Lee Grant | |
|---|---|
 Grant in 1967 | |
| Born | Lyova Haskell Rosenthal October 31, during the mid-1920s[a] (age98–100) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre Actors Studio |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1931–present |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2, includingDinah Manoff |
Lee Grant (bornLyova Haskell Rosenthal; October 31, during the mid-1920s)[a] is an American actress, documentarian, and director. In a career spanning over eight decades, she won anAcademy Award, twoPrimetime Emmy Awards, and aDirectors Guild of America Award, in addition to nominations for fiveGolden Globe Awards. She is one of the last surviving actors of theHollywood blacklist era.
Having begun her career as a child performing in stage ballet, Grant rose to prominence as an adult onBroadway, making her debut inDetective Story (1949) as the Shoplifter. She reprised the role in thefilm adaptation (1951), earning anAcademy Award nomination forBest Supporting Actress and winning theCannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Her career was interrupted when she was blacklisted for 12 years after refusing to testify before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee. During this period, she worked as an acting teacher and took minor television and theater roles under pseudonyms.
Grant returned to prominence with her role in the television seriesPeyton Place (1965–1966), winning thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Drama Series. She appeared in supporting roles inIn the Heat of the Night,Valley of the Dolls (both 1967), andThe Landlord (1970), receiving Academy Award nominations for the latter, as well asShampoo (1975) andVoyage of the Damned (1976), winning forShampoo.
Grant transitioned to directing in the 1980s, focusing on documentaries and television films. She won theDirectors Guild of America Award forNobody’s Child (1986) while her filmDown and Out in America (1986) tied for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature, making her the only Academy Award-winning actor to direct an Academy Award-winning documentary. She continued directing into the 2000s while occasionally making acting appearances.
Lee Grant was bornLyova Haskell Rosenthal[1][2] inManhattan, the only child of Witia (née Haskell), achild care worker, and Abraham W. Rosenthal, arealtor and educator. Her father was born in New York City, toPolish Jewish immigrants, and her mother was aRussian Jewish immigrant[3] who, along with her sister Fremo, left Odessa to escape thepogroms. The family resided at 148th Street andRiverside in theHamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.[4]
Her birthday is October 31, but the year is disputed, with all years ranging from 1925 to 1931 having been given as her year of birth at some point; however, census data, travel manifests, and testimony suggest that she was born in 1925 or 1926, while Grant's stated ages at the time of her professional debut and Oscar nomination indicate she was born in 1927.[a]
Grant made her stage debut inL'Oracolo at theMetropolitan Opera in 1931[5][6] and later joined theAmerican Ballet as an adolescent.[7] She attendedArt Students League of New York,Juilliard School of Music,The High School of Music & Art, andGeorge Washington High School, all in New York City. Grant graduated from high school and won a scholarship to theNeighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied underSanford Meisner. Grant undertook further study withUta Hagen at theHB Studio.[8] She later enrolled in theActors Studio in New York.
Grant had her first stage ballet performance in 1933 at theMetropolitan Opera House.[9] In 1938, in her early teens, she was made a member of the American Ballet underGeorge Balanchine.[9] As an actress, Grant had her professional stage debut as understudy inOklahoma! in 1944. In 1948, she had her Broadway acting debut inJoy to the World. Grant established herself as a dramaticmethod actress on and off Broadway, earning praise for her first major role as a shoplifter inDetective Story in 1949.[10]
She made her film debut two years later in the 1951 film version (Detective Story), starringKirk Douglas, receiving her firstAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination, and winning theBest Actress Award at theCannes Film Festival.[11] She said she enjoyed working under directorWilliam Wyler, who helped guide her.[12]
But as quickly as that dream unfolded, her life soon turned into a nightmare... So right when her career should have been blooming, she was banned from working in Hollywood. And that ban lasted for twelve years, a lifetime for an actor.
In 1951, she gave an impassioned eulogy at the memorial service for actorJ. Edward Bromberg, whose early death, she implied, was caused by the stress of being called before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Her name soon after appeared in the publicationRed Channels, and as a result, for the next twelve years, her "prime years" as she put it,[14] she wasblacklisted and her work in television and movies was limited.[15]
Kirk Douglas, who acted with her inDetective Story, recalled that directorEdward Dmytryk, a blacklistee, 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.[16]
Grant appeared in a number of plays, two feature films, and in a few small television roles during her blacklisted years. In 1953, she played Rose Peabody in the soap operaSearch for Tomorrow, had featured supporting roles in the film dramasStorm Fear in 1955, andMiddle of the Night in 1959. On stage, Grant starred in the Broadway production ofTwo for the Seesaw. In 1959, she succeededAnne Bancroft in the lead female role.[17] That same year, she had a supporting role in the romantic dramaMiddle of the Night.
