Olympia Dukakis

Olympia Dukakis
Dukakis in May 2015
Born	(1931-06-20) June 20, 1931 (age 87) Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1962–present
Spouse(s)	Louis Zorich (1962-2018, his death)
Children	3
Relatives	Michael Dukakis (cousin)

Olympia Dukakis (born June 20, 1931) is a Greek American actress. She started her career in theater, and won an Obie Award for Best Actress in 1963 for her Off-Broadway performance in Bertolt Brecht's Man Equals Man. She later transitioned to film acting, and in 1987, she won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA nomination for her performance in Moonstruck. She received another Golden Globe nomination for Sinatra, and Emmy Award nominations for Lucky Day, More Tales of the City, and Joan of Arc.

Early life[edit]

Dukakis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Alexandra (née Christos) and Constantine S. Dukakis. Her parents were Greek emigrants, her father originally from Turkey and her mother from the Peloponnese.^[1][2] She has a brother named Apollo and is a cousin of Michael Dukakis, former Governor of Massachusetts and the Democratic nominee for President in 1988, for whom she was a delegate from New Jersey at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. She is an alumna of Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts, and was educated at Boston University.

Career[edit]

Dukakis at the 1998 Emmy Awards

Dukakis has appeared in a number of films, including Steel Magnolias, Mr. Holland's Opus, Jane Austen's Mafia!, The Thing About My Folks, and Moonstruck, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She also played the role of Anna Madrigal in the Tales of the City television mini-series, which garnered her an Emmy Award nomination, and appeared on Search for Tomorrow as Dr. Barbara Moreno, who romanced Stu Bergman. She appears as Dolly Sinatra in the mini-series of Frank Sinatra's life (1992). Her Broadway theatre credits include Who's Who in Hell, Social Security, and the one-woman play Rose. Her theater, film, and television work has also won her an Obie Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, and a Golden Globe.

Dukakis at Malaparte for Norman Jewison and Friends with Moonstruck, August 2011

Dukakis won Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Moonstruck and was nominated for the Canadian Academy Award for The Event. She provided the voice of Grandpa's love interest for The Simpsons episode "The Old Man and the Key". In 2003, Dukakis published her national bestselling autobiography Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress. Recent films include 3 Needles, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, In the Land of Women, and Away From Her, the 2006 film which cast her alongside Gordon Pinsent as the spouses of two Alzheimers patients.

In 1998, she starred as Charlotte Kiszko in the British TV drama A Life for a Life (ITV), based on the real-life story of Stefan Kiszko, a man wrongfully imprisoned for seventeen years for the murder of a child, Lesley Molseed, after police suppressed evidence of his innocence.

She recently directed the world premiere production of Todd Logan's Botanic Garden at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.^[3]

In the 2008 season of Hartford Stage, Dukakis starred in the revival of Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, opposite Kevin Anderson.

In 2008, Dukakis also co-adapted and starred in the world-premiere of Another Side of the Island, based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, at Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, Montana.

She starred in and executive-produced the 2013 film Montana Amazon, co-starring Haley Joel Osment.

In 2011, Dukakis guest-starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She played the role of Debby Marsh, an attorney.^[4]

On May 24, 2013, she was honored with the 2,498th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6233 Hollywood Boulevard, in the category of Live Theater.

2018 Olympia Dukakis stars in Eleftheromania, and follows an Auschwitz survivor as she recites a true story about a group from the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The Nazis enlisted a section of Greek-Jewish prisoners to the horrific task of leading the Hungarian prisoners into gas chambers. They had a night to debate the morality of their situation and vote on whether they would fulfill the task or willfully be killed.

• 2018 Toronto Shorts International Film Festival- Winner "Best Drama"
• 2018 Yorkton Film Festival – Nominee "Golden Sheaf Award"
• 2018 Montreal Greek Film Festival – Official Selection

Personal life[edit]

Dukakis was married to actor Louis Zorich from 1962 until his death on January 30, 2018. They have three children. She is the second cousin of politician Michael Dukakis.^[5]

Filmography[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Olympia Dukakis.

• Olympia Dukakis on IMDb
• Olympia Dukakis at the Internet Broadway Database
• Olympia Dukakis at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Olympia Dukakis at the TCM Movie Database