Olympia Dukakis

Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 – May 1, 2021) was an American actress. She performed in more than 130 stage productions, in some 60 films, and in approximately 50 television series. Best known as a screen actress, she started her career in theater. Not long after her arrival in New York City, she won an Obie Award for Best Actress in 1963 for her off-Broadway performance in Bertolt Brecht's Man Equals Man.

She later moved to film acting and won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, among other accolades, for her performance in Moonstruck (1987). She received another Golden Globe nomination for Sinatra (1992) and Emmy Award nominations for Lucky Day (1991), More Tales of the City (1998) and Joan of Arc (1999). Dukakis's autobiography, Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress, was published in 2003.<ref name="Broadway World" /> In 2018, a feature-length documentary about her life, titled Olympia, was released theatrically in the United States.<ref name=OlympiaTheFilm>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life and education

Olympia Dukakis (Template:Langx) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on June 20, 1931, the daughter of Alexandra "Alec" (née Christou) and Constantine "Costas" S. Dukakis.<ref name=Gates/> Her parents were Greek immigrants; her father a refugee from Anatolia, and her mother an immigrant from the Peloponnese.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Broadway World">Template:Cite news</ref> She had a brother, Apollo, six years her junior. Her cousin was former Massachusetts governor and 1988 U.S. presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. As a girl, she was significantly involved in sports and was a three-time New England fencing champion.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> She contended with pressures within her patriarchal Greek family and around her, "in a neighborhood where ethnic discrimination, particularly against Greeks, was routine."<ref name=Wolff>Template:Cite book</ref>

Dukakis was an alumna of Arlington High School,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and was educated at Boston University where she majored in physical therapy, earning a BA, of which she made use when treating patients with polio during the height of the epidemic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She later returned to BU and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in performing arts.<ref name="Los Angeles Times" />

Career

Stage

Prior to appearing in films, Dukakis began a decades-long stage life. She started in productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

By 1963, she had begun her career on screen. Transitioning to a professional life centered in New York City, she performed many times in productions in Central Park at the renowned Delacorte Theater. 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1963, Dukakis's early Off-Broadway presence was rewarded with an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance, as Widow Leocadia Begbick in Man Equals Man (a.k.a., A Man's A Man).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She continued to perform there every few years, with her last appearance on that stage occurring in 2003, where she played multiple roles in The Chekov Cycle.

In 1973, along with her husband, Louis Zorich, and with other acting couples, she co-founded the Whole Theater Company. The company's first play was Our Town. With Dukakis as artistic director, the theater rolled out five productions per season for almost two decades. Across that span, productions included works by Euripides, Eugene O'Neill, Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and Lanford Wilson. Among the actors performing with Dukakis and her husband were José Ferrer, Colleen Dewhurst, Blythe Danner, and Samuel L. Jackson.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Dukakis's stage directing credits include many classics, such as Orpheus Descending, The House of Bernarda Alba, Uncle Vanya, and A Touch of the Poet, as well as more contemporary works, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Kennedy's Children.

She also adapted plays such as "Mother Courage" and The Trojan Women for her Montclair, New Jersey-situated theater company. Her Broadway theatre credits include Who's Who in Hell and Social Security. She appeared in Martin Sherman's one-woman play, Rose, entirely a monologue about a woman who survived the Warsaw Ghetto, in London and then on Broadway.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> For the role, she won the 2000 Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance. Twenty-two years after earning her first Obie, she won her second in 1985, an Ensemble Performance Award, for playing Soot Hudlocke in The Marriage of Bette and Boo.<ref name=Gates/>

Screen

File:Olympia Dukakis, Armistead Maupin (4226033636).jpg

Dukakis at the 1998 Emmy Awards

Dukakis' first appearance on screen was in avant-garde film creator Gregory J. Markopoulos' 1963 film Twice a Man, in which she plays the role of the protagonist's mother whom he meets as a young woman.<ref name=twice>Template:Cite news</ref>

Dukakis appeared in a number of films, including Steel Magnolias, Mr. Holland's Opus, Jane Austen's Mafia!, The Thing About My Folks and Moonstruck, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

She also played the role of Anna Madrigal in the Tales of the City television mini-series, which garnered her an Emmy Award nomination, and appeared on Search for Tomorrow as Dr. Barbara Moreno (1983), who romanced Stu Bergman. She appeared as Dolly Sinatra in the mini-series of Frank Sinatra's life (1992).<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

File:Norman Jewison and Friends with Moonstruck 9.jpg

Dukakis at Malaparte for Norman Jewison and Friends with Moonstruck, August 2011

Moonstruck (1987) was directed by Norman Jewison who predicted Dukakis would receive honors for the role.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She believed him after receiving the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In addition to her Oscar, she took the Golden Globe in the same category. The honors compounded as she collected the Los Angeles and New York Film Critics Awards, all in recognition of her talent, some acting improvised, as she delivered a serious while hilarious performance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her role of the no-nonsense matriarch, Rose Castorini, plays off Cher's Best Actress Award-winning role as daughter Loretta.