By the time Grant's name was removed from the blacklist in the mid-1960s, she was the divorced mother of a daughter,Dinah. Grant began re-establishing 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.[18]: 250
Her experience with the blacklist scarred her to such an extent that as late as 2002, she would freeze and go into a "near trance" when anyone asked her about her experiences during the McCarthy period.[19]
Grant's first major achievement, after HUAC officially cleared her, was in the 1960s television seriesPeyton Place asStella Chernak,[20] for which she won anEmmy in 1966. In 1963, she won acclaim for her stage performance in the off-Broadway production ofJean Genet'sThe Maids. In 1967, she played the distraught widow of a murder victim in the Oscar-winningIn the Heat of the Night.[9][21] In 1968, Grant appeared in an episode ofMission Impossible, portraying the wife of a U.S. diplomat who goes undercover to discredit a rogue diplomat. In 1969, she had supporting roles in the crime dramaThe Big Bounce and science fiction dramaMarooned, but they were not successful.
Grant received three Academy Award nominations in the 1970s forThe Landlord (1970),Shampoo (1975), andVoyage of the Damned (1976). InPlaza Suite (1971), a successful comedy directed byArthur Hiller and written byNeil Simon; she played the harried mother of a bride, withWalter Matthau as the father.
In March 1971, Grant played the murderer in theColumbopilot episode "Ransom for a Dead Man", playing oppositePeter Falk'sLieutenant Columbo. For that role, she was nominated for anEmmy as Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie. That same year, she also received a second Emmy nomination in the same category ofOutstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the television filmThe Neon Ceiling, which she won.
Grant reunited with Peter Falk onBroadway in the original production ofThe Prisoner of Second Avenue, written byNeil Simon; the playwright said that his "first and only choice" for the part was Grant, who he said was equally at home with dramatists such asChekhov orSidney Kingsley, yet could also be "hilariously funny" when the script called for it, for she was able to portray essential honesty in her acting.[22]
Grant won anOscar for Best Supporting Actress playingWarren Beatty's older lover inShampoo (1975). The film was Columbia's biggest hit in the studio's 50-year history.[23]Shampoo was the second film in which Grant acted under directorHal Ashby. CriticPauline Kael, comparing her in both films, noted Grant "is such a cool-style comedienne that she's in danger of having people say that she's good, as usual."[24] During the filming, however, she did have some serious disagreements with Beatty, who was also the producer, and nearly quit. During one scene, she wanted to play it in a way she felt was more realistic from a woman's perspective, but Beatty disagreed. After thinking about the scene for a few days, she told director Ashby that she could not do it Beatty's 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.'"[25]
Despite the success of the film and her career, Grant was feeling less secure in Hollywood, as she was then 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.[18]: 213
During the 1975-76 television season, she starred in the sitcomFay, which, to her chagrin, was canceled after eight episodes. In 1977, she starred in the ensemble disaster movieAirport '77 and in 1978, she was the lead actress in the horror filmDamien - Omen II, also starringWilliam Holden. Both films drew negative reviews, though they were financially successful. She made a guest appearance inEmpty Nest, in which her daughterDinah Manoff co-starred.
In the late 1970s, Grant was asked by theAmerican Film Institute to participate in the firstAFI Directing Workshop for Women.[26] During the workshop, Grant successfully moved into directing when she adapted the playThe Stronger in 1976, written byAugust Strindberg.
In 1980, Grant directed her first feature film,Tell Me a Riddle, a story about an aging Jewish couple. That debut narrative film was followed by a widely distributed documentary film titledThe Willmar 8, which profiledeight female employees of a bank in Willmar, Minnesota who went on strike to protest pay inequities between male and female bank tellers. Grant went on to direct many documentaries on a variety of social issues: women in prison withWhen Women Kill (1983), transgender individuals withWhat Sex Am I? (1985), women experiencing domestic abuse withBattered (1989), and women trying to keep custody of their children in court inWomen on Trial (1992).
In 1986, Grant directedDown and Out in America (1986) which won theAcademy Award for Documentary Feature. The film was about farm workers losing their farms, homelessness, and unemployment in America. The same year, she directedNobody's Child, a television movie starringMarlo Thomas about a woman confined to a mental institution for 20 years. Grant became the first female director to win theDirectors Guild of America Award.[15]
She starred in anHBO remake ofPlaza Suite in 1982, co-starring withJerry Orbach, both playing three different characters in three acts. It was filmed before a live audience.[27][28] ActorBruce Dern, who acted with her inThe 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."[29]
In 1988, she was awarded theWomen 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.[30]
Admiring her directing and acting skill, actressSissy Spacek agreed to act in the romantic comedyHard Promises (1991) "only to work with Grant", although Grant was later replaced as its director.[31] In 1992, Grant played Dora Cohn, the mother ofRoy Cohn in the biographical made-for-TV filmCitizen Cohn, which garnered her another Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 1994, she directed the television filmSeasons of the Heart, starringCarol Burnett andGeorge Segal.
In 2001, Lee Grant portrayed Louise Bonner inDavid Lynch's critically acclaimedMulholland Drive. From 2004 to 2007,Carlin Glynn,Stephen Lang, and Grant served as co-artistic directors for theActors Studio.[32] In the early 2000s, Grant directed a series ofIntimate Portrait episodes for Lifetime Television, that celebrated a diverse range of accomplished women.
