Jayne Houdyshell

Jayne Houdyshell
Born September 25, 1953
Topeka, Kansas

Jayne Houdyshell (born September 25, 1953) is a Tony Award–nominated American theater actress.

Life and career

Raised in Topeka, Kansas, she is the youngest of four daughters born to Galen "Buzz" Houdyshell and Louella Taylor. She graduated from Topeka High School in 1971, and she went on to graduate with honors from the Academy of Dramatic Art at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan in 1974.

Since the mid-1970s, she has appeared in more than 200 plays at regional theaters throughout the United States, including the Meadow Brook Theater, Attic Theater, Missouri Repertory Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theater, McCarter Theater, Delaware Theater Company, Wilma Theater, Syracuse Stage, Studio Arena, GeVa Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Totem Pole Playhouse, Peterborough Players, and others.

In New York, she may be best known for her role as Ann Kron in the Broadway production of Well by Lisa Kron. It was a role that garnered her a Tony Award nomination in 2006.[1] Her other distinctions include winning a Theater World Award, and an Obie for Well off-Broadway in 2004 at the Public Theater.[2] She received a 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for her performance in The Pain and the Itch for Steppenwolf and a 2006 Barrymore Award for her work in The Clean House at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia.

Houdyshell's Broadway credits include Wicked, Well, Bye Bye Birdie,[3] and The Importance of Being Earnest. She played the role of Hattie in the 2011 revival of Follies,[4] and received a Tony Award nomination, Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance.

Houdyshell plays the Nurse in the 2013 Broadway revival of Romeo and Juliet.

Houdyshell's other New York credits include Harrison, TX: Three Plays by Horton Foote at Primary Stages, Coraline,[5] The New Century, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center; The Receptionist at the Manhattan Theater Club; Much Ado About Nothing; Fighting Words, and The Pain and the Itch at Playwrights Horizons; Attempts on Her Life at Soho Rep; and True Love at the Zipper Theater.

Her television credits include appearances on Law & Order, Third Watch, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She has appeared in such films as Changing Lanes (2002), Garden State (2004), Trust the Man (2006), and Everybody's Fine.

Houdyshell had a small role as a landlady in the 2010 film The Bounty Hunter

References

  1. ↑ Wyatt, Rebecca (2006-05-26), "Former MBT actress receives Tony nomination", Oakland University News
  2. ↑ "Jayne Houdyshell Biography". Broadway Buzz: Star Files. Broadway.com. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  3. ↑ Jones, Kenneth. "Bye Bye Birdie, With Stamos, Gershon, Irwin, Houdyshell and Trimm, Returns to Broadway", Playbill.com, September 10, 2009
  4. ↑ Gans, Andrew (2011). "DIVA TALK: Chatting with a "Broadway Baby," Follies Star Jayne Houdyshell". Playbill.
  5. ↑ Blankenship, Mark (2009-06-07), "The Score and the Story, Inseparable", New York Times: AR4

External links