Donna Murphy- Biography

About Donna Murphy

The petite, brunette Murphy garnered critical kudos and a handful of awards, including a 1994 Best Actress Tony, for her intense, dramatic portrayal of Fosca in the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine stage musical "Passion". Portraying an ugly woman wracked by an unnamed illness who falls in love with a handsome soldier, she mesmerized audiences with the raw power of her performance. Murphy had honed her craft in the Broadway and off-Broadway arena moving from the chorus ("They're Playing Our Song") to playing leading roles ("Drood", "Song of Singapore"). She made her feature debut as a tough cop investigating a murder in William Friedkin's "Jade" (1995). That same year, she brilliantly delineated an unhappily married woman whose ex-husband becomes embroiled in a murder investigation in the ABC series "Murder One". In 1996, she returned to the stage co-starring opposite Lou Diamond Phillips in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King & I" for which she earned a second Tony Award as Lead Actress in a Musical.

Partners

Husband

Shawn Elliot. Married in 1990; acted together in the stage productions, "Jacquel Brel is Alive and Well" and "City of Angels"

Family

Daughter

Darmia Hope Elliott. Adopted from Guatemala in 2005

Father

Robert Murphy.

Mother

Jean Murphy.

Step-Daughter

Justine Elliott. Born c. 1976

Education

New York University, New York , New York

The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, New York , New York

Career Milestones

1979

Made Broadway debut in "They're Playing Our Song"

1986

First leading role on Broadway, replaced Betty Buckley in "Drood"

1987

Made her TV debut playing a singer in "A Table at Ciro's" (PBS)

1989

Appeared in the NBC daytime television drama "Another World" as District Attorney Morgan Graves

1992

Appeared off-Broadway in "Song of Singapore"

1994

Breakthrough Broadway role, playing Fosca in Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's "Passion"

1995

Appeared in the recurring role of Francesca Cross on "Murder One" (ABC)

1995

Made her feature film debut in "Jade"

1996

Co-starred with Lou Diamond Phillips in the Broadway revival of "The King & I"

1996

Recreated her stage role of Fosca in the TV production of "Passion" (PBS)

1997

Played a recurring character in "Liberty! The American Revolution" (PBS)

1998

Guest-starred as an accused murderer on the cross-over episodes of FOX's "Ally McBeal" and ABC's "The Practice"

1998

Played Mary Todd Lincoln in "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" (TNT)

2000

Co-starred with Peter Gallagher in "Center Stage"

2000

Headlined the Encores! concert staging of "Wonderful Town"

2001

Made her series debut on the ABC sitcom, "What About Joan?"

2002

Played the recurring role of Heather Olshansky on "Hack" (CBS)

2002

Played the title in Tony Kushner's "Helen"; performed off-Broadway at the Public Theatre

2003

Earned a Tony nomination for her performance in the Broadway musical, "Wonderful Town"

2004

Portrayed the wife of Alfred Molina's Dr. Otto Octavius in "Spider-Man 2"

2006

Co-starred in Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain"

2007

Earned a Tony nomination for playing Lotte Lenya in Kurt Weil's "LoveMusik"

2007

Played Scarlett Johansson's mother in "The Nanny Diaries"

2009

Had a recurring role on the short-lived series, "Trust Me" (TNT)

2010

Voiced Mother Gothel, the villainess in Disney's "Tangled"

2011

Cast in the Roundabout Theatre production of 'The People in the Picture"; earned a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical