Christine Lahti

Christine Lahti
Lahti at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, April 2008
Born	Christine Ann Lahti (1950-04-04) April 4, 1950 Birmingham, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, film director
Years active	1978–present
Spouse(s)	Thomas Schlamme (1983–present)
Children	Wilson Schlamme Joseph Schlamme Emma Schlamme

Christine Ann Lahti^[1] (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and film director. Throughout her career, she has garnered 2 Golden Globe Awards from 8 nominations, an Emmy Award from 6 nominations and an Academy Award from 2 nominations. Her first Academy Award nomination was for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1984 film Swing Shift. Her second nomination was for her work as a director when she won the Academy Award for Short Film, Live Action for her 1995 film Lieberman in Love.

Early life

Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret (née Tabar), a painter, homemaker, and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon.^[2][3] Her paternal grandparents were Finnish immigrants^[4][5] and her maternal grandparents were from Austria-Hungary. Lahti was raised Lutheran.^[6]

Lahti studied fine arts at Florida State University and received her bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Michigan, where she joined Delta Gamma sorority.

Career

After college, Lahti headed to New York City, where she worked as a waitress and did commercials. Her breakthrough movie was ...And Justice for All (1979) with Al Pacino. After featuring in a few films and TV shows in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lahti chose roles that allowed her to spend time with her three children.^[7] She has also focused on television, beginning with her role in the made-for-TV adaptation of The Executioner's Song (1982). She appeared on Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein's seriocomic play, The Heidi Chronicles. Lahti received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Swing Shift (1984), and won an Academy Award for Best Short Film, Live Action for Lieberman in Love (1995), in which she starred and directed. It was adapted from "Lieberman in Love", a short story by W. P. Kinsella. Lahti won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award in 1998 for her role in Chicago Hope.

At the Governor's Ball held after the 49th Annual Emmy Awards, 1997

In 2001, her first directorial film, My First Mister, was released. Starring Leelee Sobieski and Albert Brooks, the movie debuted with good reviews. In DVD commentary she applauds the work of her cast and crew, remarking "[I] was very lucky to have such a wonderful crew..." She did feel regret that the film was rated R, for language, despairing that the movie might not be viewed by teenagers who would like and relate with the characters.^{[citation needed]} Also, Lahti mentioned several times that she would have liked to have more time to shoot different perspectives in order to facilitate story arc. Lahti starred in the Executive ADA role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sonya Paxton, while the character Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) was in appeals. She was in the first four episodes of the 11th season^[8] and returned for the show's eighth episode, where she clashed with Alexandra Cabot.^[9] Lahti later guest starred in the ninth and seventeenth episode of the 12th season where she reprised her role as Executive ADA Sonya Paxton. Her character was murdered in the seventeenth episode.

She returned to Broadway upon joining the cast of the Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage on November 17, 2009, replacing actress Marcia Gay Harden.^[10] Both actresses had a few special appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In September 2011, Lahti starred with Morgan Freeman in the Broadway debut of Dustin Lance Black's play, '8'—a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage—as Kris Perry.^[11] In March 2012, she was featured with Jamie Lee Curtis and Jansen Panettiere at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. The production was broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.^[12][13]

Personal life

Lahti has been married to television director Thomas Schlamme, a native of Texas, since September 4, 1983. They have three children: Wilson and twins Joseph Tabor and Emma Kate (born 1993). She is active in political causes.^[14]

Thomas and Christine reside in Los Angeles with their children.

Since May 2005, Lahti has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Christine Lahti.

• Christine Lahti at the Internet Movie Database
• Christine Lahti at the Internet Broadway Database
• Christine Lahti at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Christine Lahti biography by Finn Film Entertainment