1.
Drama
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Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning action, which is derived from I do, the two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. They are symbols of the ancient Greek Muses, Thalia, Thalia was the Muse of comedy, while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy. Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the mode has been contrasted with the epic. The use of drama in a narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the modern era. Drama in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy—for example and it is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies, adopted to describe drama as a genre within their respective media. Radio drama has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow. The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production, the structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception. The early modern tragedy Hamlet by Shakespeare and the classical Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles are among the masterpieces of the art of drama, a modern example is Long Days Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill. Closet drama describes a form that is intended to be read, in improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance, performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience. Western drama originates in classical Greece, the theatrical culture of the city-state of Athens produced three genres of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Their origins remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE they were institutionalised in competitions held as part of celebrating the god Dionysus. The competition for tragedies may have begun as early as 534 BCE, tragic dramatists were required to present a tetralogy of plays, which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. Comedy was officially recognized with a prize in the competition from 487 to 486 BCE, five comic dramatists competed at the City Dionysia, each offering a single comedy. Ancient Greek comedy is traditionally divided between old comedy, middle comedy and new comedy, following the expansion of the Roman Republic into several Greek territories between 270–240 BCE, Rome encountered Greek drama. While Greek drama continued to be performed throughout the Roman period, from the beginning of the empire, however, interest in full-length drama declined in favour of a broader variety of theatrical entertainments. The first important works of Roman literature were the tragedies and comedies that Livius Andronicus wrote from 240 BCE, five years later, Gnaeus Naevius also began to write drama. No plays from either writer have survived, by the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, drama was firmly established in Rome and a guild of writers had been formed
2.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
3.
Tommy Lee Jones
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Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as U. S, marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive. Early in his career, Jones first gained recognition for his role as Dr. Mark Toland on the soap opera One Life to Live for six years. Jones was born on September 15,1946, in San Saba and his mother, Lucille Marie, was a police officer, school teacher, and beauty shop owner, and his father, Clyde C. Jones, was an oil field worker, the two were married and divorced twice. He was raised in Midland, Texas and attended Robert E. Lee High School, Jones soon moved to Dallas and graduated from the St. Marks School of Texas in 1965, which he attended on scholarship and he attended Harvard College on a need-based scholarship. He stayed in Mower B-12 as a freshman, across the hall from future Vice President Al Gore, as an upperclassman, he stayed in Dunster House with roommates Gore and Bob Somerby, who later became editor of the media criticism site the Daily Howler. He recounts his memory of the most famous game in Ivy League history in the documentary Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. Jones graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1969, Jones moved to New York to become an actor, making his Broadway debut in 1969s A Patriot for Me in a number of supporting roles. In 1970 he landed his first film role, coincidentally playing a Harvard student in Love Story, in early 1971, he returned to Broadway in Abe Burrows Four on a Garden where he shared the stage with Carol Channing and Sid Caesar. Between 1971 and 1975 he portrayed Dr. Mark Toland on the ABC soap opera and he returned to the stage for a 1974 production of Ulysses in Nighttown with Zero Mostel. It was followed by the acclaimed TV movie The Amazing Howard Hughes, in 1981, he played a drifter opposite Sally Field in Back Roads, a comedy that received middling reviews. In 1983, he received an Emmy for Best Actor for his performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in a TV adaptation of Norman Mailers The Executioners Song and that same year he starred in a pirate adventure, Nate and Hayes, playing the heavily-bearded pirate Captain Bully Hayes. In 1989, he earned another Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Texas Ranger lawman Woodrow F, call in the acclaimed television mini-series Lonesome Dove, based on the best-seller by Larry McMurtry. Marshal Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive received broad acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, actually Im lucky to be working. Jones co-starred with director Clint Eastwood as astronauts in the 2000 film Space Cowboys, in 2005, the first theatrical feature film Jones directed, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, was presented at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Joness character speaks both English and Spanish in the film and his performance won him the Best Actor Award
4.
