Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actress whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Cher's mother in the romantic comedy 'Moonstruck,' has died. Olympia Dukakis, an Oscar-winning actress for her role in "Moonstruck," died Saturday in New York City. Honored in 2012 as one of Greek Americas 40 Under 40. "I love this chaotic, contradictory, loving mess that has been my life.". In a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Dukakis revealed that she enjoyed her new fame and the fans it earned her, and was particularly amused when they shouted her famous lines at her while she was out and about even when it was her "Moonstruck" quote, "Your life is going down the toilet. Her no-nonsense demeanor, her candor, her feistiness, her political bent, her sexual mores, and her strident disapproval of the sins of patriarchy, all took root during her formative years. Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 May 1, 2021) was an American actress. Stella, the butch lesbian of 2011s "Cloudburst," noted as much for its off-color script as for its tender love story. Facebook In the early 90s, Paul formed the eclectic band, Wild Colonials, with the singer, Angela McCluskey, recording two albums for Geffen Records and performing with such artists as Joe Cocker, The Kinks, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, George Clinton, Rickie Lee Jones, King Crimson and Ry Cooder. Alexia Vassiliou is an award-winning multi-gold and platinum multi-genre conceptual international artist, songwriter, composer, and social activist. This work is among more than 40 other series, mini-series and guest starring roles she accumulated over her long career. Playing a Holocaust survivor, sitting on a bench, she held an audience for nearly two hours. 2020 Ella Bean Productions. When Rose learns that Loretta has gotten herself engaged to a middle-aged mediocrity shes not in love with, she offers the following advice: Good. "Olympia married Yugoslav-American actor Louis Zorich in 1962. Louis died in 2018, and she is survived by their three children, Christina, Stefan and Peter, four grandchildren and her brother, Apollo. She performed in over 130 productions on and off-Broadway and regionally at theatres including the Public Theater, A.C.T., Shakespeare in the Park, Shakespeare & Co., and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she also served as Associate Director. When you love em, they drive you crazy. ", According to Deadline, Dukakis was the daughter of Greek immigrants, though the Los Angeles Times reports she described herself as the "poster child for the bad Greek daughter." The Heartbreaking Death Of Olympia Dukakis. He currently serves as Vice President on the Academys Board ofGovernors and as chair of the Academys Museum Committee. The lioness of Lowell. Your lifes going down the toilet!) into addled diva classics, but the reason the film won her the Oscar for supporting actress is that she cut right to the romantic paradox that Rose was the only one in the movie wise enough to see. She has been successful placing clients in the media such as, THE TALK (CBS), Home & Family (Hallmark Channel), KTLA 5 Morning News, Good Day LA, Daily Variety, Los Angeles Times, OC Register, LA Weekly, LA Magazine, amongst others. And thats what she continued to do. I just wanna hit something! [22] In 2000, she played alongside Ian Holm, Judi Dench, Joan Sims (her final acting performance before her death in 2001),[23] and Romola Garai (her first professional role)[24] in the television film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells. 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Richard Dreyfuss and Olympia Dukakisin Mr Holland's Opus. They had four grandchildren. Deeds, and the critically acclaimedAkeelah and the Bee, which he co-produced with his wife Nancy Hult Ganis. Anne Gardner Twitter Cognoscenti contributorAnneGardneris an Episcopal minister and author of "And So I Walked: Reflections on Chance, Choice, and the Camino de Santiago. Several recurring TV roles also came her way with Center of the Universe (2004), Bored to Death (2009), Sex & Violence (2013), Forgive Me (2013), Switch (2018) and one last return to her popular Anna Madrigal role with the series sequel Tales of the City (2019).The septuagenarian hardly slowed down and continued strongly into the millennium with top supporting film credits including The Intended (2002), The Event (2003), the title role in the mystery Charlie's War (2003), The Thing About My Folks (2005), Jesus, Mary and Joey (2005), Away from Her (2006), Day on Fire (2006), In the Land of Women (2007), The Last Keepers (2013), A Little Game (2014), 7 Chinese Brothers (2015), The Infiltrator (2016), Broken Links (2016) and Change in the Air (2018). Featuring interviews with Laura Linney, Whoopi Goldberg, Diane Ladd, Lainie Kazan and Armistead Maupin, "I love this chaotic, contradictory, loving mess that has been my life. The family has not disclosed an official cause of death. Michael Dukakis, who became the Democratic nominee for president in 1988, but ultimately lost to then-Vice President George H.W. She was also a figure on the lecture circuit covering topics as widespread as life in the theater to feminism, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and osteoporosis.A hardcore New Yorker, she resided there following the death of her husband in 2018, and until her death in May 2021. Updated Olympia Dukakis attends the premiere of "Tales Of The City" at The Metrograph in New York City on June 3, 2019. Academy Award-winning actress and theater icon Olympia Dukakis is well known and beloved to viewers across America for her performances on stage and in classic films like Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias. (Jeff Chiu/AP) It's been just. Paul Cantelon is an American composer of film scores and contemporary classical music. "[6], Dukakis was an alumna of Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts,[7] and was educated at Boston University where she majored in physical therapy, earning a BA, which she made use of when treating patients with polio during the height of the epidemic. In this June 26, 2011 file photo, Actress Olympia Dukakis, a celebrity Grand Marshall for the 41st annual Gay Pride parade, waves to the crowd in San Francisco. [25], In 2008, Dukakis directed the world premiere production of Todd Logan's "Botanic Garden" at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. From rebelling against her overbearing Greek mother to starting her own theatre company, Mavromichalis reveals both the public and private aspects of a woman who faced obstacle after obstacle as she learned how to be comfortable in her own skin and live life with blazing courage. 