Allen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Joan Allen | |
 Allen at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival |
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| Born | August 20, 1956 Rochelle, Illinois, U.S. |
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| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Spouse(s) | Peter Friedman (1990–2002) |
Joan Allen (born August 20, 1956) is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.
She has received three Academy Award nominations; she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Nixon (1995) and The Crucible (1996), and for Best Actress for The Contender (2000).
Her other films include Face/Off (1998), Pleasantville (1998), The Notebook, The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).
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[edit] Early life
Allen, the youngest of four children, was born in Rochelle, Illinois, the daughter of Dorothea Marie (née Wirth), a homemaker, and James Jefferson Allen, a gas station owner.[1][2] She has an older brother, David, and two older sisters, Mary and Lynn.[3] Allen attended Rochelle Township High School, and was voted most likely to succeed. She transferred to Northern Illinois University in 1976, where she graduated with a BFA in Theatre Performance.
Allen began her performing career as a stage actress and on television before making her film debut in the movie, Compromising Positions (1985). She has been a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble since 1977.
[edit] Career
In 1989, Allen won a Tony Award for her Broadway debut performance in Burn This. She also starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Heidi Chronicles.
She received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her roles as Pat Nixon in Nixon (1995) and as Elizabeth Proctor, a woman accused of witchcraft, in The Crucible (1996). She was also nominated for Best Actress for her role in The Contender (2000), in which she played a politician who becomes the object of scandal.
She had starring roles in the drama The Ice Storm directed by Ang Lee and the action thriller Face/Off directed by John Woo, both released in 1997, as well as in the comedy Pleasantville (1998).
In 2001, Allen starred in the mini-series The Mists of Avalon on TNT. In 2005, she received many positive notices[citation needed] for her leading role in the comedy/drama The Upside of Anger, in which she played an alcoholic housewife.
She played CIA Department Director Pamela Landy in The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Allen appeared in a remake of the film Death Race, playing a prison warden.[4]
On November 6, 2008, TV Guide reported that Allen would star as Georgia O’Keeffe in Lifetime Television’s biopic chronicling the artist’s life.[5]
Allen returned to Broadway in March 2009 when she played the role of Katherine Keenan in Michael Jacobs' play Impressionism opposite Jeremy Irons at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.[6]
[edit] Personal life
In 1990, Allen married actor Peter Friedman. The couple separated in 2002, but live close to each other to share time with their daughter, Sadie, born in 1994.[7] She has a Boston Terrier named Pippie.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Theatre
[edit] Steppenwolf Theatre Company
- Burn This
- The Heidi Chronicles
- The Crucible and Nixon
- The Contender
- Three Sisters
- Waiting For The Parade
- Love Letters
- The Marriage of Bette and Boo
- (And a Nightingale Sang...)
- Nixon and Pleasantville
- The Upside of Anger
[edit] References
- ^ Kolson, Ann (19 March 1989). "Two Bright Lights On Broadway Pauline Collins And Joan Allen Took Roundabout Routes To The N.Y. Stage. Their Reviews Have Made The Journeys Worthwhile". The Philadelphia Inquirer. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB95F1C7612BC46&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved on 10 December 2007.
- ^ Weinraub, Bernard (27 December 1995). "Finding Warmth In a Shy First Lady". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E7DF1239F934A15751C1A963958260. Retrieved on 10 December 2007.
- ^ "Joan Allen". Yahoo! Movies. 2007. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800015438/bio. Retrieved on 10 August 2007.
- ^ Rickey, Joe (10 August 2007). "Joan Allen in 'Death Race'". World of KJ. http://worldofkj.com/news/news.php?tid=30674. Retrieved on 10 August 2007.
- ^ Lifetime to Paint Bio of Georgia O'Keeffe" TV Guide. November 6, 2008. Retrieved on November 7, 2008.
- ^ Sontag, Deborah (4 March 2009). "Enter the Anti-Diva, Stage Right". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/theater/08sont.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all. Retrieved on 14 March 2009.
- ^ Hegberg, Carol (11 April 2005). "With three new movies Rochelle native Joan Allen is making her mark". The Daily Chronicle. http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2005/04/13/neighbors/lifestyles/lifestyles01.txt. Retrieved on 10 August 2007.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joan Allen |
- Joan Allen at Steppenwolf Theatre Company
- Joan Allen at the Internet Movie Database
- Joan Allen at the Internet Broadway Database
- Joan Allen at Allmovie
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