Biography for
Blythe Danner More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

3 February 1943, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Birth Name

Blythe Katherine Danner

Nickname

Lalo (Given by Apple, her granddaughter)

Height

5' 7" (1.70 m)

Mini Biography

Blythe studied acting and got her degree from Bard College and began her career in Boston theater companies. By 25, she won the Theater World Award for her work in Molière's "The Miser", at Lincoln Center. She also won the 1970 Tony award for her role in "Butterflies Are Free". She made her film premiere in the same year in the television production of Dr. Cook's Garden (1971) (TV). For 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival. She has also been nominated for Tonys for performances in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Betrayal". Married to director Bruce Paltrow, she is the mother of two acting children, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Paltrow.

IMDb Mini Biography By: John Sacksteder <jsack@ka.net>

Spouse

Bruce Paltrow

(14 December 1969 - 3 October 2002) (his death) 2 children

Trade Mark

Husky voice

Trivia

Won Tony for "Butterflies Are Free". [1970]

Mother, with Bruce Paltrow, of Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Paltrow.

Has two brothers, Harry Danner is an opera singer & William is a violin expert, and a sister, Dorothy Danner, who is an opera director/choreographer.

Aunt of Hillary Danner and Katherine Moennig.

1965 graduate of Bard College

Graduated high school from George School, Newtown, Pennsylvania.

She was slated to play the Stockard Channing role in the original stage production of "Six Degrees of Separation", but left the company after a few days of rehearsal.

Won Broadway's 1970 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "Butterflies Are Free." She has been nominated for Tonys three additional times: as Best Actress (Play), in 1980 for Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" and in 1988 for a revival of Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire;" and as Best Actress (Musical) in 2001 for a revival of "Follies."

The first actress to be nominated for 3 Emmy awards in the same year (2005).

Played Thomas Jefferson's wife, "Martha Jefferson", in the film version of the musical, 1776 (1972). Her daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, later portrayed the daughter of Thomas & Martha Jefferson in the film, Jefferson in Paris (1995). In Ken Burns miniseries, "Thomas Jefferson" (1997), Blythe again played "Martha Jefferson" and her daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, played Jefferson's granddaughter.

Mother-in-law of Chris Martin.

Godfather of her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow is Steven Spielberg.

Good friend of Sheila Lukins, who was the matron of honor at the wedding of Blythe and her late husband, Bruce Paltrow. Sheila is a cookbook author and a contributor to Parade Magazine.

Became a grandmother to Moses Martin (Moses Bruce Anthony Martin), child of her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow and son-in-law Chris Martin, who was born on 8 April 2006.

Became a grandmother to Apple Martin (Apple Blythe Alison Martin), child of her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow and son-in-law Chris Martin, who was born on 14 May 2004.

Of German (Pennsylvania Dutch) and Anglo-Saxon descent.

Has played the wife of two different Thomas Jeffersons. She played the wife of Thomas Jefferson (Ken Howard) in 1776 (1972), and later the wife of Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides (1991). Nolte went on to play Jefferson in Jefferson in Paris (1995), opposite her real-life daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow.

Is fluent in German, which she learned from her German grandmother.

Longtime friend of Norman Lloyd.

Personal Quotes

[on the birth of Moses, her second grandchild] We love unusual names in the family.

[on granddaughter Apple's name]: Creative people choose creative names and unusual names. I think it's a great name.