OLYMPIA DUKAKIS Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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OLYMPIA DUKAKIS

Name: Olympia Dukakis                                                               
Born: 20 June 1931 Lowell, Massachusetts                                             
                                                                                     
Olympia Dukakis (born June 20, 1931) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.   
Dukakis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Alexandra (nee           
Christos) and Constantine S. Dukakis, a manager, both Greek immigrants to the       
United States. She has a brother, Apollo, and is a cousin of Michael                 
Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts, who was the Democratic nominee for       
president in 1988, of which she was delegate from New Jersey at the 1988             
Democratic National Convention. She is an alumna of Arlington High School in         
Arlington, Massachusetts, and was educated at Boston University.                     
                                                                                     
Dukakis has been married to actor Louis Zorich since 1962, with whom she has         
three children.                                                                     
                                                                                     
Dukakis has starred in films, including Steel Magnolias, Mr. Holland's Opus, The     
Thing About My Folks, and Moonstruck, for which she won an Oscar for Best           
Supporting Actress. She also played the role of Anna Madrigal in the Tales of       
the City television mini-series, which garnered her an Emmy Award nomination,       
she also appeared on Search for Tomorrow as Dr. Barbara Moreno, who romanced Stu     
Bergman. Her Broadway theatre credits include Who's Who in Hell, Social Security,   
and the one-woman play Rose. Her theater, film, and television work has won her     
an Obie Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, and     
a Golden Globe.                                                                     
                                                                                     
Dukakis won a BAFTA Award for Moonstruck and was nominated for the Canadian         
Academy Award for The Event. She provided the voice of Grandpa's love interest       
for The Simpsons episode "The Old Man and the Key". In 2003, Dukakis published       
her national bestselling autobiography Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress.   
Recent films include 3 Needles, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines,       
In the Land of Women, and Away From Her.