Lee Grant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Grant

Lee Grant is an American stage, film and television actress, and film director. From 1952 through 1964 she was blacklisted from radio, film, and most television work, but continued working sporadically in the theatre during this time.

She won the Best Actress Award at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival for her role as the shoplifter in the 1951 film version of Detective Story.[1] She won the 1964 Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for her performance as Solange in Jean Genet's The Maids. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Felicia Karpf in Shampoo (1975). She has been nominated for the Emmy Award seven times between 1966 through 1993, winning twice.

Contents [show] Early life[edit] Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal[2][3] in Manhattan, the only child of Witia (née Haskell), an actress and teacher, and Abraham W. Rosenthal, a realtor and educator. Her father was born in New York City, to Polish Jewish immigrants, and her mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant.[4] The family resided at 706 Riverside Drive in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.[5] Her date of birth is October 31 but the year has long been disputed, with different sourcing citing dates between 1925 and 1929.[6][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

She debuted in a show at the Metropolitan Opera, and later joined the American Ballet as an adolescent.[13] She attended Art Students League of New York, Juilliard School of Music, The High School of Music & Art, and George Washington High School, all in New York City. Grant graduated from high school at the age of fourteen, receiving a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, and studied under Sanford Meisner. She subsequently enrolled in Actors Studio in New York.

Career[edit] Grant had her first stage ballet performance in 1933 at the Metropolitan Opera House.[14] In 1938, in her early teens, she was made a member of the American Ballet, under George Balanchine.[14]

As an actress, Grant had her professional stage debut as understudy in Oklahoma in 1944, and in 1948 had her Broadway acting debut in Joy to the World. Grant established herself as a dramatic method actress on and off Broadway, earning praise for her role as a shoplifter in Detective Story, in 1949, with Ralph Bellamy. [15] She made her film debut two years later in the film version (Detective Story), starring Kirk Douglas, receiving her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination, and winning the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.[16] She was a regular on the CBS soap opera, Search for Tomorrow in the early 1950s.[1]

In 1951 she gave an impassioned eulogy at the memorial service for actor J. Edward Bromberg, whose early death, she implied, was caused by the stress of being called before House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). After her eulogy was published, she was summoned by the same committee to testify against her husband, playwright Arnold Manoff, but refused. As a result, for the next twelve years, her "prime years", as she put it,[17] she was blacklisted and unable to work in either television or movies.

Kirk Douglas, who acted with her in Detective Story, recalled that it was director Edward Dmytryk who had first named her husband at the HUAC:

Lee was only a kid, a beautiful young girl with extraordinary talent and a big future. You could see it. She was so good that she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her very first film role. But because Eddie Dmytryk named her husband, Lee Grant was blacklisted before her film career even had a chance to begin. Of course, she refused to testify about the man to whom she was married, and it took years before anyone would hire her for another picture.[18]

She appeared in a limited number of stage and television shows during these years. In 1953 she played Rose Peabody on the CBS daytime drama, Search for Tomorrow.[14] In the Broadway production of Two for the Seesaw in 1959, she played Gittle Mosca. And in 1963 she won acclaim for her stage performance in the Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Maids.[14]

Grant in 1961 By the time Grant's name was finally removed from the blacklist in the early 1960s, she had since been divorced, remarried, and now had a young daughter, Dinah. Grant immediately tried to reestablish her television and movie career. In her autobiography, she writes:

Dinah was my grail, my constant; nothing and no one could get between us. Dinah and my need to support her financially, morally, viscerally, and my rage at those who had taken twelve working, acting years from my life, were what motivated me.[19]:250

The scars and fears of the blacklist years remained imprinted on her memory and would stay there throughout her career. As late as 2002, she would freeze and go into a "near trance" when anyone asked her about her experiences during the McCarthy period.[20]