John Grisham
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John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide, John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990 and his first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. As of 2012, his books have sold over 275 million copies worldwide, a Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell 2 million copies on a first printing. Grishams first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. Eight of his novels have also been adapted into films, The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, Skipping Christmas, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury. Grisham, the second of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda Skidmore Grisham and his father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer, while his mother was a homemaker. When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Southaven, DeSoto County, as a child, Grisham wanted to be a baseball player. Grisham has been a Christian since he was eight years old, after leaving law school, he participated in some missionary work in Brazil, under the First Baptist Church of Oxford. Although Grishams parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and he drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House. Grisham started working for a nursery as a teenager, watering bushes for US$1.00 an hour and he was soon promoted to a fence crew for US$1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job, there was no future in it, at 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he never drew inspiration from that miserable work. Through a contact of his fathers, he managed to work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident got him serious about college, a fight with gunfire broke out among the crew causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety. He did not come out until after the police had detained the perpetrators and he hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store mens underwear section and he decided to quit but stayed when he was offered a raise. He was given another raise after asking to be transferred to toys, a confrontation with a company spy posing as a customer convinced him to leave the store. By this time, Grisham was halfway through college, planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by the complexity and lunacy of it
5.
Warner Bros. Television
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Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner, as of 2015, it is the worlds largest television production company measured by revenue and library. Its most notable TV shows include Friends, ER, The West Wing, Smallville, Supernatural, The Big Bang Theory, The Wire and Full House. The division was started on March 21,1955 with its first and most successful head being Jack L. Warners son-in-law William T. Orr. ABC had major success against its competition with Walt Disneys Disneyland TV series, WB formally entered television production with the premiere of its self-titled anthology series Warner Bros. The one-hour weekly show featured rotating episodes of series based on the WB films, Casablanca and Kings Row. One such segment for Rebel Without a Cause featured Gig Young notably talking about road safety with James Dean, with only Cheyenne being a success, Warner Bros. ended the ten-minute promotions of new films and replaced Warner Bros. Presents with a series titled Conflict. It was felt that Conflict was what the series lacked. Conflict showed the pilots for Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip, the company also produced Jack Webbs Red Nightmare for the U. S. Department of Defense that was later shown on American television on Jack Webbs General Electric True. During a Hollywood television writers strike, Warner Bros. reused many plots from its films and this was another example of imitating Warner Bros B Pictures who would remake an A film and switch the setting. Two of the most popular stars, James Garner and Clint Walker, Garner never returned to the Warners fold during this period. Successful Warners television stars found themselves in leading roles of many of the films with no increase in salary. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. was simultaneously the lead of 77 Sunset Strip, in a role on Maverick. Edd Byrnes and Troy Donahue would go on to become teen heartthrobs, Warners also contracted established stars such as Ray Danton, Peter Breck, Jeanne Cooper and Grant Williams. These stars often appeared as guest stars, sometimes reprising their series role in another TV series, the stars appeared in Warner Bros. Some stars such as Connie Stevens, Edd Byrnes, Robert Conrad, depending on the particular show, William Lava or David Buttolph would compose the music, with lyrics by Stan Jones or Paul Francis Webster, among others. For the crime shows, it was up to the team of Jerry Livingston and Mack David, who also scored the themes for the sitcom Room for One More
6.