In 2013, Grant briefly returned to the stage, after a nearly forty-year absence, to star in one performance ofThe Gin Game, part of a benefit for improvement programs at the Island Music Guild, inBainbridge Island, Washington.[33] Grant played Fonsia Dorsey oppositeFrank Buxton as Weller Martin; her daughterDinah Manoff directed the production.[33]
After a fourteen-year hiatus, Lee Grant played a small part in the filmKillian & the Comeback Kids (2020), directed byTaylor A. Purdee.[34]
Grant's career making documentaries in the 1980s and 1990s was honored with an appearance on theAmerican Film Institute'sAFI Docs at its Guggenheim Symposium and with a program, "20th Century Woman: The Documentary Films of Lee Grant", onAFI Silver and othervirtual cinemas in mid-2020. This became the first virtual repertory film series in America.[35][36]
As of 2022, she is still the onlyAcademy Award-winning actor to also direct anAcademy Award-winningdocumentary.[37]
In January 2024, she attended theNew York Film Festival, where the first two films she directed were shown in the revivals program, and talked about her directing career in apanel hosted byTurner Classic Movies.[4]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Detective Story | Shoplifter | |
| 1953–1954 | Search for Tomorrow | Rose Peabody #1 | |
| 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 | Filmed in 1962, released 1964. Retitled "Terror in the City". |
| The Fugitive | Millie Hallop | Episode: "Taps for a Dead War" | |
| 1965–1966 | Peyton Place | Stella Chernak | 71 episodes (August 19, 1965 – March 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 | Rosemary Williams | Episode: "The Lady from Mesa" | |
| 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 | Leslie Williams | Episode: "Ransom for a Dead Man" |
| The Neon Ceiling | Carrie Miller | TV film | |
| The Last Generation | archive footage | ||
| Plaza Suite | Norma Hubley | ||
| 1972 | Portnoy's Complaint | Sophie Portnoy | |
| 1973 | The Shape of Things | Performer (and co-director) | |
| 1974 | The Internecine Project | Jean Robertson | |
| 1975 | Shampoo | Felicia Karpf | |
| 1975–1976 | Fay | Fay Stewart | Lead role — 10 episodes |
| 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 | Backstairs at the White House | Grace Coolidge | TV miniseries |
| 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 | |
| The Million Dollar Face | Evalyna | TV film | |
| For Ladies Only | Anne Holt | TV film | |
| 1982 | Thou Shalt Not Kill | Maxine Lochman | TV film |
| Visiting Hours | Deborah Ballin | ||
| Bare Essence | Ava Marshall | TV film | |
| 1984 | Billions for Boris | Sascha Harris | |
| Teachers | Dr. Donna Burke | ||
| 1985 | Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret | Herself | Documentary |
| 1987 | The Big Town | Ferguson Edwards | |
| 1990 | She Said No | D.A. Doris Cantore | TV film |
| 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 | ||
| 2020 | Killian & the Comeback Kids | Ms. Hunter(Voice) |
| Year | Production | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1973 | The Shape of Things | TV special |
| 1975 | For the Use of the Hall | TV film |
| 1976 | The Stronger | Short film |
| 1980 | Tell Me a Riddle | Feature film |
| 1981 | The Willmar 8 | Documentary film |
| 1983 | When Women Kill | Documentary film (also narrator) |
| 1984 | A Matter of Sex | TV film |
| 1985 | What Sex Am I? | Documentary film (also narrator) |
| ABC Afterschool Special | Episode: "Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale" | |
| 1986 | Nobody's Child | TV film |
| Down and Out in America | Documentary film (also narrator) | |
| 1989 | Battered | Documentary film (also narrator) |
| Staying Together | Feature film | |
| No Place Like Home | TV film | |
| 1992 | Women on Trial | Documentary film (also narrator) |
| 1994 | Seasons of the Heart | TV film |
| Following Her Heart | TV film | |
| Reunion | TV film | |
| 1997 | Say It, Fight It, Cure It | TV film |
| Broadway Brawler | unfinished film | |
| 1999 | Confronting the Crisis: Childcare in America | TV film |
| 2000 | American Masters | Episode: "Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light" |
| The Loretta Claiborne Story | TV film | |
| 2001 | The Gun Deadlock | TV film |
| 2004 | Biography | Episode: "Melanie Griffith" |
| 2000–2004 | Intimate Portrait | 43 episodes |
| 2005 | ... A Father... A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | TV film |
Lyova Rosenthal was born in the mid-1920s. The granddaughter of Polish and Russian immigrants is famously inexact about her age. From her mid-20s to her mid-30s, the blacklist left her unemployable in TV and film, so she lied about her years, whatever they were, to remain viable as an actress.
Lee Grant was born in New York City, New York, on October 31, 1931. (The date is so listed in Who's Who in America. Other sources give every year from 1926 through 1930.)
Grant: I was nominated and I was given the Best Actress Award in Cannes in 1952; Gottfried: So here you are and I think you were 24 at the time so this is like your career is exploding and then what happens then?
By that time I was twenty-four when I was nominated for an Academy Award and I won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress... for this little teeny part in 1952
| Preceded by Estelle Parsons Vacant (2003–2004) | Artistic Director of theActors Studio 2004–2007 With:Carlin Glynn Stephen Lang (2004–2006) | Succeeded by |