Grant's first major achievement, after House Committee on Un-American Activities officially cleared her, was in the 1960s television series Peyton Place, as Stella Chernak, for which she won an Emmy in 1966. In 1967, Grant appeared in an episode of Mission Impossible, portraying the wife of a U.S. diplomat who goes undercover to discredit a rogue diplomat. That same year she played the distraught widow of the murder victim in the Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night.[1]

She received subsequent Academy Award nominations for the dramas The Landlord (1970) and Voyage of the Damned (1976). Her acting range extended into comedy equally well, notably in several roles as an overbearing mother. In Plaza Suite (1971), a comedy directed by Arthur Hiller and written by Neil Simon, she played the harassed mother of a bride, with Walter Matthau as the father. The film was followed by another comedy role as the mother in Portnoy's Complaint (1972).[1] Also in 1971, she co-starred with Peter Falk in the second appearance of Columbo, a pilot film called Ransom of a Dead Man before the show became a hit TV series, and with Falk again on Broadway in Neil Simon's Prisoner of Second Avenue. Simon said that his "first and only choice" for the part was Grant, whom he said was equally at home with dramatists such as Chekhov or Sidney Kingsley, yet could also be "hilariously funny" when the script called for it, as she was able to portray essential honesty in her acting.[21]

Among her most notable roles was as Warren Beatty's older girlfriend in the comedy, Shampoo (1975), for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The film received mixed reviews but was Columbia's biggest hit in the studio's 50-year history.[22] After The Landlord (1970), it was the second film that Grant acted in under director Hal Ashby. Critic Pauline Kael, comparing her in both films, notes that Grant "is such a cool-style comedienne that she's in danger of having people say that she's good, as usual."[23] During the filming, however, she did have some serious disagreements with Beatty, who was also the producer, and she nearly quit. During one scene, she wanted to play it in a way she knew was more realistic from a woman's perspective, but Beatty disagreed. After thinking about the scene for a few days, she told director Hal Ashby she couldn't do it his way and was quitting. As she was walking out, Beatty stopped her and asked what was wrong. "I sat down and told him," she said. "He threw up his hands and said, 'Play it your way. What do I know? I'm a man.'"[24]

Despite the success of the film, Grant was feeling less secure in Hollywood as she was now around 50 years old. She writes:

I was becoming my own worst enemy as an actor, traumatized onstage and fixated on staying young so I could keep working in film. A woman of a certain age does not play in movies or TV; we're kicked to the side or out. And I was a woman of a certain age, terrified I'd be found out and unemployed again."[19]:213

Actor Bruce Dern, who played alongside her in The Big Town (1987), recalls working with her: "Lee Grant is a fabulous actress. Anytime she works it's a blessing you have her in your movie."[25]

Grant is the only Hollywood actress of her generation to successfully move into directing. She directed the stage play, The Stronger in 1976, written by August Strindberg. In 1980 she directed her first film, Tell Me a Riddle, a story about an aging Jewish couple. She also directed several documentary films, including Down and Out in America (1986) which won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. That same year she directed Nobody's Child, a TV movie starring Marlo Thomas about a woman confined to a mental institution for 20 years. For her direction, Grant became the first female director to win the Directors Guild of America Award.[citation needed]

Grant at the premiere of F.I.S.T. (April 1978) In recent years she directed a series of Intimate Portrait episodes for Lifetime Television, that celebrated a diverse range of accomplished women.[1] Admiring her directing and acting skill, actress Sissy Spacek agreed to act in Hard Promises "only to work with Grant", although Grant was later replaced as its director.[26]

In March 1971, Grant appeared in the Columbo episode "Ransom for a Dead Man"', and was nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie. Having been nominated for two performances in the same acting category, she received the award for her other Emmy-nominated performance in the television film, The Neon Ceiling. The only other nominee was Colleen Dewhurst; in Grant's acceptance speech, she wryly noted "I must thank Colleen Dewhurst since it takes two of me to equal one of her."[citation needed]