Susan Sarandon
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Susan Abigail Sarandon is an American actress and activist. She is an Academy Award and BAFTA Award winner who is known for her social and political activism for a variety of causes. She was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award in 2006, Sarandon began her career in the 1970 film Joe, before appearing in the soap opera A World Apart. In 1975, she starred in the classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Atlantic City, Thelma & Louise, Lorenzos Oil, and The Client, before winning for Dead Man Walking. She has also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Client, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress for Dead Man Walking. Her other films include, Pretty Baby, The Hunger, The Witches of Eastwick, Bull Durham, White Palace, Little Women, Stepmom, Igby Goes Down, Enchanted, The Lovely Bones, Tammy and she returned to Broadway in the 2009 revival of Exit the King. On television, she is a five-time Emmy Award nominee, including for her guest roles on the sitcoms Friends and Malcolm in the Middle, in March 2017, Sarandon began portraying Bette Davis in the first season of FXs anthology series Feud. Sarandon was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City and she is the eldest of nine children born to Lenora Marie and Phillip Leslie Tomalin, an advertising executive, television producer, and one-time nightclub singer. She has four brothers, Philip Jr. Terry, Tim and OBrian and four sisters, Meredith, Bonnie, Amanda and her father was of English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry, his English ancestors being from Hackney in London and his Welsh ancestors being from Bridgend. On her mothers side, she is of Italian descent, with ancestors from the regions of Tuscany, Sarandon was raised Roman Catholic and attended Roman Catholic schools. She grew up in Edison, New Jersey, where she graduated from Edison High School in 1964. She then attended The Catholic University of America, from 1964 to 1968, in 1969, Sarandon went to a casting call for the motion-picture Joe with her then-husband Chris Sarandon. Although he did not get a part, she was cast in a role of a disaffected teen who disappears into the seedy underworld. Between 1970 and 1972, she appeared on the soap operas A World Apart and Search for Tomorrow, playing Patrice Kahlman and Sarah Fairbanks, in 1975, she appeared in the cult favorite The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That same year, she played the female lead in The Great Waldo Pepper. She was twice directed by Louis Malle, in Pretty Baby, the latter earned Sarandon her first Academy Award nomination. Her most controversial appearance was in Tony Scotts The Hunger in 1983
7.
Ossie Davis
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Ossie Davis was an American film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author, and civil rights activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed and he and his wife were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame, were awarded the National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, in 1994, Davis was born Raiford Chatman Davis in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia, a son of Kince Charles Davis, a railway construction engineer, and his wife Laura. The name Ossie came from a county clerk who misheard his mothers pronunciation of his initials R. C. when he was born. So he inadvertently became Ossie when his mother told the clerk in Clinch County. Davis experienced racism from an age when the KKK threatened to shoot his father. His acting career, which spanned eight decades, began in 1939 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem, during World War II, Davis served in the United States Army in the Medical Corps. He made his debut in 1950 in the Sidney Poitier film No Way Out. He voiced Anansi the spider on the PBS childrens television series Sesame Street in its animation segments, instead, he tried to follow the example of Sidney Poitier and play more distinguished characters. When he found it necessary to play a Pullman porter or a butler, he played those characters realistically, however, Davis never had the tremendous commercial or critical success that Cosby and Poitier enjoyed. As a playwright, Davis wrote Paul Robeson, All-American, which is performed in theatre programs for young audiences. In 1976 Davis appeared on Muhammad Alis novelty album for children, The Adventures of Ali, Davis found recognition late in his life by working in several of director Spike Lees films, including Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, She Hate Me and Get on the Bus. In 1999, he appeared as a caretaker in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra film The Ghosts of Christmas Eve. For many years, he hosted the annual National Memorial Day Concert from Washington and his distinguished bearing made him a perfect choice for the concert. Following his passing, the hosting duties passed on to the twosome of Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna. Daviss last role was an episode guest role on the Showtime drama series The L Word. In his final episodes, his character was taken ill and died and his wife Ruby Dee was present during the filming of his own death scene. That episode, which aired shortly after Daviss own death, aired with a dedication to the actor, in 1989, Ossie Davis and his wife, actress/activist Ruby Dee, were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame
8.
Valerie Mahaffey
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Valerie Mahaffey is an American character actress and producer. She won an Emmy Award for her work on Northern Exposure and she later won fame through her portrayal of extroverted and friendly but ultimately insane women on the television shows Wings, Desperate Housewives and Devious Maids. Mahaffey was born in Indonesia and moved to Austin, Texas, Mahaffey graduated from Austin High School and attended the BFA in University of Texas at Austin in 1975 and later made her Broadway debut in musical Rex. Mahaffey was regular cast member in the soap opera The Doctors from 1979 to 1981 and she starred in the film Women of Valor in 1986 and while the characters are fictitious, it portrayed womens roles in the Philippines during World War II. As of late 1980s, Mahaffey began acting in television comedies, like Newhart, Cheers, from 1992–93, she starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom The Powers That Be. She played Tracy Milford in the 1995 film National Lampoons Senior Trip, in 1999, she had a recurring role on ER. In 2003, she starred in the film Seabiscuit, in 2009, she appeared in seven episodes United States of Tara. Her stage credits include Eastern Standard, Talking Heads, Top Girls, Mahaffey won Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as the chronic hypochondriac Eve in the CBS series Northern Exposure in 1992. Mahaffey was the actor from the series to win an Emmy Award. Mahaffey played Alma Hodge in season 3 of ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives from 2006 to 2007 and she also appeared on Glee as the mother of Emma Pillsbury from 2011 to 2013. Mahaffey co-starred as Fran Horowitz in short-lived TNT medical drama Monday Mornings in 2013, also in 2013, she had a recurring role on Lifetime Television comedy-drama series Devious Maids as Olivia Rice. Mahaffey is married to Joseph Kell, with whom she has one child, Valerie Mahaffey at the Internet Movie Database Valerie Mahaffey at the Internet Broadway Database Valerie Mahaffey on Twitter
9.