She was nominated for the Canadian Academy Award for The Event (2003) and in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, her roles included 3 Needles, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, In the Land of Women, and Away From Her, the 2006 film which cast her alongside Gordon Pinsent as the spouses of two Alzheimer's patients.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

She took on significant work on the small screen as well. In 1998, she starred as Charlotte Kiszko in the British TV drama A Life for a Life: The True Story of Stefan Kiszko (ITV), based on the actual story of a man wrongfully imprisoned for seventeen years for the murder of a child, Lesley Molseed, after police suppressed evidence of his innocence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In another genre entirely, she provided the voice of Grandpa's love interest for The Simpsons episode "The Old Man and the Key" (2002).<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 2000, she played alongside Ian Holm, Judi Dench, Joan Sims (her final acting performance before her death in 2001),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Romola Garai (her first professional role)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in the television film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.<ref name="NBC News" />

In 2008, Dukakis directed the world premiere production of Todd Logan's Botanic Garden at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The same year, she starred in the revival of Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, opposite Kevin Anderson at the Hartford Stage,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and co-adapted and starred in the world-premiere of Another Side of the Island, based on William Shakespeare's The Tempest, at Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, Montana.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2011, Dukakis guest-starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as attorney Debby Marsh.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2013, she starred in and executive-produced the 2013 film Montana Amazon, co-starring Haley Joel Osment.<ref name="Quad-City Times">Template:Cite news</ref> The same year, on May 24, she was honored with the 2,498th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.<ref name="Greek Reporter">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2018, Dukakis starred in Eleftheromania, which follows an Auschwitz survivor as she recites a true story about a group from the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=longo>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

File:Olympia Dukakis still at Pride Parade, from film Olympia by Harry Marvomichalis.jpg

Dukakis rides up Market Street as one of the Celebrity Grand Marshals in the LGBT Pride Parade in San Francisco on June 26, 2011, from the film, Olympia.

In 2018, Olympia, an American documentary film about her life and career, had its festival premiere at DOC NYC. The film, directed by Harry Mavromichalis, features Whoopi Goldberg, Laura Linney, Ed Asner, Lainie Kazan, Armistead Maupin, Austin Pendleton, Diane Ladd and Dukakis's cousin, Governor Michael Dukakis.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was released theatrically in the United States in July 2020.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Dukakis's final performance is as a judge in the 2021 film Not to Forget.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

File:The theatrical poster of the film, Olympia, directed by Harry Mavromichalis, documenting the career of Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis.jpg

The theatrical poster of the film Olympia, directed by Harry Mavromichalis, documenting Dukakis's career

In 1962, Dukakis married fellow Manhattan stage actor Louis Zorich.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Planning for a family, they moved out of the city in 1970 to settle in Montclair, New Jersey.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was there that they raised their three children: Christina, Peter, and Stefan. They had four grandchildren.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In her 2003 autobiography, Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress, Dukakis describes the challenges she faced as a second-generation Greek-American in an area with anti-Greek ethnic bigotry, violence, and discrimination; difficulties with her mother and in other relationships; and battles with substances and chronic illness.<ref name="Chicago Tribune">Template:Cite news</ref>

She led an off-screen and off-stage active life. She taught acting for fifteen years at NYU<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and gave master classes for professional theatre universities, colleges, and companies across the country.<ref name="Chicago Tribune" /> She received the National Arts Club Medal of Honor.<ref name="Greek Reporter"/>

Dukakis became an adherent of Goddess worship, a feminist form of modern Paganism, during a production of The Trojan Women in 1982. From 1989, she was publicly outspoken about this and produced improvised stage performances based on the movement's mythology.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> For ten years, beginning in 1985, she studied with Indian mentor Srimata Gayatri Devi in the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A strong advocate for women's rights and LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage, Dukakis embraced the roles of a trans landlady in Tales of the City,<ref name=longo/> and a butch lesbian in Cloudburst.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref> She was a figure on the lecture circuit discussing topics such as women living with chronic illness, life in the theater, the environment, and feminism. She has said,<ref name=Wolff/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

I recognize that the real pulse of life is transformation, yet I work in a world dominated by men and the things men value, where transformation is not the coinage. It's not even the language!