During the 1975-76 television season, she starred in the NBC sitcom Fay, which, to her chagrin, was canceled after eight episodes. She made a guest appearance on Empty Nest, in which her daughter Dinah Manoff co-starred. In 1988, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.[27]

In 1992, she played Dora Cohn, the mother of Roy Cohn, in the biographical made-for-TV film Citizen Cohn, which garnered her yet another Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 2001, Lee Grant portrayed Louise Bonner in David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mullholland Drive. From 2004-07, Carlin Glynn, Stephen Lang, and Grant served as co-artistic directors for the Actors Studio.[28]

In 2013, she returned to the stage, after a nearly 40-year-absence, to star in The Gin Game, part of a benefit for improvement programs at the Island Music Guild. Grant played Fonsia Dorsey opposite Frank Buxton as Weller Martin; her daughter Dinah Manoff directed the production.[29]

Filmography[edit] Actress[edit] Year Film Role Notes 1951 Detective Story Shoplifter 1953-1954 Search for Tomorrow Rose Peabody 1955 Storm Fear Edna Rogers 1959 Middle of the Night Marilyn 1963 The Balcony Carmen An Affair of the Skin Katherine McCleod 1964 Pie in the Sky Suzy The Fugitive Millie Hallop episode-"Taps for a Dead War" 1965 - 1966 Peyton Place Stella Chernak appeared in 71 episodes (8/19/1965–3/28/1966) 1967 Divorce American Style Dede Murphy In the Heat of the Night Mrs. Leslie Colbert Valley of the Dolls Miriam The Big Valley Rosie Williams 1968 Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell Fritzie Braddock Judd, for the Defense Kay Gould 1969 The Big Bounce Joanne Marooned Celia Pruett 1970 The Landlord Joyce Enders There Was a Crooked Man... Mrs. Bullard 1971 Columbo: Ransom for a Dead Man Leslie Williams The Neon Ceiling Carrie Miller The Last Generation archive footage Plaza Suite Norma Hubley 1972 Portnoy's Complaint Sophie Portnoy 1974 The Internecine Project Jean Robertson 1975 Shampoo Felicia Karpf Fay (TV series) Fay Stewart 1976 Voyage of the Damned Lillian Rosen 1977 Airport '77 Karen Wallace The Spell Marilyn Matchett 1978 Damien: Omen II Ann Thorn The Swarm Anne MacGregor The Mafu Cage Ellen 1979 When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? Clarisse Ethridge 1980 Little Miss Marker The Judge 1981 Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen Mrs. Lupowitz 1982 Visiting Hours Deborah Ballin 1984 Billions for Boris Sascha Harris Constance Mrs. Barr Teachers Dr. Donna Burke 1985 Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret Herself Documentary 1987 The Big Town Ferguson Edwards 1991 Defending Your Life Lena Foster 1992 Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story Carol Gertz TV film Earth and the American Dream Narrator Citizen Cohn Dora Marcus Cohn 1996 It's My Party Amalia Stark The Substance of Fire Cora Cahn Under Heat Jane 2000 Dr. T & the Women Dr. Harper The Amati Girls Aunt Spendora 2001 Mulholland Drive Louise Bonner 2005 The Needs of Kim Stanley Herself Going Shopping Winnie Director[edit] Year Production Notes 1975 For the Use of the Hall TV film 1976 The Stronger short subject 1980 Tell Me a Riddle 1981 The Willmar 8 Documentary 1984 A Matter of Sex TV film 1985 What Sex Am I? Documentary ABC Afterschool Special Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale (TV episode) 1986 Nobody's Child TV film - DGA Award Down and Out in America Documentary (also narrator) 1989 Staying Together No Place Like Home TV film 1994 When Women Kill Documentary Seasons of the Heart TV film Following Her Heart TV film Reunion TV film 1997 Say It, Fight It, Cure It TV film 1999 Confronting the Crisis: Childcare in America TV film 2000 American Masters Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light The Loretta Claiborne Story TV film 2001 The Gun Deadlock TV film 2004 Biography Melanie Griffith 2000–2004 Intimate Portrait 43 episodes 2005 ... A Father... A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood TV film References[edit] ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Lee Grant at the Internet Movie Database Jump up ^ Roberts, Jerry. Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors, Scarecrow Press, 1st edition (June 5, 2009), Amazon Digital Services, Inc; ASIN: B009W3C7E8 Jump up ^ Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia, Harper Perennial (1998) p. 552 ISBN 0-06-273492-x Jump up ^ Profile, forward.com; accessed September 9, 2014. Jump up ^ Lee Grant profile, FilmReference.com; accessed September 9, 2014. ^ Jump up to: a b The 1930 and 1940 U.S. censuses at Ancestry.com both indicate Grant was born in 1925. The 1930 census (Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Roll: 1577; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 1027; Image: 588.0; FHL microfilm: 2341312. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls) gives her age as 4 and 6/12 months in April 1930. The 1940 census (Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: T627_2671; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 31-1922. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls) gives her age as 14 in April 1940 (NOTE: a) the census always requests the age of the individual being enumerated as of his or her last birthday; b) the first name is misspelled, as "Lyniva" in 1930, and, again, as "Lyoua" in 1940.) Jump up ^ Personal details for Lee Grant Manoff, familysearch.org; accessed September 9, 2014. Jump up ^ Year of birth, familysearch.org; accessed September 9, 2014. Jump up ^ Bethanne Patrick (July 7, 2014). "Lee Grant on aging, relationships, and plastic surgery in her 20s". New York Post. Retrieved 2014. Jump up ^ Hellmann, Paul T. (2006). Historical Gazetteer of the United States. Routledge. p. 779. Retrieved 2014. Jump up ^ Vaughn, Robert (1972). Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 227. Retrieved 2014. Jump up ^ Also, this ship manifest from 1933 gives her year of birth as October 31, 1926 and her age as seven (7), but as the date of the manifest is July 5, her age should have been six (6) years old. Jump up ^ Gray, Spalding. Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue, Random House (2005) p. 154 ^ Jump up to: a b c d Turner Classic Movies Jump up ^ Lee Grant at the Internet Broadway Database Jump up ^ Best Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival) Jump up ^ "Lee Grant on life beyond the Hollywood blacklist", CBS "Sunday Morning", August 3, 2014. Jump up ^ Douglas, Kirk. I Am Spartacus: Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist, Open Road Media (2012) p. 26 ISBN 978-1453254806 ^ Jump up to: a b Grant, Lee. I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir, Penguin (2014) ISBN 978-0-399-16930-4 Jump up ^ Ross, Steven J. Hollywood Left and Right, Oxford Univ. Press (2011) p. 128, ISBN 978-0195181722 Jump up ^ Simon, Neil. Rewrites, Simon & Schuster (1996) p. 336) Jump up ^ Ford, Elizabeth. The Makeover in Movies: Before and After in Hollywood Films, 1941-2002, McFarland (2004) p. 198 Jump up ^ Kael, Pauline. The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael, Penguin e-books (2011) Jump up ^ Biskind, Peter. Star: The Life and Wild Times of Warren Beatty, Simon & Schuster (2010) e-book Jump up ^ Dern, Bruce. Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have: An Unrepentant Memoir, Wiley (2007) p. 231 Jump up ^ Jarboe, Jan. "Sissy Spacek's Long Walk Home", Texas Monthly, February 1991, p. 126. Jump up ^ Profile Women in Film website; accessed September 9, 2014. Jump up ^ Lipton, James. Inside Inside, Penguin Group (USA), October 18, 2007; ISBN 9781101211991, pg. 112 Jump up ^ Michael C. Moore (August 12, 2013). "Theater: High-powered cast deals this 'Gin Game'". Kitsap A&E. Retrieved September 9, 2014.