2023 Cable News Network. [38] Planning for a family, they moved out of the city in 1970 to settle in Montclair, New Jersey. Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 - May 1, 2021) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Greek immigrants. Anthoula Katsimatides is an actor, writer, producer, and voice-over artist. According to a Facebook. Gail Fisher - Mannix. And yet, this ethnic commonality did little to ease her entry into the social circles of the neighborhood. The news of the Oscar winner's passing was shared by her brother, Apollo Dukakis, on Facebook.. "My beloved sister . Somehow, I wasntsurprised. MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (AP) Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actress whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Cher's mother in the romantic comedy "Moonstruck," has died. Most recently alongsideOlympia,Sam editedParkland Risinganaward-winning documentary feature film about the Stoneman Douglas shootings which has been touring the festival circuit around the country. Best known as a screen actress, she started her career in theater. The course of her career suggests that her ambitions never lay in the direction of Hollywood. In films, she took on several character roles, making an impression in scores of pictures for more than half a century. Her Best Supporting Actress Oscar statuette was stolen from her home Her agent, Allison Levy, also confirmed her death to CNN. [39] It was there they raised their three children: Christina, Peter and Stefan. Her family home was located in The Acre, the largely Greek section of town. She was seen again at Shakespeare & Co. in the summer of 2013 as the title role in "Mother Courage and Her Children. [5] She contended with pressures within her patriarchal Greek family and around her, "in a neighborhood where ethnic discrimination, particularly against Greeks, was routine. Her brother Apollo Dukakis, her sons Stefan and Peter Zorich, and four grandchildren thank you for your love, prayers, and kind remembrances during this difficult time, the family said. Commercial clients have included McDonalds, Bombas, Skagen, American Express, and Storyhunter. 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. Television: Big Driver, Sex & Violence, Forgive Me, Bored to Death, Last of the Blond Bombshells, Sinatra (Golden Globe Nominee), Joan of Arc (Emmy Nominee), Tales of the City, More Tales of the City (Emmy Nominee), Further Tales of the City among more than 40 others. [20][21] In another genre entirely, she provided the voice of Grandpa's love interest for The Simpsons episode "The Old Man and the Key" (2002). Her brother, Apollo, confirmed the news in a Facebook post. [37], In 1962, Dukakis married fellow Manhattan stage actor Louis Zorich. A native of Massachusetts and the daughter of Greek immigrants, Dukakis was the first cousin of former state Gov. Get a first look at Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in 'The Crown' . kitchen in 1989. She was 89. Winning the Oscar led inevitably to more recognition, though not necessarily bigger parts. As Founder of INSPYRS PR she has a zest for attention to detail and encouraging others to "CREATE ~ SUSTAIN ~ INSPYRE". No, no, I stammered, not of your face. Among the best were the tight-lipped personnel officer in Working Girl (1988); the archetypal comic Jewish mother of Kirstie Alley in Look Whos Talking (1989) and its two sequels; and the acid-tongued Clairee Belcher, trading a salvo of one-liners with Shirley MacLaine in Steel Mangolias (1989): Well, you know what they say: if you dont have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me.. Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis passed away on Saturday, May 1 at the age of 89 in New York City. She performed in more than 130 stage productions, more than 60 films and in 50 television series. From 1989, she was publicly outspoken about this and produced improvised stage performances based on the movement's myths. MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (AP) Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actor whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Cher's mother in the romantic comedy "Moonstruck," has died.. Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck, 1987, in which she played Chers mother. Ryan is based in New York City. She was 89 years old. I-I don't think I can take this! Long a vital, respected thespian of the classic and contemporary stage, this grand lady did not become a household name and sought-after film actress until age 56 when she turned in a glorious, Oscar-winning performance as Cher 's sardonic mother in the romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987). Twenty-two years after earning her first Obie, she won her second in 1985, a Ensemble Performance Award, for playing Soot Hudlocke in The Marriage of Bette and Boo. She made her Broadway debut as an understudy in "The Aspern Papers" at age 30, followed by very short runs in the plays "Abraham Cochrane" (1964) and "Who's Who in Hell" (1974). After working professionally as a modern dancer and choreographer he went back to school and received his Masters in Film Directing from New York University. 