Joanna Gleason

Joanna Gleason (born 2 June 1950) is a Canadian actress and singer. She is a Tony Award-winning musical theatre actress and has also had a number of notable film and TV roles.

Biography

Early life

Gleason was born as Joanne Hall in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the daughter of Marilyn (née Plottel), a producer, writer, and actress, and television personality Monty Hall.^[1] At the time, her father worked at the Canadian Wheat Board and had changed his name from Halprin to Hall to sound better on the radio. He later started his TV career and went on to fame as host of Let's Make a Deal. Monty Hall's brother, Robert Halprin, also changed his name to Hall.

In May 1956, the Hall family moved to New York and, in the early 1960s, they again moved to Los Angeles, California. Gleason graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1968. While attending BHHS she was in the school's productions of The Music Man, The Mikado, The Grass Harp, and The Madwoman of Chaillot. In high school Gleason received acting instruction from John Ingle, the soap-opera star, who taught at BHHS from 1955 to 1985. She continued her education at UCLA, then Occidental College, from which she graduated. Gleason has been a teacher herself, holding classes and workshops all over the country.

Career

Although Gleason has had an active film and TV career, she is probably best known for her stage work. Gleason made her Broadway debut in 1977 in I Love My Wife, for which she was honored with a Theatre World Award. Additional Broadway credits include Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, Peter Nichols A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Nick & Nora, Into the Woods (for which she won several awards including a Tony Award in the lead role of the Baker's Wife), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Cartells. In early 2002, she directed her first New York play.

Gleason's TV and film career also began in the late 1970s, first in the TV show Hello, Larry. She next appeared as the host of a short lived cable talk show Personal Side in the early 1980s. This was followed by her first film roles in Hannah and Her Sisters (a cameo) and Heartburn (both 1986). Gleason would work again with Woody Allen in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) , this time playing the wife of Allen's character.

Gleason appeared in several films in the 1990s, including F/X2, Mr. Holland's Opus, Boogie Nights, and Road Ends. More recently Gleason has appeared in The Pleasure of Your Company, Wild Blue Yonder, Fathers and Sons, and The Wedding Planner. On television, she played the role of Nadine Berkus on the show Love & War from 1992–95. In addition to acting, Gleason directed several episodes of this show. She also played the role of Joan Silver on the short lived series Temporarily Yours in 1997. Gleason starred in the Lifetime series Oh Baby as Charlotte from 1998–2000 also directing episodes of this show. Shortly following this show, she starred opposite Bette Midler and Lindsay Lohan on the show Bette as agent Connie Randolph. Gleason also appeared in several made-for-TV movies, including If These Walls Could Talk, For the Love of Aaron, Born Too Soon, and For Richer, for Poorer. She also played the Baker's Wife in the PBS Great Performances broadcast of Into the Woods. Gleason's numerous guest starring TV credits include episodes of The West Wing, The Practice, King of the Hill, Friends, Tracey Takes On..., Murphy Brown, ER, and Diff'rent Strokes.

In 2007, Gleason was honored by the New England Theatre Conference with a Special Award for her Achievement in Theatre.

Personal life

Gleason has been married to actor Chris Sarandon since 1994. The two met while performing in Broadway’s 1991 short-lived musical Nick & Nora. They returned to the stage together in 1998's Thorn and Bloom and have also have collaborated together on several films including Road Ends, Edie and Pen, Let the Devil Wear Black, and American Perfekt.

Previously Joanna Gleason was married to acting coach Paul G. Gleason, whose last name she kept as her professional surname, and later to Michael Bennahum.

Gleason and Chris Sarandon have four children between them: Aaron David Gleason, from her first marriage, and Stephanie, Alexis, and Michael Sarandon, from Sarandon's second marriage.

Gleason's siblings are television writer/director, Sharon Hall Kessler, and Emmy-award winning television writer/director, Richard Hall.

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1977 Theatre World Award – I Love My Wife
• 1986 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – It's Only a Play
• 1986 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Social Security
• 1988 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical – Into the Woods
• 1988 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical – Into the Woods

Nominations

• 1985 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Joe Egg
• 1985 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play – Joe Egg
• 2005 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical – Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
• 2005 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical – Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

References

External links

• Joanna Gleason at the Internet Broadway Database
• Joanna Gleason at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Joanna Gleason at the Internet Movie Database
• Joanna Gleason – Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
• TonyAwards.com Interview with Joanna Gleason
• BroadwayWorld: Holtzman's 'Something You Did' Premieres Off-Bway with Gleason
• Fan website