MERCEDES RUEHL
Name: Mercedes Ruehl
Born: 28 February 1948 Queens, New York, U.S.
Mercedes Ruehl (February 28, 1948) is a Golden Globe, Tony and Academy Award-winning
American theater and film actress.
Ruehl was born in Queens, New York. Her father was an FBI agent and her mother,
also named Mercedes, was a school teacher. She was raised Catholic, and
has German, Irish, and Cuban ancestry. Ruehl attended College of New Rochelle
and graduated in 1969. She is married to painter David Geiser, with whom she
adopted a son, Jake (born 1997). She had another son, Christopher, whom she
placed in adoption in 1976; Christopher later became Jake's godfather.
Ruehl began her career in regional theatre, taking odd jobs between engagements.
In the late 1970s, Ruehl began chalking up New York stage successes, notably in
I'm Not Rappaport (1985). On the stage, she won the 1985 Obie Award for her
performance in The Marriage of Bette and Boo and twenty years later, an Obie for
Woman Before a Glass. She also received a 1991 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play)
for Lost in Yonkers. Her performances in two other plays earned her two other
Tony nominations:
In 1995 as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for a revival of The Shadow Box;
In 2002 as Best Actress (Play) for Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?.
Her most acclaimed film role was in The Fisher King; her performance in the film
earned her the 1991 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as an
American Comedy Award, a Boston Society of Film Critics Award, a Los Angeles
Film Critics Association Award, and a Golden Globe. Earlier she had won the 1989
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in Married to the Mob. She played KACL station manager Kate Costas
in five episodes of Frasier, and had a major role in the made-for-TV film All-American
Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story.She is the first Cuban American female
Academy Award winner.
She has also played the mother of Vincent Chase in HBO's Entourage.
Name: Mercedes Ruehl
Born: 28 February 1948 Queens, New York, U.S.
Mercedes Ruehl (February 28, 1948) is a Golden Globe, Tony and Academy Award-winning
American theater and film actress.
Ruehl was born in Queens, New York. Her father was an FBI agent and her mother,
also named Mercedes, was a school teacher. She was raised Catholic, and
has German, Irish, and Cuban ancestry. Ruehl attended College of New Rochelle
and graduated in 1969. She is married to painter David Geiser, with whom she
adopted a son, Jake (born 1997). She had another son, Christopher, whom she
placed in adoption in 1976; Christopher later became Jake's godfather.
Ruehl began her career in regional theatre, taking odd jobs between engagements.
In the late 1970s, Ruehl began chalking up New York stage successes, notably in
I'm Not Rappaport (1985). On the stage, she won the 1985 Obie Award for her
performance in The Marriage of Bette and Boo and twenty years later, an Obie for
Woman Before a Glass. She also received a 1991 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play)
for Lost in Yonkers. Her performances in two other plays earned her two other
Tony nominations:
In 1995 as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for a revival of The Shadow Box;
In 2002 as Best Actress (Play) for Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?.
Her most acclaimed film role was in The Fisher King; her performance in the film
earned her the 1991 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as an
American Comedy Award, a Boston Society of Film Critics Award, a Los Angeles
Film Critics Association Award, and a Golden Globe. Earlier she had won the 1989
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in Married to the Mob. She played KACL station manager Kate Costas
in five episodes of Frasier, and had a major role in the made-for-TV film All-American
Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story.She is the first Cuban American female
Academy Award winner.
She has also played the mother of Vincent Chase in HBO's Entourage.