Blythe Danner

Blythe Danner is a prolific American actress who has appeared in numerous stage, screen, and film roles.

She was born Blythe Katherine Danner on February 3, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a bank executive. She has two brothers, opera singer Harry Danner and violin maker William Danner. She attended the private George School, in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and Bard College, from where she graduated in 1965. She holds three honorary doctorates of fine arts from Bard, Williams College, and Hobart.

Contents

1 Acting career 2 Personal life 3 Environmental activism 4 Filmology 5 Television appearances 6 Theater credits 7 External links

Acting career

Danner first appeared on stage with the Theater Company of Boston and the Trinity Square Playhouse of Boston, and first gained national attention at age 25 by winning the Theatre World Award for her performance in the Lincoln Center Rep's production of The Miser. She went on to win a Tony Award in 1970 for her Broadway debut in Butterflies Are Free, playing the role later portrayed by Goldie Hawn in the film adaptation. The same year she appeared in her first film role, in a television production of Dr. Cook's Garden. She also received Tony nominations in 1980 for the original Broadway production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, in 1988 for a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama A Streetcar Named Desire, and again in 2001 for a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. Danner was a close friend of actor Christopher Reeve and appeared with him in several plays.

Due to Danner's WASPy apearance and husky voice, she most frequently is cast as a middle class or upper class wife, or more lately, matriarch; although in 1986 in Brighton Beach Memoirs, she portrayed a middle-aged Jewish woman, and in 1982 in the TV movie Inside the Third Reich, she played the wife of Albert Speer. Her earliest starring film roles were opposite Alan Alda in To Kill a Clown (1972) and in the title role of Lovin' Molly (1974), directed by Sidney Lumet. She has appeared in two films based on the novels of Pat Conroy, The Great Santini (1979) and The Prince of Tides (1991), as well as two television movies adapted from books by Anne Tyler, Saint Maybe and Back When We Were Grownups, both for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Danner is more recently known for her role opposite Robert De Niro in the comedy hit Meet the Parents (2000) and its (2004) sequel, Meet the Fockers (with Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman), and for her work in 2004 in the cable TV series Huff. Since 2001, she has regularly guest starred on Will and Grace as Will's mother Marilyn. For twenty-five years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she also serves on the Board of Directors.

Personal life

She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and actor Jake Paltrow, and the widow of producer Bruce Paltrow. Danner first co-starred with her daughter in 1992 in the TV movie Cruel Doubt, then again in the 2003 film Sylvia, playing the mother of the title character, played by her daughter.

She is also the aunt of actresses Hillary Danner and Katherine Moennig, and sister-in-law (through brother Harry) of opera director Dorothy Danner.

Although she has worked frequently on TV and on stage, Danner put her film career on hold for a number of years to raise her children. She often said the proudest night of her life was when Gwyneth won an Oscar for best actress, and her mother was the first person she thanked.

Environmental activism

In addition to her acting work, Blythe Danner has been involved with environmental issues such as recycling and conservation for over 30 years, having seen firsthand the contrast between her rural youth and her later residence in Los Angeles and New York. She has been active with INFORM, is on the Board of Environmental Activists and the Board of Directors of the Environmental Media Association, and won the 2002 EMA Board of Directors Ongoing Commitment Award. She was instrumental in implementing curbside recycling in Santa Monica and in retaining the New York City recycling program despite threatened budget cuts in 1991, has driven an electric car since the first General Motors EV1 was available, and has installed solar panels at her house. In 2002 Danner, her husband Bruce Paltrow, and her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow worked together on a series of PSAs encouraging use of alternative energy sources and alternative fuel vehicles.

Filmology

• 1776 (1972)
• To Kill a Clown (1972)
• Lovin' Molly (1974)
• Hearts of the West (1975)
• Futureworld (1976)
• The Great Santini (1979)
• Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986)
• Another Woman (1988)
• Alice (1990)
• Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990)
• The Prince of Tides (1991)
• Husbands and Wives (1992)
• To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)
• The Myth of Fingerprints (1997)
• The X-Files (1998)
• The Love Letter (1999)
• Meet the Parents (2000)
• Meet the Fockers (2004)

Television appearances

• Dr. Cook's Garden (1970)
• Adam's Rib (1973)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Last of the Belles (1974)
• Inside the Third Reich (1982)
• Tattinger's (1988)
• Nick and Hillary (1989)
• Cruel Doubt (1992)
• Huff (2004)
• St. Elsewhere
• Will & Grace (in recurring role as Will's mother)
• The Seagull
• Candida
• A Call to Remember
• Saint Maybe
• We Were the Mulvaneys
• Back When We Were Grownups

Theater credits

• The Miser (1968)
• Butterflies Are Free (1970)
• Betrayal (1980)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1988)
• Follies (2001)
• Much Ado About Nothing

External links

• Danner's entry (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Danner,+Blythe) on Internet Movie Database
• Stage biography (http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/whoswho/biography/9756.html) from Playbill website
• 2003 article (http://www.ema-online.org/greenlight_2003_spring_in_focus.htm) from the Environmental Media Association
• Unabashedly Blythe (http://hometown.aol.com/dannerfan/index.html), a fan websitede:Blythe Danner