Main
|
From
Ephraim Katz's Film Encyclopedia:
Danner, Blythe. Actress. Both on
Feb. 3, 1943, in Philadelphia. ed. Bard
Coll. Leading lady of American stage, TV, and films of
the 70s. She won a Tony Award for her performance in
Broadway's 'Butterflies Are Free,' and co-starred in the
short-lived TV series "Adam's Rib." Married
writer-producer Bruce Paltrow. Their daughter is actress
Gwyneth Paltrow.
From the All
Movie Guide:
American actress Blythe Danner, the daughter of a bank
executive, enjoyed an expensive education at prep school
and at Bard College. Her earliest theatrical work was
with the Theater Company of Boston and the Trinity Square
Playhouse of Boston; by the time she was 25 she'd won the
Theatre World Award for her performance in the Lincoln
Center Rep's production of The Miser. In 1969, she played
the free-spirit ingenue in "Butterflies are
Free," which was based on the life story of a blind
attorney and which won the actress a Tony Award. Given
the tenor of 1970s newspaper publicity, Danner was
featured in several magazine and newspaper photo spreads
because she spent much of "Butterflies'" first
act clad in nothing but her underwear. The actress was
frequently cast opposite fellow up-and-comer Ken Howard,
notably in the short-lived 1973 TV sitcom "Adam's
Rib." She worked so well with Howard that many fans
assumed the two were married; in fact, Blythe's longtime
husband was Broadway and TV producer Bruce Paltrow. A
"critic's darling" thanks to her husky voice
and pleasantly mannered acting style, Danner has worked
with distinction in TV and on stage, though her film
roles are few and far between; she was memorable as
Robert Duvall's long-suffering wife in The
Great Santini (1979) and as Nick
Nolte's wife in The Prince of Tides (1991),
while in 1986's Brighton Beach
Memoirs, the decidedly WASPish
Danner surprised fans by portraying a middle-aged Jewish
lady. Frequently seen in TV guest roles (she managed to
make her Mrs. Albert Speer in 1982's "Inside the
Third Reich" sympathetic -- no mean feat), Danner
was last seen on television on a regular basis in the
brief 1988 series "Tattinger's," produced by
husband Bruce Paltrow. -- Hal Erickson
|