Lee Grant facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lee Grant
Grant in 1967
Born	Lyova Haskell Rosenthal October 31, during the mid-1920s (age 97–99) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre Actors Studio
Occupation	Actress director
Years active	1931–present
Spouse(s)	Arnold Manoff ​ ​ (m. 1951; div. 1960)​ Joseph Feury ​ (m. 1970)​
Children	2, including Dinah Manoff

Lee Grant (born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal; October 31, during the mid-1920s) is an American actress and director. She has worked in movies and TV for over 70 years. She won an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Directors Guild of America Award. She was also nominated for five Golden Globe Awards. Lee Grant is one of the last actors still alive from a time when many people in Hollywood were unfairly stopped from working.

Grant started her career on Broadway in a play called Detective Story (1949). She played the same role in the movie version (1951). For this, she was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Her career was paused for 12 years because she refused to answer questions from a government committee. During this time, she taught acting and took small roles using different names.

She became famous again in the TV series Peyton Place (1965-1966). She won an Emmy Award for her role. She also appeared in movies like In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Shampoo (1975). She won an Academy Award for her role in Shampoo.

In the 1980s, Grant started directing films, especially documentaries and TV movies. She won a Directors Guild of America Award for Nobody’s Child (1986). Her film Down and Out in America (1986) won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. This made her the only Academy Award-winning actor to also direct an Academy Award-winning documentary. She continued directing into the 2000s and still acted sometimes.

About Lee Grant's Early Life

Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal in Manhattan, New York City. She was the only child of Witia Haskell, who worked with children, and Abraham W. Rosenthal, a real estate agent and teacher. Her father's family were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Her mother was a Jewish immigrant from Russia who left her home to escape difficult times.

Lee Grant's birthday is October 31. The exact year she was born is not clear, but it was likely between 1925 and 1927.

She first performed on stage in 1931 at the Metropolitan Opera. Later, as a teenager, she joined the American Ballet. She studied at several schools in New York City, including the Juilliard School of Music. Grant earned a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. There, she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. She also studied at the Actors Studio in New York.

Lee Grant's Acting Career

Starting Out in the 1930s to 1950s

Lee Grant had her first ballet performance in 1933. In 1938, she became a member of the American Ballet. As an actress, she first performed on Broadway in 1944. In 1949, she became well-known for her role as a shoplifter in the play Detective Story.

Two years later, she made her movie debut in the 1951 film version of Detective Story. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1951, her career was put on hold. Her name appeared in a publication called Red Channels. This happened because she refused to answer questions from a government committee about her beliefs. For the next 12 years, she was "blacklisted." This meant it was very hard for her to find work in TV and movies.

During this time, she appeared in some plays and a few small TV and movie roles. In 1953, she played Rose Peabody in the TV show Search for Tomorrow. She also had roles in the films Storm Fear (1955) and Middle of the Night (1959).

Returning to Acting in the 1960s

Grant in 1961

By the mid-1960s, Lee Grant was able to work freely again. She began to rebuild her TV and movie career. She has said that her daughter, Dinah, and her anger about losing 12 years of work motivated her.

Her first big success after the blacklist was in the TV series Peyton Place. She played Stella Chernak and won an Emmy Award in 1966. In 1967, she played a sad widow in the movie In the Heat of the Night, which won an Oscar. In 1968, she appeared in an episode of Mission Impossible.

Success in the 1970s

Grant in 1975

Grant at the premiere of F.I.S.T. (April 1978)

Lee Grant was nominated for three Academy Awards in the 1970s. These were for The Landlord (1970), Shampoo (1975), and Voyage of the Damned (1976). In Plaza Suite (1971), a comedy, she played a busy mother.

In 1971, Grant played a murderer in the TV show Columbo pilot episode. She was nominated for an Emmy for this role. That same year, she won another Emmy for her performance in the TV film The Neon Ceiling.

Grant won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Shampoo (1975). This movie was a huge success. Even though her career was doing well, Grant felt worried about getting older in Hollywood. She knew that roles for women of a certain age were harder to find.

From 1975 to 1976, she starred in the TV comedy Fay, but it was canceled after eight episodes. In 1977, she was in the disaster movie Airport '77. In 1978, she was the main actress in the horror film Damien - Omen II. Both films made money, even though critics didn't like them much.

In the late 1970s, Grant started learning about directing films. She adapted a play called The Stronger in 1976.

Lee Grant as a Director

Directing in the 1980s and 1990s

In 1980, Lee Grant directed her first full-length movie, Tell Me a Riddle. It was a story about an older Jewish couple. After that, she directed a documentary called The Willmar 8. This film was about eight women who went on strike at a bank to protest unfair pay. Grant went on to direct many documentaries about important social issues. These included films about women in prison, transgender people, and women facing domestic abuse.

In 1986, Grant directed Down and Out in America. This documentary won an Academy Award for Documentary Feature. It showed the struggles of people losing their farms and facing homelessness. In the same year, she directed Nobody's Child, a TV movie. Grant became the first female director to win the Directors Guild of America Award.

In 1988, she received the Women in Film Crystal Award. This award honors women who have helped expand the role of women in the entertainment industry through their work.

In 1992, Grant played Dora Cohn in the TV film Citizen Cohn. She was nominated for another Emmy Award for this role. In 1994, she directed the TV film Seasons of the Heart.

Recent Work (2000s–Present)

In 2001, Lee Grant acted in the movie Mulholland Drive. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead the Actors Studio as a co-artistic director. In the early 2000s, Grant directed many episodes of a TV series called Intimate Portrait. This show celebrated many successful women.

In 2013, Grant returned to the stage for one performance of The Gin Game. Her daughter, Dinah Manoff, directed the play.

After not acting for 14 years, Lee Grant had a small voice role in the film Killian & the Comeback Kids (2020).

Her work directing documentaries in the 1980s and 1990s was honored in 2020. She is still the only Academy Award-winning actor to also direct an Academy Award-winning documentary.

In January 2024, she attended the New York Film Festival. Two of her early directed films were shown there, and she talked about her directing career.

Lee Grant's Filmography

As an Actress

As a Director

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Lee Grant para niños