Death

After a period of ill health, Dukakis died under hospice care at her home in Manhattan on May 1, 2021, at the age of 89.<ref name="Los Angeles Times">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Gates>Template:Cite news</ref>

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
1964	Twice a Man	Young mother		<ref name="NBC News">Template:Cite news</ref>
	Lilith	Patient	Uncredited	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1969	Stiletto	Mrs. Amato		<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
	John and Mary	John's mother		<ref name="NBC News" />
1971	Made for Each Other	Mrs. Panimba		<ref name="NBC News" />
1973	Sisters	Louise Wilanski	Uncredited	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1974	Death Wish	Officer Gemetti	Listed in opening credits only	<ref name="NBC News"/>
	The Rehearsal			<ref name="NBC News"/>
1979	The Wanderers	Mrs. Capra		<ref name="NBC News"/>
	Rich Kids	Bea		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter">Template:Cite news</ref>
1980	The Idolmaker	Mrs. Vacarri		<ref name="NBC News" />
1982	National Lampoon Goes to the Movies	Helena Naxos	Segment: "Success Wanters"	<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
1985	Walls of Glass	Mary Flanagan		<ref name="Slash Film">Template:Cite news</ref>
1987	Moonstruck	Rose Castorini	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Female Performer – Motion Picture or TV Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated – New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress	<ref name="CNN">Template:Cite news</ref>
1988	Working Girl	Ruth		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
1989	Look Who's Talking	Rosie		<ref name="NBC News" />
	Steel Magnolias	Clairee Belcher	Nominated – American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture	<ref name="CNN" />
	Dad	Bette Tremont		<ref name="Los Angeles Times" />
1990	In the Spirit	Sue		<ref name="WaPo filmography">Template:Cite web</ref>
	Look Who's Talking Too	Rosie		<ref name="NBC News" />
1992	Over the Hill	Alma Harris		<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
1993	The Cemetery Club	Doris Silverman		<ref name="NBC News" />
	Digger	Bea		<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
	Look Who's Talking Now	Rosie		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
1994	Dead Badge	Dr. Doris Rice		<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
	[[Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult|Naked Gun Template:Frac: The Final Insult]]	Herself	Uncredited	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
	I Love Trouble	Jeannie		<ref name="Slash Film" />
1995	Jeffrey	Mrs. Marcangelo		<ref name="NBC News" />
	Mighty Aphrodite	Jocasta		<ref name="NBC News" />
	Mr. Holland's Opus	Principal Helen Jacobs		<ref name="NBC News" />
1996	Mother	Mrs. Jay		<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
	Jerusalem	Mrs. Gordon		<ref name="NBC News" />
	Milk & Money	Goneril Plogg		<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
1997	Balkan Island: The Last Story of the Century	Mother
	Picture Perfect	Rita Mosley		<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
1998	Mafia!	Sophia Cortino		<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
	Better Living	Nora		<ref name="Reuters">Template:Cite news</ref>
2000	Brooklyn Sonnet	Helen Manners		<ref name="Encyclopedia.com">Template:Cite web</ref>
2002	The Intended	Erina		<ref name="Irish News">Template:Cite news</ref>
2003	The Event	Lila	Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film Nominated – Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role	<ref name="Reuters" />
	Charlie's War	Charlie		<ref name="TMZ">Template:Cite news</ref>
2005	The Great New Wonderful	Judy Hillerman	Segment: "Judy's Story"	<ref name="NBC News" />
	The Thing About My Folks	Muriel Kleinman		<ref name="NBC News" />
	3 Needles	Hilde		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
	Whiskey School	Ellen Haywood		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
	Jesus, Mary and Joey	Sophia Vitello		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
2006	Away from Her	Marian		<ref name="NBC News" />
	Day on Fire	Dr. Mary Wade		<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
	Upside Out	Dr. Walker
2007	In the Land of Women	Phyllis		<ref name="NBC News" />
2011	Cloudburst	Stella	Nominated – Seattle International Film Festival Award for Best Actress	<ref name="NBC News" />
	Outliving Emily	Emily Hanratty	Short film	<ref name="Emily Tim">Template:Cite news</ref>
2013	Montana Amazon	Ira Dunderhead	Also executive producer	<ref name="Quad-City Times" />
	The Last Keepers	Rosmarie Carver		<ref name="Slash Film" />
	A Little Game	YaYa		<ref name="Slash Film" />
2015	7 Chinese Brothers	Grandma		<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
	Emily & Tim	Emily	Segment: "6" or "Attachment"	<ref name="Emily Tim" />
2016	The Infiltrator	Aunt Vicky		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
	Broken Links	Arlene		<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2018	Change in the Air	Margaret Lemke		<ref name="Slash Film" />
	Olympia	Herself	DOC NYC, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2021	Not to Forget	Judge	Final film role (released posthumously)	<ref name="Slash Film" />