2023 TV GUIDE, A FANDOM COMPANY. The first, for her to recite her most famous line from "Moonstruck." Olympia Dukakis, who died on May 1 at 89, had a face like no one elses. In 1963, Dukakis' early life Off-Broadway 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). Olympia Dukakis sneaks a cigarette in a rare moment alone in her apartment during the play "Vigil" at . Her television roles included the transgender landlady Anna Madrigal in the 1993 miniseries Tales of the City. She reprised the role in the sequels More Tales of the City in 1998 and Further Tales of the City in 2001, according to IMDB. One afternoon I was caught by a horde of kids, tied to a tree, and had my socks stuffed down my throat," she said. As Director of Photography,Ryan has shot three feature documentaries as well as numerous commercialsand branded content. Among the actors performing with Dukakis and her husband were Jos Ferrer, Colleen Dewhurst, Blythe Danner, and Samuel L. Dukakis again appeared in the miniseries, which was her last television role. But then, that's really the fate of many women today. In role after role, she spoke mom: imperious, testy, kind, haughty and, in the end, always looking out for you. [18] The role of a no-nonsense matriarch, Rose Castorini, plays off Cher's Best Actress Award-winning role as daughter Loretta. [43] For 10 years, beginning in 1985, she studied with Indian mentor Srimata Gayatri Devi in the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Another striking stage performance came in an off-Broadway production of Tennessee Williamss 1963 drama The Milk Train Doesnt Stop Here Anymore (2011), as the wealthy, dying gorgon Flora Goforth. She later returned to her alma mater and entered the graduate program in performing arts, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree.Olympia found early success by distinguishing herself first on stage performing in summer stock and with several repertory and Shakespearean companies throughout the county. Harrys directing and producing credits include Olympia; the award-winning, critically-acclaimed feature documentary on Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis and Yankee Restraint; a character driven piece that examines the intricacies of a gay relationship spanning decades and tackles issues of love and resentment. "After many months of failing health she is finally at peace and with her [husband] Louis [Zorich]" (viaLos Angeles Times). [9], Prior to her film career, Dukakis began a decades-long stage life working in 1961 in productions at the Williamstown Summer Theater, in the northwestern corner of Massachusetts. In 1999, she premiered a one-woman play "Rose," at the National Theatre in London and subsequently on Broadway in 2000. I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours with Olympia one lazy Saturday morning,more than a decade ago. Born in South Korea, she has worked as a director, producer, and editor for broadcast networks 'KBS', 'SBS', and 'M-net' since 2005. 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. Walter Mitty (2013) and 20th Century Fox in the films Epic (2013), Rio 2 (2014) and Ferdinand (2017). After the triumph of Moonstruck, she played a tart-tongued matriarch in Steel Magnolias (1989), the gossipy small-town weeper in which she kept dropping in to do what she did best: preside. She later developed and produced autobiographical solo shows, What Will People Think? & Warrior Without A Cause that have garnered many accolades and won awards off-Broadway. Macabre, hilarious and weirdly touching more or less sums up Ms Dukakiss performance, although a host of other adjectives might also be applied to her multihued portrait of a woman who has married and buried four husbands but cannot face the truth when the reaper comes to escort her from lifes banquet, reported a New York Times critic. "My ambition wasn't to win the Oscar," the veteran stage and screen actor said. Olympia Dukakis, Oscar Winner for 'Moonstruck,' Dies at 89 A veteran of the stage who also had a long list of film and TV credits, she was best known for playing characters who were worldly . Harry curated the first LGBTQ Film Festival and was one of the key organizers of the 1st Pride Parade in Cyprus. Since graduating from the New York Film Academy in 2011, she collaborated with numerous filmmakers in New York City for short films, web-series, documentary, and feature films. [12], With her husband, Louis Zorich, and with other acting couples, she co-founded the Whole Theater Company. Within a few steps, I found myself in her kitchen. A native Brazilian,Murielhas established her career in New York City working with a wide array of projects that range from indie documentaries to studio animated feature films. Although she had a stage career that spanned decades, Dukakis is best known for her portrayal of Rose Castorini, the nosy-but-sensitive Italian mother in the 1987 film Moonstruck, stealing many scenes from Cher, who played her daughter. The company's first play was Our Town, in 1973. November 30, 1962 - January 30, 2018 (his death, 3 children), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). 2. 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. Dukakis passed away at her New York City home. Later roles included Clairee Belcher in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias, in which she encourages a grieving MLynn Eatenton, portrayed by Sally Field, to slap Shirley MacLaines character, saying, Knock her lights out, MLynn!. But, in the end, it was her portrayal of Rose Castorini in "Moonstruck," the effort that won her the Oscar, that remains dearest to my heart. Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actress whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Cher's mother in the romantic comedy "Moonstruck," has died. Her husband,Louis Zorich, was also an actor, best known for his part in the sitcom "Mad About You." 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