Olympia Dukakis

Olympia Dukakis (2019)

Olympia Dukakis (born June 20, 1931 in Lowell , Massachusetts , † May 1, 2021 in New York City , New York ) was an American actress of Greek descent. She won an Oscar in 1988 for her role in the romantic comedy Moonstruck .

Life

Olympia Dukakis was born in Lowell in 1931 as one of two children of the Greek couple Constantine and Alexandra Dukakis. She was a cousin of Michael Dukakis , former Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate in 1988.

Dukakis began her theater career after graduating from Boston University . In 1956 she was a co-founder of the Actors Company of Boston , which was founded by some students and performed in the newly opened Charles Playhouse in Boston from 1957 . In 1963 she received the Obie Award for her performance as Leocadia Begbick in the off-Broadway production of Brecht's comedy Mann ist Mann . She received a second Obie Award in 1985 for her role in The Marriage of Bette and Boo .

Since the mid-1970s she worked in Montclair , New Jersey as artistic director of the Whole Theater Company , which staged plays by Pirandello , Euripides , Eugene O'Neill , Samuel Beckett , Tennessee Williams , Edward Albee and Lanford Wilson , among others .

From the mid-1960s she also appeared in film productions. For her role as Rose Castorini in the romantic comedy Moonstruck , she won numerous awards in 1988, including the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress . Following on from this, she has since been cast several times as a woman of mature age with a strong character, often gifted with a dry sense of humor. So she was in three parts of the series Look who's talking! as well as films such as Magnolias made of steel , The naked cannon 33⅓ , Beloved Aphrodite , Mr. Holland's Opus or The booked man . In 1998, Dukakis took on the role of Charlotte Kiszko in the British television film A Life for a Life , the mother of Stefan Kiszko , who was wrongly convicted as a murderer in the Lesley Molseed case and imprisoned for 16 years. In 2019 she played the part of Anna Madrigal in the television series Stadtgeschichten .

In 2018, a documentary about her was made with Olympia .

Dukakis was married to actor Louis Zorich from 1962 until his death in 2018 . The couple lived in Montclair from 1970 to 1999 and then moved back to Manhattan . The marriage had three children.

Olympia Dukakis died after a prolonged illness in early May 2021, seven weeks before her 90th birthday at her home in New York City.

Filmography (selection)

• 1964: Twice a Man
• 1964: Lilith
• 1969: stiletto
• 1969: John and Mary (John and Mary)
• 1974: The Rehearsal
• 1974: A Man Sees Red (Death Wish)
• 1979: The Wanderers
• 1979: Not From Bad Parents (Rich Kids)
• 1980: Idolmaker - The dirty business of show business (The Idolmaker)
• 1982: Movie Madness
• 1985: Walls of Glass
• 1987 Mondsüchtig (Moonstruck)
• 1988: Working Girl (Working Girl)
• 1989: Look who's talking! (Look Who's Talking)
• 1989 Magnolia steel (Steel Magnolias)
• 1989: Dad
• 1990: A Lure for the Killer (In the Spirit)
• 1990: Look Who's Talking Too 2 (Look Who's Talking Too)
• 1991: Lara's most beautiful day ( Lucky Day , TV movie)
• 1992: Courage for Freedom (Over the Hill)
• 1992: Frank Sinatra - The way to the top ( Sinatra , mini-series)
• 1993: Look Who's Talking Now (Look Who's Talking Now)
• 1993: Tales of the City ( Tales of the City , TV miniseries)
• 1993: The Seven Best Years (The Cemetery Club)
• 1993: Like a Bird in the Wind (Digger)
• 1994: The Naked Gun 33 1/3
• 1994: I Love Trouble - Nothing but trouble (I Love Trouble)
• 1995: Dead Badge - In the crosshairs of the killer cops (Dead Badge)
• 1995: Jeffrey
• 1995: Beloved Aphrodite (Mighty Aphrodite)
• 1995: Mr. Holland's Opus
• 1996: Never Too Late
• 1996: Jerusalem
• 1996: Milk & Money
• 1997: The booked man (Picture Perfect)
• 1997: A Match Made in Heaven (TV movie)
• 1997: Heaven Will Wait (TV movie)
• 1997: Balkan Island: The Last Story of the Century
• 1998: Dead Don't Lie ( Scattering Dad , TV movie)
• 1998: War in the Pentagon ( The Pentagon Wars , TV movie)
• 1998: Sweet Home San Francisco (mini-series)
• 1998: Mafia! - A noodle doesn't make spaghetti! (Jane Austen's Mafia!)
• 1998: Better Living
• 1998: A Life for a Life (TV movie)
• 1999: Jeanne d'Arc - The Woman of the Millennium ( Joan of Arc , mini-series)
• 2000: The Last of the Blonde Bombshells ( The Last of the Blonde Bombshells , TV movie)
• 2000: Brooklyn Sonnet
• 2001: And Never Let Her Go (TV movie)
• 2001: My Beautiful Son (TV movie)
• 2002: Guilty Hearts (TV movie)
• 2002: The Simpsons ( The Simpsons , TV series, 1 episode, voice)
• 2002: Frasier (TV series, 1 episode)
• 2002: The Intended
• 2003: The Event
• 2003: Mafia Doctor (TV movie)
• 2003: Charlie's War
• 2004: The Quest - hunting for the Spear ( The Librarian - Quest for the Spear , TV movie)
• 2004–2005: Center of the Universe (TV series, 12 episodes)
• 2005: Pure Thing (The Thing About My Folks)
• 2005: The Great New Wonderful
• 2005: 3 needles
• 2005: Whiskey School
• 2005: Jesus, Mary and Joey
• 2006: At Her Side (Away From Her)
• 2006: Day on Fire
• 2006: The Quest - The Secret of the King's Chamber ( The Librarian - Return to King Solomon's Mines , TV movie)
• 2006: Upside Out
• 2006: In the Land of Women
• 2010–2011: Bored to Death (TV series, 4 episodes)
• 2011: Birds of a Feather
• 2011: Cloudburst
• 2012: The Misadventures of the Dunderheads
• 2013: The Last Keepers
• 2013: The Christmas Spirit (TV movie)
• 2013–2015: Sex & Violence (TV series, 12 episodes)
• 2013–2015: Forgive Me (TV series, 9 episodes)
• 2014: A Little Game
• 2014: Big Driver (TV movie)
• 2015: 7 Chinese Brothers
• 2015: Emily & Tim
• 2016: The Infiltrator
• 2016: Broken Links
• 2018: Change in the Air
• 2018: Switch (TV series, 4 episodes)
• 2019: Stadtgeschichten ( Tales of the City , TV series, 9 episodes)

