Jeannie Berlin

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Jeannie Berlin (* 1. November 1949 in Los Angeles , California as Jeannie Brette May ) is an American actress , screenwriter and theater director .

biography

First film roles and breakthrough with "Changing horses on the wedding night"

Jeannie Berlin was born in 1949 to Marvin and Elaine May . The parents, who married shortly after their mother's graduation, lasted only a year and were divorced. Her grandfather was the Yiddish theater actor Jack Berlin. While her mother Elaine devoted herself to her career and became a well-known actress, author and director, Berlin grew up with her grandmother.

In the late 1960s, Berlin began to emulate her mother, even though she had been expelled from New York University's drama school after just one year . In 1969 she made her American television debut with EW Swackhamer's romantic comedy In Name Only (1969). After that, she was regularly represented with small supporting and extras in American feature film productions, including such well-known works as Stuart Hagmann's award-winning student drama Bloody Strawberries or Vincente Minnelli's music film Once the day comes ... (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever ) with Barbra Streisand (both 1970). In 1970, Berlin played a bigger role in James Bridges ' 100 Dollars More When It Becomes a Boy , in which Barbara Hershey and Scott Glenn can be seen as a young hippie couple and agree to father a child for a rich couple for money.

After a trip to the Italian cinema ( I figli chiedono perché , 1972) and the part of Bubbles Girardi in Ernest Lehman's literary adaptation Portnoy's Complaints (1972), the breakthrough as a film actress came with the help of Berlin's mother. Elaine May entrusted her daughter with the role of a kind-hearted Jewish bride in the directorial work Horse Change on Wedding Night (1972), who maintains her chastity until the wedding night, only a little later by her husband (played by Charles Grodin ) for an attractive blonde ( Cybill Shepherd ) to be abandoned.

The part of Lila in the black comedy based on Neil Simon brought Berlin high praise from the critics. Roger Ebert ( Chicago Sun-Times ) pointed out the acting confidence with which the young actress was able to go too far and make the audience believe, while Vincent Canby ( New York Times ) had an uncanny resemblance to appearance and noted mother's play. In 1973, Berlin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the Oscar and Golden Globe Award for her performance in changing horses on their wedding night. In 2007, with little success, Malin Åkerman took on the role in the remake After 7 Days with Ben Stiller .

After changing horses on their wedding night , the title role of a Jewish college graduate followed three years later in Sidney J. Furie's bestselling film adaptation of Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York (1975), with which Berlin was unable to build on the previous success. Fixed to a certain type of role by the last films, she interrupted her film career for several years and retired to Los Angeles. During this time she gave acting lessons and tried to gain a foothold as an author and producer and to found her own drama school. In 1990 she returned to the big screen as an actress with A Bait for the Killer together with her mother Elaine May. The new age comedy, for which Berlin had taken on the role of a prostitute and wrote the script together with Laurie Jones, fell through with the American press. The actress looks scary, like a bigger, more vulgar, masculine version of Elaine May, according to Janet Maslin (New York Times).

Comeback as a stage actress and director

In June of the same year her role in Charles Grodin's off-Broadway comedy Price of Fame (1990), in which Berlin was seen as an insecure film actress alongside Grodin, was received more positively . She then continued to work as an acting teacher and counted among other things the young deceased film actor Wade Domínguez ( Dangerous Minds ) among her protégés. In the following years, Berlin made a comeback as a theater actress thanks to her mother's participation in plays. In 1998 she appeared with her mother, Alan Arkin and his son Anthony successfully off-Broadway in a program of three one-act plays under the title Power Plays . In the sketches she took on the roles of a murderous secretary ( The Way of All Fish ) and a seductive nurse ( In and Out of the Light ). During a tour, Elaine May and Alan Arkin were later to be replaced by Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss . Berlin also received good reviews a year later as the director of the off-Broadway comedy It's My Party (1999), in which F. Murray Abraham slipped into the role of a family patriarch who only has 108 minutes to live.

From December 2002 Berlin was directed by Stanley Donens in Elaine May's off-Broadway play Adult Entertainment . The comedy starring Danny Aiello satirized late-night pornographic television shows and was about five porn stars who decide to make an art film with a Yale graduate. Berlin slipped into the role of an aging, formerly respected television actress. The piece became a success and was performed more than 140 times by April 2003. On the other hand, Elaine May's piece After the Night and the Music , in which Berlin made her debut on New York's Broadway in 2005, was less successful . The comedy was discontinued after a month. In the interlinked dialogues, the actress was seen as a lonely, divorced woman waiting for a call from a male acquaintance.

Most recently, Berlin was involved as a director in the one-act act On the Way , for which the well-known director Mark Rydell could be won as actor. The play was performed with other one-act acts by Elaine May in 2006 at the Magic Theater in San Francisco . In 2011, Berlin was back in American cinemas with a supporting role in Kenneth Lonergan's drama Margaret .

Filmography (selection)

actress

scriptwriter

  • 1990: A Bait for the Killer ( In the Spirit )

Plays

actress

  • 1990: Price of Fame (Roundabout Theater, New York; role: Evelyn)
  • 1998–1999: Power Plays (Promenade Theater, New York; roles: Miss Riverton / Wanda)
  • 2002–2003: Adult Entertainment (Variety Arts Theater, New York; role: Frosty Moons)
  • 2005: After the Night and the Music (Biltmore Theater, New York; roles Gail / Joanne)

Director

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Elaine May's biography in the Jewish Women's Archive (accessed December 30, 2009)
  2. ↑ a b cf. Marx, Andy: Lost and Found . In: Variety , 17. – 23. January 1994, p. 10
  3. ↑ cf. Roger Ebert's film review in the Chicago Sun-Times, January 1, 1972 (accessed December 30, 2009)
  4. ↑ cf. Vincent Canby film review in the New York Times, December 18, 1972
  5. ↑ cf. Maslin, Janet: A New Age Comedy, Crystals And All . In: The New York Times, April 6, 1990, Section C, p. 16
  6. ↑ cf. Fleming, Michael: Snipes, Chan say 'Confucius' . In: Daily Variety , April 9, 1996, p. 1
personal data
SURNAME Berlin, Jeannie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jeannie Brette May (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California