Judy Davis

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Judy Davis

Born April 23, 1955 (1955-04-23) (age 53)
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Spouse(s) Colin Friels (1984-present)

Judy Davis (born 23 April 1955) is an Australian Academy Award-nominated and three-time Emmy Award-winning actress.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

Davis was born in Perth and had a Catholic upbringing.[1] She was educated at Loreto Convent and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She has been married to actor and fellow NIDA graduate Colin Friels (who was also in the film High Tide with her) since 1984. They have two children, Jack and Charlotte.

[edit] Career

First coming to prominence for her role as Sybylla Melvyn in the coming-of-age saga My Brilliant Career (1979), for which she won BAFTA Awards for Best Actress and Best Newcomer, she also played the lead in such Australian New Wave classics as Winter of Our Dreams (1981) (as the waif-like heroin addict) and Heatwave (1982) (as the radical tenant organizer). Her first foray into international film came in 1981 when she played the younger version of Ingrid Bergman's Golda Meir in the television docudrama A Woman Called Golda. In 1984 she was cast as Adela Quested in David Lean's final film A Passage to India, an adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel of the same name. Although she and Lean reportedly butted heads during the film's production, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. She returned to Australian cinema for her next two films, Kangaroo, in which she displayed a fine affinity for accents as a German-born writer's wife, and High Tide, in which she gave what some critics believe is her finest performance as a foot-loose mother who attempts to reunite with her teenage daughter who is being raised by the paternal grandmother. She earned Australian Film Institute Awards for both roles, and a National Society of Film Critics award for High Tide's brief American theatrical run. In 1990 she played a brief cameo in Woody Allen's Alice. A busy 1991 featured acclaimed supporting roles as an ill-fated Southern ghostwriter in Joel Coen's Barton Fink, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and in David Cronenberg's well-received adaptation of the hallucinogenic novel Naked Lunch. She won an Independent Spirit Award for her lively work as mannish authoress George Sand in Impromptu and returned to E.M. Forster territory in Where Angels Fear to Tread. Finally, she earned additional awards and recognition for her performance as real-life World War II heroine Mary Lindell in the CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation One Against the Wind. In 1992 she played a major role in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives as one half of a divorcing couple. For this performance she earned an array of critics' awards as well as an Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress.

Later memorable Davis roles include the mysterious, schizophrenic mother of a teenager in boarding school in the well-made but little-seen On My Own (1993), the lifelong Australian Communist Party member reacting to the downfall of the Soviet Union in Children of the Revolution (1996), two more Allen films, Deconstructing Harry (1997) and Celebrity (1998), a high-strung White House Chief of Staff in Absolute Power (1997), a touching performance as a supportive mother in Swimming Upstream (2003) and colorful supporting roles in two 2006 films, The Break-Up and Marie-Antoinette.

Much of her recent work has been on television, where she has scooped up an impressive collection of Emmy Award nominations. She won her first Emmy for portraying the woman who gently coaxes rigid militarywoman Glenn Close out of the closet in Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story and she picked up subsequent nominations for her repressed Australian outback mother in The Echo of Thunder (1998), her portrayal of Lillian Hellman in Dash and Lilly (1999), her frigid society matron in A Cooler Climate (1999) and her interpretation of Nancy Reagan in the controversial biopic The Reagans (2003). She earned a second Emmy, among many other awards, for her portrayal of Judy Garland in the 2001 television biopic Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. In July 2006, she received her ninth Emmy nomination for her performance in the TV film A Little Thing Called Murder. Her tenth nomination came in 2007 for The Starter Wife, Davis went on to win the Emmy, but was not present. In August 2007 she appeared opposite Sam Waterston in an episode of ABC's anthology series Masters of Science Fiction, directed by Mark Rydell. It has also been announced that Davis is to appear in the 2008 mini-series "Diamonds", green lighted by Alchemy Television Group.

Her stage work has been limited, and mostly confined to Australia. In the earliest stages of her career she played Juliet opposite Mel Gibson's Romeo, she also played both Cordelia and the Fool in a 1984 staging of King Lear and her 1986 assumption of the title role in Hedda Gabler was widely admired in Australia. In 2004 she starred in and co-directed Victory, as a Puritan woman determined her locate her husband's dismembered corpse. Internationally, she created the role of The Actress in Terry Johnson's Insignificance at the Royal Court in London and appeared in a brief Los Angeles production of Tom Stoppard's Hapgood in 1989.

