Olympia Dukakis

Olympia Dukakis had racked up hundreds of credits on stage in a thirty year career before becoming an "overnight success" as Cher's knowing mother in Norman Jewison's "Moonstruck" (1987).

The daughter of Greek immigrants, the Massachusetts native received two degrees from Boston University and supported herself as a physical therapist while amassing the first of her numerous stage credits as a founding member of the Charles Playhouse in Boston. She made her off-Broadway debut in 1960 and within two years was on Broadway in "The Aspern Papers". Dukakis went on to appear in classics and contemporary plays, mostly in East Coast productions. From 1967-70 and again from 1974-83, she taught acting at New York University. In 1973, she was a founding member and artistic director of The Whole Theater Company in Montclair, NJ, a post she held until 1988 when the theater folded (ironically just as her career was on the ascent).

Dukakis made her feature film debut in Robert Rossen's "Lilith" as a patient in a mental institution. Many of her subsequent roles were as Jewish or Italian mothers to actors from Dustin Hoffman ("John and Mary" 1969) to Joseph Bologna ("Made for Each Other" 1971) to Ray Sharkey ("The Idolmaker" 1980). Mike Nichols hired her to be Meryl Streep's mother in "Heartburn" (1986) but her scenes were not in the finished film. In compensation, Nichols hired Dukakis to co-star as an elderly woman with a penchant for literally chewing the scenery in the Broadway comedy "Social Security" (1986). That performance caught the attention of Norman Jewison who cast her in "Moonstruck". Dukakis earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrait of a complex, middle-aged wife and mother and her career shifted into high gear. She was briefly seen in Nichols' "Working Girl" (1988), was Kirstie Alley's mother in "Look Who's Talking", Jack Lemmon's aging wife in "Dad" and an elegant widow in "Steel Magnolias" (all 1989). She had a rare lead in "The Cemetery Club" (1993) before taking on roles as varied as a mother proud of her pre-operative transsexual son in "Jeffrey" to a member of the chorus in Woody Allen's "Mighty Aphrodite" to the disapproving high school principal in "Mr. Holland's Opus" (all 1995).

Dukakis has worked infrequently on the small screen as well. Her TV-movie debut was as a member of a close-knit Greek family in the failed pilot "Nicky's World" (CBS, 1974). Other notable roles include an aging actress desirous of a comeback in "The Last Act Is a Solo" (A&E, 1991), for which she won a CableACE Award, the mother of actor-singer Frank Sinatra in the CBS miniseries "Sinatra" (1992) and the eccentric landlady with a secret in "Armistead Maupin's 'Tales of the City'" (PBS, 1994). She reprised the latter role in the 1998 Showtime miniseries "Armistead Maupin's 'More Tales of the City'".

• Born:
  June 20, 1931 in Lowell, Massachusetts
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Drama teacher, Theater administrator, Physical therapist

Family

• Brother: Apollo Dukakis.
• Cousin: Michael Dukakis. former governor of Massachusetts and former candidate for the US Presidency
• Daughter: Christina Zorich.
• Father: Constantine Dukakis. Greek immigrant
• Mother: Alexandra Dukakis. Greek immigrant
• Son: Peter Zorich. co-founded a line of food products called "Famous Fixins"
• Son: Stefan Zorich.

Education

• Sargent College, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, BA, 1953
• Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, theater arts, MFA, 1957

Milestones

• 1957 Founding member of the Charles Street Playhouse, Boston, Massachusetts
• 1960 Off-Broadway debut, "The Breaking Wall"
• 1961 Began affiliation with the Williamstown Theatre Festival
• 1962 Broadway debut, "The Aspern Papers"
• 1964 Appeared in Gregory Markopoulos's experimental film "Twice a Man"
• 1964 Feature film debut in "Lilith"
• 1974 TV-movie debut in "Nicky's World"
• 1987 Breakthrough film role, Rose Castorini, in Norman Jewison's "Moonstruck"
• 1989 First played Kirstie Alley's mother in "Look Who's Talking"; reprised part in two sequels
• 1989 Had featured role in the ensemble of "Steel Magnolias"
• 1991 Portrayed an aging actress desperate for a comeback in "The Last Act Is a Solo" (A&E)
• 1991 Received first Emmy nomination for her supporting performance as the alcoholic mother of a mentally-challenged woman who has won the lottery in "Luck Day" (ABC)
• 1992 Cast as matriarch Dolly Sinatra in the CBS miniseries "Sinatra"
• 1993 Had rare lead as a Jewish widow in "The Cemetery Club"
• 1994 Portrayed Anna Madrigal, the landlady with a penchant for growing marijuana, in "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City" (PBS)
• 1995 Appeared on stage as "Hecuba" in a translation by Timberlake Wertenbaker
• 1995 Made cameo appearance as the mother of a transsexual in "Jeffrey"
• 1995 Played the tough principal who mentors Richard Dreyfuss' music teacher in "Mr. Holland's Opus"
• 1996 Returned to the NYC stages in the off-Broadway production of "The Hope Zone"
• 1997 Appeared as Jennifer Aniston's mother in "Picture Perfect"
• 1998 Reprised Anna Madrigal in the Showtime sequel "Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City"; received Emmy nomination
• 1998 Undertook the role of Queen Lear in a distaff retelling of Shakespeare's classic in the stage production "The Lear Project"
• 1999 Made London stage debut in one-person show "Rose", a drama about a Holocaust survivor written by Martin Sherman; opened on Broadway in spring 2000
• 1999 Offered a potent cameo in the CBS miniseries "Joan of Arc"; netted third Emmy nomination
• 2000 Co-starred with Judi Dench in "The Last of the Blonde Bombshells" (HBO), playing an alcoholic saxophone player
• 2001 Had leading role in Timberlake Wertenbaker's stage play "Credible Witness" in London
• 2001 Reprised Anna Madrigal in "Armistead Maupin's Further Tales of the City" (Showtime)
• 2002 Co-starred with Janet McTeer and Brenda Fricker in "Innocence," directed by Kristian Levering
• 2004 Cast in the CBS comedy "Center of the Universe" opposite John Goodman and Ed Asner
• 2005 Cast in "The Thing About My Folks" penned by and co-starring Paul Reiser
• 2006 Co-starred in "3 Needles," one of three short stories about the global HIV pandemic, directed by Thom Fitzgerald
• 2007 Co-starred with Adam Brody and Meg Ryan in Jonathan Kasdan's directorial debut "In the Land of Women"
• Appeared regularly on the NBC daytime drama "Search for Tomorrow"
• Founding member and artistic director of The Whole Theater Company, Montclair, New Jersey
• Returned to NYU to teach acting
• Taught acting at New York University