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 and 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 also made many documentary films.

Lee Grant started her acting career in movies in 1951. Her first film was Detective Story. For this role, she was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Best Actress Award at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. Later, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie Shampoo (1975).

In the 1950s, Lee Grant faced a difficult time. She was one of many people in the entertainment industry who were unfairly stopped from working. This was because of their political beliefs. For 12 years, it was very hard for her to find acting jobs. However, she still managed to work sometimes in movies, on stage, and as a teacher. In the mid-1960s, she started getting more roles and worked hard to rebuild her career.

Grant starred in many TV episodes of Peyton Place (1965–1966). She also had important roles in films like Valley of the Dolls and In the Heat of the Night in 1967. She won two Emmy Awards during her career.

Later, Lee Grant began directing films. In 1986, she won a Directors Guild of America Award for her TV movie Nobody's Child. In 1987, her documentary film Down and Out in America won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Early Life and Training

Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal in Manhattan, New York City. She was the only child of Witia Haskell and Abraham W. Rosenthal. Her father's family came from Poland, and her mother was from Russia. Both families were Jewish.

Grant started performing very young. She made her stage debut in an opera called L'Oracolo in 1931. She also joined the American Ballet when she was a teenager. She studied at several schools in New York City, including the Juilliard School and The High School of Music & Art.

After high school, she earned a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. There, she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. She also trained at the Actors Studio in New York.

Acting Career

Early Years (1930s–1950s)

Lee Grant had her first ballet performance in 1933. In 1938, she became a member of the American Ballet. She began her acting career on stage in 1944. Her first major role was in the play Detective Story in 1949. She played a shoplifter and received good reviews.

She then appeared in the film version of Detective Story in 1951. This movie starred Kirk Douglas. For this role, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. She enjoyed working with director William Wyler.

In 1951, Lee Grant spoke at a memorial for actor J. Edward Bromberg. He had been called before a government committee that investigated people's political beliefs. Soon after, Lee Grant's name appeared in a publication called Red Channels. This led to her being unfairly stopped from working in television and movies for 12 years. This period is known as the "blacklist."

Kirk Douglas remembered that Lee Grant was a talented young actress. He said she was blacklisted because her husband was named by someone else. Grant refused to speak about her husband to the committee. It took many years for her to get acting jobs again.

During the blacklist years, Grant appeared in some plays and a few small TV roles. In 1953, she was in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow. On stage, she took over the lead role in Two for the Seesaw in 1959. She also had a supporting role in the movie Middle of the Night that same year.

Rebuilding Her Career (1960s)

Grant in 1961

By the mid-1960s, Lee Grant was no longer on the blacklist. She had her daughter, Dinah Manoff, and later got divorced. She then focused on restarting her TV and movie career. She wrote that her daughter 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 1963, she was praised for her role in the play The Maids. In 1967, she played a grieving widow in the Oscar-winning film In the Heat of the Night.

In 1968, Grant appeared in an episode of Mission Impossible. In 1969, she had supporting roles in The Big Bounce and Marooned.

Film Success (1970s)

In the 1970s, Lee Grant received three more Academy Award nominations. These were for The Landlord (1970), Shampoo (1975), and Voyage of the Damned (1976). She also acted in Plaza Suite (1971), a popular comedy.

In March 1971, Grant played a murderer in the Columbo episode "Ransom for a Dead Man." 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 also worked with actor Peter Falk again on Broadway. They were in the play The Prisoner of Second Avenue, written by Neil Simon. Neil Simon said that Grant was his top choice for the part. He noted she could be serious or very funny.

Grant played Warren Beatty's older girlfriend in Shampoo (1975). For this role, she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The film was a huge success. Grant had some disagreements with Beatty during filming. She wanted to play a scene in a way she felt was more realistic for a woman. Beatty disagreed, but eventually let her do it her way.

Grant in 1975

Even with her success, Grant felt unsure about her career in Hollywood. She was around 50 years old and worried that older women were not given many roles in movies or TV.

In 1975-76, she starred in the TV show Fay, but it was canceled quickly. In 1977, she was in the disaster movie Airport '77. In 1978, she played the lead in the horror film Damien: Omen II. Both films were financially successful. She also made a guest appearance in Empty Nest, which starred her daughter, Dinah Manoff.

In the late 1970s, the American Film Institute invited Grant to a workshop for women directors. She successfully directed a short film called The Stronger in 1976.

Directing Career (1980s–Present)

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 to protest unfair pay at a bank.

Grant continued to direct many documentaries about social issues. These included When Women Kill (1983) about women in prison. She also directed What Sex Am I? (1985) about transgender people. And Women on Trial (1992) was about women fighting to keep their children in court.

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

In 1986, Grant directed Down and Out in America. This documentary won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It showed the struggles of farmers losing their farms and people experiencing homelessness and unemployment. In the same year, she directed Nobody's Child, a TV movie. This film was about a woman who had been in a mental institution for 20 years. Lee Grant became the first female director to win the Directors Guild of America Award.

She also starred in an HBO remake of Plaza Suite in 1982. She played three different characters with Jerry Orbach. Actor Bruce Dern worked with her in The Big Town. He said Lee Grant was a "fabulous actress."

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.

Actress Sissy Spacek agreed to be in the movie Hard Promises (1991) just to work with Grant. However, Grant was later replaced as the director. In 1992, Grant played Dora Cohn in the TV film Citizen Cohn. This role earned her another Emmy nomination. In 1994, she directed the TV film Seasons of the Heart.

Recent Years (2000s–Present)

In 2001, Lee Grant appeared in David Lynch's movie Mulholland Drive. From 2004 to 2007, she was one of the artistic directors for the Actors Studio. In the early 2000s, Grant directed many episodes of Intimate Portrait for Lifetime Television. These episodes celebrated successful women.

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

After a long break, Lee Grant had a small voice role in the film Killian & the Comeback Kids (2020).

In 2020, her documentary films from the 1980s and 1990s were honored. The American Film Institute held a program called "20th Century Woman: The Documentary Films of Lee Grant."

As of 2022, Lee Grant is still the only person to win both an Academy Award for acting and an Academy Award for directing a documentary.

In January 2024, she attended the New York Film Festival. Two of her early directed films were shown there. She also spoke about her directing career in a discussion.

Filmography

Actress

Director

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Lee Grant para niños