Jill Clayburgh, veteran actress of stage movies and television died Friday Nov 5th at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut aged 66, after a 21 year fight with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Her husband since 1979, David Rabe, broke the news of her death and her fight with the disease.
Clayburgh was born on April 30, 1944 in New York into a family where her father was a manufacturing executive and her mother was a theatrical production secretary to a celebrated Broadway executive. During her early years she attended a private school in Manhattan before going to Sarah Lawrence College and began acting in Boston at the Charles Street Repertory Theater, where she first started to get roles on Broadway.
During her movie career, Clayburgh received two Oscar nominations; one for “An Unmarried Woman” (1978) where she portrayed a divorced woman who begins to search out her options and opportunities and the second for “Starting Over" (1979), a comedy in which she plays the love interest of the character played by Burt Reynolds who is torn between Clayburgh and the character of his ex-wife, played by Candice Bergen.
Clayburgh’s television career, which spanned over 40 years, consisted of both comedy and drama, and won her many Emmy nominations. She appeared in "Law and Order", "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal" to name a few, as well as a pivotal role in the 2007 ABC series "Dirty Sexy Money”.
On stage she played in parts in numerous Broadway productions during the 60’s and 70’s, including two musicals that won Tony Awards, "Pippin" and "The Rothschilds." More recently in 2006 she appeared in Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” alongside Patrick Wilson and Amanda Peet.
No comments:
Post a Comment