| Catherine Keener | |
|---|---|
| Born | Catherine Ann Keener March 23, 1959 Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Spouse | Dermot Mulroney (1990–2007) |
Catherine Ann Keener (born March 23, 1959)[1] is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress twice, for Being John Malkovich and Capote.
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Keener was born in Miami, Florida, the third of five children of Evelyn and Jim Keener, a manager of an automotive store.[2] She is of Irish descent on her father's side and of Lebanese descent on her mother's.[3] Keener was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools.[4][5] Her sister Elizabeth is also an actress.
Keener attended Wheaton College, in Norton, Massachusetts, where she lived with an aunt in order to save on room and board, feeling out of place among her more privileged peers. Keener majored in English and history, enrolling in a theater course only when she was unable to get into a photography class. Her first theatrical production was the Wendy Wasserstein play, Uncommon Women and Others, during her Junior year at Wheaton.
Keener's first film appearance was one line in About Last Night (1986). Although she struggled professionally over the next few years one low-quality project had an unexpected dividend. Keener met her future husband, actor Dermot Mulroney in 1987 while working on Survival Quest (1989), after Mulroney became stuck while attempting to scale a cliff.
She also guest-starred as an artist on an episode of Seinfeld called "The Letter". She played Jerry's girlfriend, an artist who painted the infamous portrait of Kramer. Keener then earned her first starring role in Johnny Suede with the then unknown Brad Pitt. Her performance gained critical acclaim and earned her her first Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead. She went on to work with director Tom Dicillo, again, in Living in Oblivion (1995). Two years later she was once again nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in Walking and Talking, an independent cult-comedy film directed by Nicole Holofcener. Critics fell in love with Keener's naturalness onscreen.
In 2000, Keener earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Being John Malkovich directed by Spike Jonze. In 2001, she worked with director Nicole Holofcener in Lovely and Amazing garnering her a third Independent Spirit Award nomination. In 2002, she co-starred with Edward Norton in the off-Broadway revival of Burn This and the films Full Frontal, and S1m0ne, all of which were box office disappointments when released, but many have since gained a following.
In 2005, she made a huge comeback starring in the political thriller The Interpreter, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, and was cast as the love interest of Steve Carell in Judd Apatow's The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Keener's performance as writer Harper Lee in Capote (also 2005) earned her several awards and nominations, including her second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2006, she starred in the film Friends with Money, directed by Nicole Holofcener.
In 2007, Keener played Jan Burres in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed film Into the Wild, based on Jon Krakauer's best-selling book of the same name. In 2008, her film An American Crime, the true story of Gertrude Baniszewski, a middle-aged mother who tortured and killed Sylvia Likens in her Indiana home, was aired on Showtime. Keener plays Baniszewski and her portrayal earned her an Emmy nomination in the Best Actress TV Mini-Series or Movie category. In 2008, Keener portrayed Philip Seymour Hoffman's wife Adele in the critically acclaimed Charlie Kaufman directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. Keener played the title character's mother in the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, based on the series of books by Rick Riordan.
Keener married actor Dermot Mulroney in 1990. The couple had a son, Clyde Keener Mulroney (born June 21, 1999), before separating in September 2005.[6] In June 2007, Mulroney filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.[7] The divorce became final on December 19, 2007. Keener is a close friend of actor Brad Pitt,[8] whom she met while filming Johnny Suede. Keener has homes in Los Angeles and North Carolina.
Academy Awards
BAFTA Awards
Chlotrudis Awards
Critics Choice Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
Golden Globes, USA
Independent Spirit Awards
Satellite Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Saturn Awards
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | About Last Night... | Cocktail Waitress | |
| 1989 | Survival Quest | Cheryl | |
| 1990 | Catchfire | Trucker's girl | |
| 1991 | Switch | Steve's Secretary | |
| Johnny Suede | Yvonne | ||
| 1992 | The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag | Suzanne | |
| 1995 | Living in Oblivion | Nicole Springer | |
| 1996 | Walking and Talking | Amelia | |
| Boys | Jilly | ||
| Box of Moonlight | Floatie Dupre | ||
| 1997 | The Real Blonde | Mary | |
| 1998 | Out of Sight | Adele | |
| Your Friends & Neighbors | Terri | ||
| 1999 | 8mm | Amy Welles | |
| Simpatico | Cecilia | ||
| Being John Malkovich | Maxine Lund | ||
| 2001 | Lovely & Amazing | Michelle Marks | |
| 2002 | Adaptation. | Herself | cameo |
| Full Frontal | Lee | ||
| Death to Smoochy | Nora Wells | ||
| S1m0ne | Elaine Christian | ||
| 2005 | The Ballad of Jack and Rose | Kathleen | |
| The Interpreter | Dot | ||
| The 40-Year-Old Virgin | Trish Piedmont | ||
| Capote | Nelle Harper Lee | ||
| 2006 | Friends with Money | Christine | |
| 2007 | An American Crime | Gertrude Baniszewski | |
| Into the Wild | Jan Burres | ||
| 2008 | Hamlet 2 | Brie Marschz | |
| What Just Happened | Lou Tarnow | ||
| Synecdoche, New York | Adele Lack | ||
| Genova | Barbara | ||
| 2009 | The Soloist | Mary Weston | |
| Where the Wild Things Are | Connie | ||
| 2010 | Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief | Sally Jackson | |
| Please Give | Kate | ||
| Cyrus | Jamie | ||
| Nailed | Rep. Pam Hendrickson | forthcoming film | |
| 2011 | Trust | Post-Production |