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
1962	The Nurses	Ioana Chiriac	Episode: "Frieda"	<ref name="NBC News" />
	Dr. Kildare	Anna Nieves	Episode: "The Legacy"	<ref name="NBC News" />
1974	Nicky's World	Irene Kaminios	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1975	Great Performances	Pauline	Episode: "The Seagull"	<ref name="NBC News" />
1977	The Andros Targets	Marina Angelis	Episode: "The Beast of Athens"
1978	The Doctors	Mrs. Martin	NBC-TV
1980	FDR: The Final Years		Television film
	Breaking Away		Episode: "The Cutters"	<ref name="Movieweb">Template:Cite news</ref>
1982	American Playhouse	Mama Nicola	Episode: "King of America"	<ref name="Movieweb" />
	One of the Boys	Professor	Episode: "His Cheatin' Heart"	<ref name="Slash Film" />
	The Neighborhood	Mrs. St. Paul	Television film	<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
1983	Search for Tomorrow	Dr. Barbara Moreno	NBC-TV/Procter & Gamble Productions	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
1986	The Equalizer	Judge Paula G. Walsh	Episode: "Shades of Darkness"	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter" />
1991	Lucky Day	Katherine Campbell	Television film Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie	<ref name="NBC News" />
	The General Motors Playwrights Theater	Laura Cunningham	Episode: "The Last Act Is a Solo"	<ref name="Encyclopedia.com" />
	Fire in the Dark	Emily Miller	Television film	<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
1992	Sinatra	Dolly Sinatra	Television miniseries 4 episodes Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film	<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
1993	Tales of the City	Anna Madrigal	Television miniseries 6 episodes Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actress	<ref name="CNN" />
1995	Young at Heart	Rose Garaventi	Television film	<ref name="Encyclopedia.com" />
1996	Touched by an Angel	Clara	Episode: "A Joyful Noise"	<ref name="Slash Film" />
1997	Heaven Will Wait	Diana	Television film	2
	A Match Made in Heaven	Helen Rosner		<ref name="WaPo filmography" />
1998	Scattering Dad	Dotty
	The Pentagon Wars	Madam Chairwoman		<ref name="Slash Film" />
	More Tales of the City	Anna Madrigal	Television miniseries 6 episodes Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	<ref name="CNN" />
	A Life for a Life	Charlotte Kiszko	Television film	<ref name="Irish News" />
1999	Joan of Arc	Mother Babette	Television miniseries 3 episodes Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie	<ref name="NBC News" />
2000	The Last of the Blonde Bombshells	Dinah	Television film	<ref name="NBC News" />
2001	And Never Let Her Go	Marguerite Capano
	Ladies and the Champ	Sara Stevens		<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
	Further Tales of the City	Anna Madrigal	Television miniseries 3 episodes	<ref name="CNN" />
	My Beautiful Son	Esther Lipman	Television film	<ref name="Irish News" />
2002	Guilty Hearts	Amanda Patterson	Television film	<ref name="Encyclopedia.com" />
	The Simpsons	Zelda	Voice, episode: "The Old Man and the Key"	<ref name="NBC News" />
	Frasier	Caller #3	Episode: "Frasier Has Spokane"	<ref name="NBC News" />
2003	Mafia Doctor	Rose	Television film
	It's All Relative	Coleen O'Neil	Episode: "Thanks, But No Thanks"
2004	The Librarian: Quest for the Spear	Margie Carsen	Television film	<ref name="Johanson2006"/>
2004–2005	Center of the Universe	Marge Barnett	12 episodes	<ref name="NBC News" />
2006	Numbers	Charlotte Yates	Episode: "Hot Shot"	<ref name="NBC News" />
	The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines	Margie Carsen	Television film	<ref name="Johanson2006">Template:Cite news</ref>
2008	Worst Week	June	Episodes: "The Ring", "The Wedding"	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2010–2011	Bored to Death	Belinda	4 episodes	<ref name="NBC News" />
2011	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Debby Marsh	Episode: "Pop"	<ref name="NBC News" />
2013	The Christmas Spirit	Gwen Hollander	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
	Mike & Molly	Narrator on TV	Episode: "The Princess and the Troll"	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2013–2015	Sex & Violence	Alex Mandalakis	Television miniseries; she was executive producer; participated in 12 episodes	<ref name="TMZ"/>
	Forgive Me	Novalea	9 episodes	<ref name="Los Angeles Times" />
2014	F to 7th	Marie	Episode: "Down to Zero"	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
	Big Driver	Doreen	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2016	TripTank	Ma / Caller	Voice, 4 episodes	<ref name="TMZ" />
2019	Tales of the City	Anna Madrigal	Main cast	<ref name="CNN" />

External links

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