Mac Davis
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Morris Mac Davis, known as Mac Davis, is a country music singer, songwriter, and actor, originally from Lubbock, Texas, who has enjoyed much crossover success. His early work writing for Elvis Presley produced the hits Memories, In the Ghetto, Dont Cry Daddy, a subsequent solo career in the 1970s produced hits such as Baby, Dont Get Hooked on Me, making him a well-known name in pop music. He also starred in his own variety show, a Broadway musical, Davis graduated at 16 from Lubbock High School in Lubbock, Texas. Davis describes his father, who was divorced from Davis mother, as religious, very strict. Though Davis was physically small, he had a penchant for getting into fistfights, in those days, it was all about football, rodeo, and fistfights. Oh, man, I got beat up so much while I was growing up in Lubbock, Davis said in a March 2,2008, I was 5 feet,9 inches, and weighed 125 pounds. I joined Golden Gloves, but didnt do good even in my division, after he finished high school, Davis moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where his mother lived, to get out of Lubbock. Once he was settled in Atlanta, he organized a rock and roll group called the Zots, Davis also worked for the Vee Jay record company as a regional manager, and later also served as a regional manager for Liberty Records. Davis became famous as a songwriter and got his start as an employee of Nancy Sinatras company, Boots Enterprises, during his time there, he played on many of Sinatras recordings, and she worked him into her stage shows. Davis left Boots Enterprises in 1970 to sign with Columbia Records, One of the songs he wrote in 1968, called A Little Less Conversation, was recorded by Elvis Presley. Shortly after, Presley recorded Davis song In the Ghetto in his sessions in Memphis, Davis, the only Caucasian man in the room at the time, eventually told Bowen, I dont know whether to thank ya, or to kill ya. Davis eventually recorded the tune after Presleys version became a success and it was later released on a campy Rhino Records Golden Throats compilation in 1991. The song became a success for Presley and he continued to more of Davis material, such as Memories. Bobby Goldsboro also recorded some of Daviss songs, including Watching Scotty Grow, other artists who recorded his material included Vikki Carr, O. C. Smith, and Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, I Believe in Music, often considered to be Daviss signature song, was recorded by several artists before it finally became a success in 1972 for the group Gallery. Later, he became known as a country singer. Also, during the 1970s, he was active as an actor, appearing in several movies. Davis soon decided to pursue a career of his own in country music, after several years of enriching the repertoires of other artists, his big success came two years after signing with Columbia
10.
