LAHTI
American
actress and film director Common clues: Actress
Christine; Christine of “Chicago Hope”; Emmy winner
Christine; Christine of “Running on Empty”; “Swing
Shift” Oscar nominee Crossword
puzzle frequency:
2 times a year Video: Golden
Globes 1998
I
don't want to fight aging; I want to take good care of myself,
but plastic surgery and all that? I'm not interested.
– Christine
Lahti
Christine
Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and film
director.
Lahti
was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth
Margaret (née Tabar), a painter, homemaker and nurse, and
Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon. Lahti has Finnish ancestry. Her
surname means "a gulf", "a bay" or "a
cove" in Finnish and Lahti is also a city in Finland. Lahti
studied fine arts at Florida State University and received her
bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Michigan, where
she joined Delta Gamma sorority. She then toured Europe as part
of a pantomime acting troupe.
After
college, Lahti headed to New York City, where she worked as a
waitress and did commercials. Her breakthrough movie was …And
Justice for All (1979) with Al Pacino. After starring in a few
hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, Lahti chose roles that allows
her to spend time with her three children.[citation needed] She
has also focused on television, beginning with her role in the
1979 made-for-TV adaptation of The Executioner's Song. She
appeared on Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein's seriocomic play, The
Heidi Chronicles.
Lahti
received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress
for Swing Shift in 1984, and won an Academy Award for Best Short
Film, Live Action for Lieberman in Love (1995), in which she
starred and directed. Adapted from a short story by W.P.
Kinsella, "Lieberman in Love", the Oscar win came as a
surprise to the author, who, watching the award telecast from
home, had no idea the film had been made and released. He had not
been listed in the film's credits, and was not acknowledged by
director Christine Lahti in her acceptance speech.
She
won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role in Chicago Hope. When
her Golden Globe win was announced at the ceremony there was a
long pause as Lahti was not coming up and no one could find her.
Robin Williams rushed on stage and began pretending to be Lahti.
When she eventually got on stage she explained that she had been
in the bathroom. She later made it a point to be good-humored
about the incident, usually poking fun at herself at other awards
shows.
In
2001, her first directorial film, My First Mister, was released.
Starring Leelee Sobieski and Albert Brooks, the movie debuted
with good reviews. In DVD commentary she applauds the work of her
cast and crew, remarking " was very lucky to have such a
wonderful crew..." She did feel regret that the film was
rated R, for language, despairing that the movie might not be
viewed by teenagers who would like and relate with the
characters. Also, Lahti mentioned several times that she would
have liked to have more time to shoot different perspectives in
order to facilitate story arc.
Lahti
starred in the Executive ADA role on Law & Order: Special
Victims Unit as Sonya Paxton, while the character Alexandra Cabot
(Stephanie March) was in appeals. She was in the first four
episodes of the 11th season and returned for the show's eighth
episode, where she clashed with Alexandra Cabot. Lahti later
guest starred in the ninth and seventeenth episode of the 12th
season where she reprised her role as Executive ADA Sonya Paxton.
She
returned to Broadway upon joining the cast of the Tony
Award-winning play God of Carnage on November 17, 2009, replacing
actress Marcia Gay Harden. Both actresses had a few special
appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Christine_Lahti".
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