Dana Ivey
Dana Ivey | |
|---|---|
| File:DanaIvey.JPG Dana Ivey |
Dana Ivey (born August 12, 1941) is an American actress, often typecast in roles as shrewish authority figures.
Biography
Early life
Ivey was born in Atlanta, Georgia to Hugh Daugherty Ivey, who taught at Georgia Tech and later worked at the Atomic Energy Commission, and Mary Nell McKoin, an actress who appeared in productions of Driving Miss Daisy and taught at Georgia State. Her parents later divorced. She has a younger brother, John, and a half-brother, Eric Santacroce, from her mother's re-marriage to Dante Santacroce.[1] Ivey has described her family upbringing as "very liberal"; her family was involved in Unitarianism.[2] She received her undergraduate degree at Rollins College (where she was a member of Phi Mu) in Winter Park, Florida and then received a Fulbright grant to study drama at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Career
Ivey appeared in numerous American and Canadian stage productions before making New York City her home in the late 1970s. She made her Broadway debut playing two small roles in a 1981 production of Macbeth; the following year she was cast in a major supporting role in a revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play. She was nominated for two Tony Awards in the same season (1984) - as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George and Best Featured Actress in a Play for a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House - a feat repeated by only two other actresses, Amanda Plummer and Kate Burton. Ivey's performances in Driving Miss Daisy (in the title role) and Quartermaine's Terms won her Obies, an annual award presented by the newspaper The Village Voice for off-Broadway productions.
Ivey's first major screen appearance was in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Alice Walker's The Color Purple in 1985. Her many film credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Postcards from the Edge, The Addams Family and its sequel, Addams Family Values, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Sleepless in Seattle, Two Weeks Notice, and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde.
In 1978, Ivey made her television debut in the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow. Her small screen credits include the 1982 miniseries Little Gloria... Happy at Last, and guest shots on Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, Frasier, Oz, The Practice, Sex and the City, and Monk.
Selected Broadway credits
- Butley (2006)
- Henry IV (2003)
- A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2003)
- Major Barbara (2001)
- The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997)
- Pack of Lies (1985)
Theatre awards and nominations
- 2005 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (The Rivals, nominee)
- 1997 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (The Last Night of Ballyhoo, nominee)
- 1997 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (The Last Night of Ballyhoo and Sex and Longing, winner)
- 1987 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play (Driving Miss Daisy, nominee)
- 1984 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Sunday in the Park with George, nominee)
- 1984 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (Heartbreak House, nominee)
- 1983 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Quartermaine's Terms, nominee)
- 1983 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Present Laughter, nominee)