BLYTHE DANNER

Date of Birth: February 3, 1943

Born in Philadelphia, Blythe Danner's father was a bank executive, and she enjoyed an expensive prep school education and undergraduate study at Bard College in New York. Danner holds a B.A. in drama as well as honorary doctorate degrees in fine arts from Bard, Williams College and Hobart/William Smith Colleges.

Her earliest performances were in Boston at the Theater Company of Boston and the Trinity Square Playhouse. By the time she was 25, Danner had won a Theatre World Award for her performance in the Lincoln Center's production of The Miser.

Danner won a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in Butterflies Are Free, and Tony nominations for Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire and Emma in Harold Pinter's Betrayal. Other Broadway credits include The Philadelphia Story, Blithe Spirit with Geraldine Page, and the Roundabout Theater production of The Deep Blue Sea.

She has been a member of the Williamstown Theater Festival for over 20 years and has also appeared at other leading venues such as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Repertory Company of Lincoln Center in New York, and the New York Shakespeare Festival, playing Beatrice to Kevin Kline's Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing.

Frequently cast opposite fellow actor Ken Howard, most notably in the short-lived 1973 TV sitcom Adam's Rib, many fans assumed that the two were married; in fact, Danner's longtime husband was the late producer/director Bruce Paltrow. The two married in 1970 and have two children, director Jake Paltrow, and Academy Award-winning actress, Gwyneth Paltrow.

In 1992 Danner starred in the TV film, Cruel Doubt. In it she played a mother falsely accused of murdering her husband. Her daughter in the film was played by none other than her real-life daughter Gwyneth. Danner has also starred in TV movies such as HBO's Judgment, for which she received a Cable ACE Award nomination, A Love Affair, Eleanor and Lou Gehrig's Story, Too Far to Go and Guilty Conscience with Anthony Hopkins. Danner has also appeared on the TV series' Tattinger's, M*A*S*H and St. Elsewhere (which was produced by her husband).

Among her many film credits are The Prince of Tides directed by Barbra Streisand; three Woody Allen films; The Great Santini opposite Robert Duvall; Costa Gavras' Mad City; The X-Files Movie; Edward Burns' No Looking Back; Forces of Nature; The Love Letter, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers. She most recently stars alongside Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling in the romantic drama The Lucky One (2012), based on the book by Nicholas Sparks.

She won back-to-back Emmy awards in 2005 and 2006 for her supporting role in the TV series Huff.