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 The Farm Sanctuary Gala, 22 January 2007 |
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| Born | September 6, 1944 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
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Swoosie Kurtz (born September 6, 1944) is an American actress. She began her career in theater during the 1970s and shortly thereafter began a career in television, garnering ten nominations and winning one Emmy Award. She has also appeared somewhat sporadically in films from the late 1970s up until today, including prominent roles in such films as Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Citizen Ruth (1996), and Liar Liar (1997) among others. Throughout her career she has remained active in theater, earning five Tony Award nominations and winning two over the last three decades. Since 2008, she has starred as Lily Charles in the ABC dramedy series Pushing Daisies.
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Biography
Early life
Kurtz was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the only child of author Margo (née Rogers) and Air Force Colonel Frank Kurtz, Jr., a much-decorated WWII American bomber pilot.12 She got her unique first name "Swoosie" (which rhymes with Lucy, rather than woozy) from her father. It is derived from the sole surviving example, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, of the B-17D Flying Fortress airplane, named "The Swoose" or simply "Swoose" - half swan, half goose - which her father piloted during World War II. As a military brat, Kurtz moved frequently. Kurtz attended the University of Southern California, where she majored in drama. She then attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Career
Kurtz's first television appearance was on To Tell the Truth at age eighteen, introducing her father and two impostors. Kurtz began her career in theater, making her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of Ah, Wilderness!. She first gained wide recognition in 1978 for two theatrical productions, Uncommon Women and Others, the breakthrough play by Wendy Wasserstein in which she appeared in a 1977 workshop at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and then Off-Broadway, and the musical A History of the American Film for which she won a Drama Desk Award. Kurtz was soon awarded Broadway's "triple crown" (the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards) for her portrayal of Gwen in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July. She won a second Tony for her performance as Bananas in a 1986 revival of The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare.
In 1978, she was part of the ensemble cast of Mary Tyler Moore's short lived variety series Mary, that also included David Letterman and Michael Keaton. In 1981, Kurtz began two seasons alongside Tony Randall in the sitcom Love, Sidney, in a role that earned her the first of her 10 Emmy Award nominations. In 1990, she won her first Emmy for a guest-starring role on Carol Burnett's comedy series Carol & Company.
From 1991 to 1996, Kurtz had her longest-running television role, starring as wealthy divorcee Alex Reed Halsey on the NBC drama Sisters, a role that earned her two more Emmy Award nominations.
In recent years, Kurtz has guest-starred on the hit shows ER and Lost, and has also had recurring roles as Valerie on the drama That's Life, as Judy's mother Helen on the sitcom Still Standing and as Madeleine Sullivan on the Showtime drama series Huff.
Although her main focus has been television, Kurtz has starred in several major Hollywood films including Dangerous Liaisons, its 1999 remake Cruel Intentions, the acclaimed indie Citizen Ruth, and perhaps most notably, alongside Jim Carrey in 1997's Liar Liar.
She currently stars in the current ABC television series, Pushing Daisies as Lily Charles.
She has never married or had children.
Filmography
- As the World Turns (Unknown episodes, 1971)
- Ah, Wilderness! (1976)
- Kojak (1 episode, 1976)
- Slap Shot (1977)
- First Love (1977)
- Mary (Unknown episodes, 1978)
- Oliver's Story (1978)
- Walking Through the Fire (1979)
- Uncommon Women and Others (1979)
- Marriage Is Alive and Well (1980)
- The Mating Season (1980)
- Fifth of July (1982)
- The World According to Garp (1982)
- Love, Sidney (1 episode, 1983)
- A Caribbean Mystery (1983)
- Against All Odds (1984)
- Guilty Conscience (1985)
- A Time to Live (1985)
- Wildcats (1986)
- True Stories (1986)
- The House of Blue Leaves (1987)
- Trying Times (1 episode, 1987)
- Baja Oklahoma (1988)
- Vice Versa (1988)
- Bright Lights, Big City (1988)
- Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
- Carol & Company (1 episode, 1990)
- The Image (1990)
- Stanley and Iris (1990)
- A Shock to the System (1990)
- Walking the Dog (1991)
- Terror on Track 9 (1991)
- The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993)
- And the Band Played On (1993)
- Reality Bites (1994)
- One Christmas aka Truman Capote's One Christmas (1994)
- Storybook (1995)
- Betrayed: A Story of Three Women (1995)
- The Magic Schoolbus (1 episode, 1995)
- Citizen Ruth (1996)
- A Promise to Carolyn (1996)
- Sisters (1991) (106 episodes, 1991-1996)
- Party Girl (3 episodes, 1996)
- Little Girls in Pretty Boxes (1997)
- Liar Liar (1997)
- Suddenly Susan (3 episodes, 1996-1997)
- Touched by an Angel (1 episode, 1997)
- My Own Country (1998)
- Harvey (1998)
- ER (1 episode, 1998)
- More Tales of the City (1998)
- Outside Ozona (1998)
- Cruel Intentions (1999)
- Love & Money (1999)
- The White River Kid (1999)
- Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes (2000)
- The Outer Limits (1 episode, 2000)
- Get Over It (2001)
- The Fighting Fitzgeralds (1 episode, 2001)
- Bubble Boy (2001)
- The Wilde Girls (2001)
- That's Life (4 episodes, 2000-2001)
- Street Time (1 episode, 2002)
- The Rules of Attraction (2002)
- Duplex (2003)
- True (2005)
- Lost (1 episode, 2005)
- Nadine in Date Land (2005)
- Still Standing (2 episodes, 2005)
- Category 7: The End of the World (2005)
- Huff (8 episodes, 2004-2006)
- American Dad! (1 episode, 2006)
- Pushing Daisies (6 episodes, 2007)
- Superman: Doomsday (2007)
- Living Proof (2008)
- An Englishman in New York (2009)
References
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Swoosie Kurtz |
- Swoosie Kurtz at the Internet Broadway Database
- Swoosie Kurtz at the Internet Movie Database
- Swoosie Kurtz - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org, October 2006
- Leading Ladies Working in the Theatre video from American Theatre Wing, December 2006
- Performance Working in the Theatre video from American Theatre Wing, September 2003
- Performance Working in the Theatre video from American Theatre Wing, April 1999
- Performance Working in the Theatre video from American Theatre Wing, September 1986
- TonyAwards.com Interview with Swoosie Kurtz
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| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by Dorothy Loudon for Annie |
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical 1977-1978 for A History of the American Film |
Succeeded by Merle Louise for Sweeney Todd |
| Preceded by Lois de Banzie for Morning's at Seven |
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play 1980-1981 for Fifth of July |
Succeeded by Amanda Plummer for Agnes of God |
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 16 December 2008, at 07:14.
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