Judith Ivey

Judith Lee Ivey (born September 4, 1951) is an American actress and director.

Personal life

Ivey was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Lee (née Lewis), a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean.^[1] She spent 1965–1968 in Dowagiac, Michigan, where she attended Union High School through tenth grade.^[2] Judith graduated from Marion High School in Marion, Illinois in 1970. Ivey is an alumna of John A. Logan College, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Illinois State University. Ivey was first married to the actor Ricardo Gutierrez. They divorced before her move to New York City.^[3] She is married to Tim Braine (her second marriage) and the couple have two children, Maggie and Tom.

Career

Despite a long history of theater and film performances, Ivey is often associated with her one-year run on the CBS series Designing Women in its final season, playing the Texan B.J. Poteet. Ivey replaced Julia Duffy's Alison Sugarbaker, who was herself a replacement for Delta Burke's character, Suzanne Sugarbaker. She also played a notable role on the NBC series Will & Grace on which she portrayed the mother of Dr. Leo Markus. She also appeared on Grey's Anatomy, Person of Interest, White Collar, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. She has also played Lavinia Penniman, the doting aunt, in the revival of the play, The Heiress.

Ivey won two Tony Awards as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Steaming in 1983 and Hurlyburly in 1985. She was also nominated for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard in 1992 and The Heiress in 2013. Other Broadway theatre credits include Piaf, Bedroom Farce, Precious Sons, Blithe Spirit, Voices in the Dark, and Follies Recently, she portrayed Amanda in The Glass Menagerie at the Long Wharf Theatre and reprised the role in March 2010 at the Roundabout Theatre in New York,^[4] as well as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. JUdith received the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress. Ivey portrayed Ann Landers in the solo play The Lady With All the Answers at the Off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre in October 2009.^[5]She was nominated for Best Solo Performance for the Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award.

Ivey has been in many films, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Miles from Home, Compromising Positions, Harry & Son, The Woman in Red, Sister, Sister, In Country, Hello Again, The Lonely Guy, There Goes the Neighborhood, The Devil's Advocate, What Alice Found, Flags of Our Fathers and What the Deaf Man Heard.

Other television roles include starring roles as Kate McCrorey in the 1990–91 series Down Home, set in a Texas coastal town, and as Alexandria Buchanan in the short-lived series The 5 Mrs. Buchanans. Ivey was also in the 1985 TV remake of The Long Hot Summer, in the role of Noel Varner (Joanne Woodward's role in the 1958 film version). The miniseries also starred Jason Robards and Don Johnson, and was nominated for three Emmys. She also provided the voice of Eleanor Sherman in the animated series The Critic.

Stage directing credits

• Vanities: A New Musical – Pasadena Playhouse
• Fugue – Cherry Lane Theatre, off-Broadway
• Southern Comforts – Primary Stages, off-Broadway
• Secrets of a Soccer Mom – Snapple Theatre (Off-Broadway)
• Bad Dates – Northlight Repertory Theatre, Chicago
• Bad Dates – Laguna Playhouse
• Steel Magnolias – Alley Theatre
• More – Union Square Theatre, off-Broadway
• More – Falcon Theatre, Los Angeles
• "The Butcher of Baraboo- Second Stage Theatre, NYC
• Two for the Seesaw – Westport Playhouse
• The Go-For-It Guy – Aspen Comedy Festival
• Soccer Moms – Fleetwood Stage
• Carapace – The Alliance Theatre, Atlanta

References

External links

• Official Website Vanities: A New Musical
• Judith Ivey at the Internet Broadway Database
• Judith Ivey at the Internet Movie Database
• Judith Ivey at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Cherry Lane Theatre website