Biography for
Lee Grant (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

31 October 1927, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name

Lyova Haskell Rosenthal

Height

5' 3¾" (1.62 m)

Mini Biography

Academy Award winner Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal in New York City on October 31, 1927. She made her stage debut at age 4 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, playing the abducted princess in "L'Orocolo". After graduating from high school, she won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. When she was a teenager Grant established herself as a formidable Broadway talent when she won The Critics' Circle Award for her portrayal of the shoplifter in "Detective Story". She reprised the role in the film version (Detective Story (1951), a performance that garnered her the Cannes Film Festival Citation for Best Actress as well as her first Academy Award Nomination. Immediately following her screen debut, however, Lee became a victim of the McCarthy-era blacklists in which actors, writers, directors, etc., were persecuted for supposedly "Communist" or "progressive" political beliefs, whether they had them or not. Except for an occasional role, she did not work in film or television for 10 years. In 1966 Lee re-started her acting career in the TV series "Peyton Place" (1964), for which she won an Emmy Award as Stella Chernak, and she later garnered her first Academy Award for Shampoo (1975), also receiving Academy Award nominations for The Landlord (1970) and Voyage of the Damned (1976). Since 1980 Lee has been concentrating on her directorial career, which began as part of the Women's Project at The Americal Film Institute (AFI); her adaptation of August Strindberg's, "Stronger, The" was consequently selected as one of the 10 best films ever produced for AFI. In 1987 she received an Academy Award for the HBO documentary, Down and Out in America (1986) and directed Nobody's Child (1986) (TV) for CBS, for which she received the Directors Guild Award. In 1983 she received the Congressional Arts Caucus Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting and Independent Filmmaking. Subsequently, Women in Film paid tribute to her in 1989, with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. Both the New York City Council and the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors have recognized Ms. Grant for the contribution her films have made to the fight against domestic violence.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Collins II <garyrick96@hotmail.com>

Spouse

Joseph Feury	(1962 - present)
Arnold Manoff	(1951 - 1960) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Mother of Dinah Manoff

Was blacklisted in 1951 by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for refusing to testify against her husband, blacklisted playwright/screenwriter Arnold Manoff. As a result, she got very little work for about 12 years.

Turned down the role of Dorothy in "The Golden Girls" (1985), because she didn't want to play a grandmother.

She studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Revealed in 1978, along with many other actresses, that she had underwent an abortion early in her career.

Has three grandsons - Dashiell (b. 1997), Oliver (b. 2002) and Desi (b. 2002) - via her daughter Dinah Manoff.

Personal Quotes

Many of the things I accomplished in life are because I was dead set on proving somebody wrong.

The Oscar has endured because of our yearning for excellence. Getting one is like being appointed valedictorian from the bottom of the class. The "outs", like me, get their moment to be "in", for as long as it lasts.

[Academy Award acceptance speech]: Thank you. I really must have wanted, otherwise: Why would I worn all wedding dress? (laughter from the audience) I think we had a fight twenty years ago (referring to her being blacklisted), but he's changed, I know I haven't. But I would like to thank the artistic community for sustaining me in my wins and losses and sitting on the curb, whatever it was. I don't think there is an award for what Warren Beatty had to do to get Shampoo on, but I respect him and love him, and Robert Towne, and my director Hal Ashby who encourages an actor to fly without a neck because you know that he's there to catch you. Thank you.