Theater (selection)

• 1962–1963: A Man's a Man (Masque Theater, New York)
• 1963: Crime and Crime (Cricket Theater, New York)
• 1964: Electra (Delacorte Theater, New York)
• 1964: Abraham Cochrane (Belasco Theater, New York)
• 1967: Titus Andronicus (Delacorte Theater, New York)
• 1967: Father Uxbridge Wants To Marry (Theater at St. Clement's Church, New York)
• 1968: The Memorandum (Joseph Papp Public Theater / Anspacher Theater, New York)
• 1969: Peer Gynt (Delacorte Theater, New York)
• 1973: Baba Goya (American Place Theater, New York)
• 1973: Nourish the Beast (Cherry Lane Theater, New York)
• 1974: Who's Who in Hell ( Lunt-Fontanne Theater , New York)
• 1978: Curse of the Starving Class (Joseph Papp Public Theater / Newman Theater, New York)
• 1985: The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Joseph Papp Public Theater / Newman Theater, New York)
• 1986–1987: Social Security (Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York)
• 1995–1996: The Hope Zone (Circle Repertory Theater, New York)
• 2000: Rose ( Lyceum Theater , New York)
• 2005: A Mother, A Daughter, and A Gun (New World Stages / Stage III, New York)
• 2009: The Singing Forest (Joseph Papp Public Theater / Martinson Hall, New York)
• 2011: The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (Laura Pels Theater, New York)

Awards (selection)

Received in the categories:

• 1988: Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress in Moonstruck
• 1988: Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in Moonstruck
• 1988: American Comedy Awards as Funniest Supporting Actress in Moonstruck
• 1988: Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award as Best Supporting Actress in Moonstruck
• 1988: Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award as Best Supporting Actress in Moonstruck
• 1988: National Board of Review Award as Best Supporting Actress in Moonstruck
• 2013: Walk of Fame (2,498th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame)
• 2014: Elliot Norton Award , Elliot Norton Lifetime Achievement Award

Nominated in the categories:

• 1993: Golden Globe , as Best Supporting Actress in the mini-series Frank Sinatra - The Way to the Top
• 1993: Emmy as Best Supporting Actress in the miniseries Tales of the City
• 1989: BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actress in Moonstruck
• 1999: Emmy, as Best Supporting Actress in Jeanne d'Arc - The Woman of the Millennium
• 2004 Genie Award as Best Supporting Actress in The Event

Autobiography

• with Emily Heckman: Ask Me Again Tomorrow; a Life in Progress. HarperCollins Publishers , New York, 2003, ISBN 9780060188214 .

Web links

Commons : Olympia Dukakis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Olympia Dukakis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Olympia Dukakis in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
• Olympia Dukakis in the Internet Off-Broadway Database (English)
• Olympia Dukakis at filmreference.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Bruce Haring: Olympia Dukakis Dies: Oscar-Winning Actress For 'Moonstruck' Was 89. In: deadline.com . May 1, 2021, accessed May 1, 2021 . 
2. ↑ James Fisher: Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater: 1930-2010, Volume 1: A-L . Scarecrow Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0810855328 , page 228 ff.
3. ^ History . In: charlesplayhouse.com, accessed June 2, 2020.
4. ^ ^{A b c} Margo Nash: Olympia Dukakis and Memories of Montclair . In: nytimes.com of August 10, 2003.
5. ↑ Olympia Dukakis . In: walkoffame.com, accessed June 2, 2020.
6. ↑ Olympia Dukakis accepted the Elliot Norton Lifetime Achievement Award ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on August 23, 2014.