Offscreen, Ms. Davis protested Prime Minister John Howard's decision to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Film

Year Title Role Notes
1977 High Rolling Lynn
1979 My Brilliant Career Sybylla Melvyn
1981 Hoodwink Sarah
Winter of Our Dreams Lou
1982 Who Dares Wins Frankie Leith
1983 Heatwave Kate Dean
1984 A Passage to India Adela Quested
1986 Kangaroo Harriet Somers
1987 High Tide Lilli
1988 Georgia Nina Bailley/Georgia White
1990 Alice Vicki
1991 Barton Fink Audrey Taylor
Impromptu George Sand
Where Angels Fear to Tread Harriet Harriton
Naked Lunch Joan Lee/Joan Frost
1992 On My Own The Mother
Husbands and Wives Sally
1993 Dark Blood Buffy (uncompleted)
1994 The Ref Caroline Chausser
The New Age Katherine Witner
1996 Children of the Revolution Joan Fraser
1997 Deconstructing Harry Lucy
Absolute Power Gloria Russell
Blood and Wine Suzanne Gates
1998 Celebrity Robin Simon
2001 The Man Who Sued God Anna Redmond
2001 Gaudi Afternoon Cassandra Reilly
2003 Swimming Upstream Dora Fingleton
2006 The Break-Up Marilyn Dean
Marie Antoinette Comtesse de Noailles

[edit] Television

Year Title Role Notes
1980 Water Under the Bridge Carrie Mazzini
1982 A Woman Called Golda Golda Myerson/Meir (syndicated)
1983 The Merry Wives of Windsor Mistress Ford
1986 Rocket to the Moon Cleo Singer
1991 One Against the Wind Mary Lindell
1995 Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story Dianne
1998 Echo of Thunder Gladwyn Ritchie
1999 Dash and Lilly Lillian Hellman
A Cooler Climate Paula Tanner
2001 Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows Judy Garland
2003 The Reagans Nancy Reagan
2004 Coast to Coast Maxine Pierce
2006 A Little Thing Called Murder Sante Kimes
2007 The Starter Wife Joan McAllister
2007 Masters of Science Fiction: "A Clean Escape" Dr. Deanna Evans

[edit] Awards

Nominations
Runner-Up

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800020899&cf=bios

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
Jane Fonda
for The China Syndrome		 BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1980
for My Brilliant Career		 Succeeded by
Meryl Streep
for The French Lieutenant's Woman
Preceded by
Tracy Mann
for Hard Knocks		 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1981
for Winter Of Our Dreams		 Succeeded by
Noni Hazlehurst
for Monkey Grip
Preceded by
Jill Perryman
for Maybe This Time		 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1981
for Hoodwink		 Succeeded by
Kris McQuade
for Fighting Back
Preceded by
Noni Hazlehurst
for Fran		 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1986
for Kangaroo
1987
for High Tide		 Succeeded by
Nadine Garner
for Mullaway
Preceded by
Barbara Hershey
for A Killing in a Small Town		 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
1992
for One Against the Wind		 Succeeded by
Laura Dern
for Afterburn
Preceded by
Pat Thomson
for Strictly Ballroom		 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1993
for On My Own		 Succeeded by
Rachel Griffiths
for Muriel's Wedding
Preceded by
Jacqueline McKenzie
for Angel Baby		 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1996
for Children Of The Revolution		 Succeeded by
Pamela Rabe
for The Well
Preceded by
Judi Dench
for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells		 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
2002
for Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows		 Succeeded by
Uma Thurman
for Hysterical Blindness
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie

Judy Davis (2001) · Laura Linney (2002) · Maggie Smith (2003) · Meryl Streep (2004) · S. Epatha Merkerson (2005) · Helen Mirren (2006) · Helen Mirren (2007)
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or a Movie

Esther Rolle (1979) · Mare Winningham (1980) · Jane Alexander (1981) · Penny Fuller (1982) · Jean Simmons (1983) · Roxana Zal (1984) · Kim Stanley (1985) · Colleen Dewhurst (1986) · Piper Laurie (1987) · Jane Seymour (1988) · Colleen Dewhurst (1989) · Eva Marie Saint (1990) · Ruby Dee (1991) · Amanda Plummer (1992) · Mary Tyler Moore (1993) · Cicely Tyson (1994) · Judy Davis / Shirley Knight (1995) · Greta Scacchi (1996) · Diana Rigg (1997) · Mare Winningham (1998) · Anne Bancroft (1999) · Vanessa Redgrave (2000)
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or a Movie

Tammy Blanchard (2001) · Stockard Channing (2002) · Gena Rowlands (2003) · Mary-Louise Parker (2004) · Jane Alexander (2005) · Kelly Macdonald (2006) · Judy Davis (2007)