Variety (magazine)
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Variety is a weekly American entertainment trade magazine and website owned by Penske Media Corporation. The last daily printed edition was put out on March 19,2013, Variety originally reported on theater and vaudeville. Variety has been published since December 16,1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering vaudeville with its headquarters in New York City, on January 19,1907, Variety published what is considered the first film review in history. In 1933, Sime Silverman launched Daily Variety, based in Hollywood, Sime Silverman had passed on the editorship of the Weekly Variety to Abel Green as his replacement in 1931, he remained as publisher until his death in 1933 soon after launching the Daily. His son Sidne Silverman, known as Skigie, succeeded him as publisher of both publications, both Sidne and his wife, stage actress Marie Saxon, died of tuberculosis. Their only son Syd Silverman, born 1932, was the heir to what was then Variety Inc. Young Syds legal guardian Harold Erichs oversaw Variety Inc. until 1956, after that date Syd Silverman was publisher of both the Weekly Variety in New York and the Daily Variety in Hollywood, until the sale of both papers in 1987 to the Cahners Corp. In L. A. the Daily was edited by Tom Pryor from 1959 until 1988, for twenty years its editor-in-chief was Peter Bart, originally only of the weekly New York edition, with Michael Silverman running the Daily in Hollywood. Bart had worked previously at Paramount Pictures and The New York Times, in April 2009, Bart moved to the position of vice president and editorial director, characterized online as Boffo No More, Bart Up and Out at Variety. From mid 2009 to 2013, Timothy M. Gray oversaw the publication as Editor-in-Chief, after over 30 years of various reporter, in October 2014, Eller and Wallenstein were upped to Co-Editors in Chief, with Littleton continuing to oversee the trades television coverage. This dissemination comes in the form of columns, news stories, images, video, Cahners Publishing purchased Variety from the Silverman family in 1987. On December 7,1988, Barts predecessor, Roger Watkins, proposed, upon its launch, the new-look Variety measured one inch shorter with a washed-out color on the front. In October 2012, Reed Business Information, the periodicals owner, PMC is the owner of Deadline. com, which since the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike has been considered Varietys largest competitor in online showbiz news. In October,2012, Jay Penske announced that the paywall would come down, the print publication would stay. A significant portion of the advertising revenue comes during the film-award season leading up to the Academy Awards. During this Awards Season, large numbers of colorful, full-page For Your Consideration advertisements inflate the size of Variety to double or triple its usual page count, paid circulation for the weekly Variety magazine in 2013 was 40,000. Each copy of each Variety issue is read by an average of three people, with a total readership of 120,000. Variety. com has 17 million unique monthly visitors, Variety is a weekly entertainment publication with a broad coverage of movies, television, theater, music and technology, written for entertainment executives
11.
JoBeth Williams
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Margaret JoBeth Williams is an American film, television and stage actress. Her directorial debut with the 1994 short film On Hope earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film, since 2009, she has served as president of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. Williams rose to prominence appearing in films as Stir Crazy, Poltergeist, The Big Chill, The Day After, Teachers. A three-time Emmy Award nominee, she was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her work in the TV movie Adam and her third nomination was for her guest role in the sitcom Frasier. She also starred in the TV series The Client and had recurring roles in the TV series Dexter and Private Practice. Williams was born in Houston, Texas, and is the daughter of Frances Faye, a dietitian, and Fredric Roger Williams, Williams grew up in the South Park neighborhood of Houston, and attended Jones High School and graduated from there in 1966. She graduated from Pembroke College in Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1970, instead, she turned to theater, training with Jim Barnhill and John Emigh as well as at the Trinity Repertory Company, taking voice lessons to neutralize her Texan accent. Then she moved to New York City and began to appear in series in the mid 1970s. Williamss first television role was on the Boston-produced first-run syndicated childrens television series Jabberwocky and her character was named, appropriately enough, JoBeth. She joined the Jabberwocky cast in two, replacing the original hostess, Joanne Sopko. She was a regular on two operas, playing Carrie Wheeler on Somerset and Brandy Shelloe on Guiding Light. Williamss feature film came in 1979s Kramer vs. Kramer as a girlfriend of Dustin Hoffmans character. A year later she was part of the ensemble comedy-drama The Big Chill and this led to her only major starring role in a studio feature film, American Dreamer, opposite Tom Conti. High-profile co-starring roles in Teachers with Nick Nolte, Desert Bloom with Jon Voight, Memories of Me with Billy Crystal and she is also known for starring opposite Kris Kristofferson in Oscar-winning director Franklin J. Schaffners final film, the Vietnam POW drama Welcome Home. She also co-starred with Ed ONeill in director John Hughess comedy Dutch, or My Mom Will Shoot as the police detective/love interest of Sylvester Stallones character. In 1995, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her 1994 live-action short On Hope, starring Annette OToole, the film was Williamss directorial debut. In 1997, she played a lesbian in the independent comedy, Little City, with Jon Bon Jovi. In 2005 she appeared in the Drew Barrymore-Jimmy Fallon baseball comedy Fever Pitch and she earned Emmy nominations for starring as real-life characters Revé Walsh in the film Adam and Mary Beth Whitehead in Baby M
