Judith Ivey Biography

Judith Lee Ivey (born September 4, 1951) is an American actress and director.

Personal life

Ivey was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Lee (née Lewis), a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean. She spent 1965"1968 in Dowagiac, Michigan, where she attended Union High School through tenth grade. Judith graduated from Marion High School in Marion, Illinois in 1970. Ivey is an alumna of John A. Logan College, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Illinois State University. Ivey was first married to the actor Ricardo Gutierrez. They divorced before her move to New York City. She is married to Tim Braine (her second marriage) and the couple have two children, Maggie and Tom.

Career

Despite a long history of theater and film performances, Ivey is often associated with her one-year run on Designing Women in its final season, playing the Texan B.J. Poteet. Ivey replaced Julia Duffy's Alison Sugarbaker, who was herself a replacement for Delta Burke's character, Suzanne Sugarbaker. She also played a notable role on the television show Will & Grace where she portrayed the mother of Dr. Leo Markus. She has also played Lavinia Pennymon, the doting aunt, in the revival of the play, The Heiress

Ivey won two Tony Awards as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Steaming in 1983 and Hurlyburly in 1985. She was also nominated for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard in 1992. Other theatre credits include Piaf, Bedroom Farce, Precious Sons, Blithe Spirit, Voices in the Dark, and Follies Recently, she portrayed Amanda in The Glass Menagerie at the Long Wharf Theatre and reprised the role in March 2010 at the Roundabout Theatre in New York, as well as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Ivey portrayed Ann Landers in the solo play The Lady With All the Answers at the Off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre in October 2009.

Ivey has been in many films, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Miles from Home, Compromising Positions, Harry & Son, The Woman in Red, Sister, Sister, In Country, Hello Again, The Lonely Guy, There Goes the Neighborhood, The Devil's Advocate, What Alice Found, and Flags of Our Fathers

Other television roles include starring roles as Kate McCrorey in the 1990"91 series Down Home, set in a Texas coastal town, and as Alexandria Buchanan in the short-lived series The 5 Mrs. Buchanans. Ivey was also in the 1985 TV remake of The Long Hot Summer, in the role of Noel Varner (Joanne Woodward's role in the 1958 film version). The miniseries also starred Jason Robards and Don Johnson, and was nominated for three Emmys. She also provided the voice of Eleanor Sherman in the animated series The Critic.

Stage directing credits

• Vanities: A New Musical " Pasadena Playhouse
• Fugue " Cherry Lane Theatre, off-Broadway
• Southern Comforts " Primary Stages, off-Broadway
• Secrets of a Soccer Mom " Snapple Theatre (Off-Broadway)
• Bad Dates " Northlight Repertory Theatre, Chicago
• Bad Dates " Laguna Playhouse
• Steel Magnolias " Alley Theatre
• More " Union Square Theatre, off-Broadway
• More " Falcon Theatre, Los Angeles
• Waiting for the Flood " ACT, San Francisco
• Two for the Seesaw " Westport Playhouse
• The Go-For-It Guy " Aspen Comedy Festival
• Soccer Moms " Fleetwood Stage
• Carapace " The Alliance Theatre, Atlanta