Jill Clayburgh (born April 30, 1944) is an
American actress.
Personal life
Clayburgh was born in
New York City, the daughter of Julia Louise (
née Dorr), a theatrical production secretary for
David Merrick, and Albert Henry "Bill" Clayburgh, a manufacturing executive.
[PAW | Albert H. Clayburgh '31][Jill Clayburgh Biography (1944-)][Jill Clayburgh Biography - Yahoo! Movies] Clayburgh's father's family was
Jewish and
upper class;
she was raised in a "fashionable" neighborhood on
Manhattan's
Upper East Side, where she attended the prestigious
Brearley School.
She attended
Sarah Lawrence College, where she decided that she wanted to be an actress.
Clayburgh has been married to screenwriter and playwright
David Rabe since 1979. They have one son and one daughter, actress
Lily Rabe.
Career
Clayburgh joined the Charles Street Repertory Theater in
Boston. She appeared in numerous
Broadway productions in the 1960s and 1970s, including
The Rothschilds and
Pippin. Clayburgh made her screen debut in
The Wedding Party, filmed in 1963 but not released until six years later, and gained attention with roles such as that of Gene Wilder's love interest in the 1976 comedy-mystery
Silver Streak, co-starring
Richard Pryor.
She was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actress for 1978's
An Unmarried Woman, for which she won the "
Best Actress Award" at the
Cannes Film Festival, and for 1979's
Starting Over, a comedy with
Burt Reynolds. She also received strong notices for a dramatic performance in
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (which co-starred
Geraldine Page).
Her other films include
Portnoy's Complaint,
Gable and Lombard (in which she portrayed screen legend
Carole Lombard), as a pro football team owner's daughter in
Semi-Tough, as a mathematician in
It's My Turn (in which she teaches the proof of the
snake lemma) , as a conservative Supreme Court justice in
First Monday in October and in
La Luna, a controversial role in Bernardo Bertolucci's critically panned film. (It includes a scene in which her character masturbates her son in an attempt to help his heroin addiction.)
Television audiences know Clayburgh from numerous roles in series and movies including
The Practice and as
Ally McBeals mother. She received Emmy Award nominations for her work in the made-for-television movie Hustling
in 1975 and for guest appearances in the series Nip/Tuck in 2005.
In 2006, she appeared on Broadway in
Neil Simon's
Barefoot in the Park with
Patrick Wilson and
Amanda Peet; she played Peet's mother, a role originated by
Mildred Natwick. She also returned to the screen as a therapist's eccentric wife in the all-star ensemble dramedy
Running With Scissors, an autobiographical tale of teenage angst and dysfunction based on the book by
Augusten Burroughs and co-starring
Annette Bening,
Brian Cox,
Joseph Fiennes,
Evan Rachel Wood,
Alec Baldwin and
Gwyneth Paltrow. Her next role will be as
Pat Nixon in the film
Dirty Tricks, directed by
Running With Scissors director
Ryan Murphy.
During 2007, Clayburgh appeared in the
ABC television series Dirty Sexy Money, playing Letitia Darling.
Filmography
