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Lena Olin turns 60 today

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OLIN (oh-LIN)

Lena Olin: Swedish-born actress of stage and screen
Ken Olin: American actor, director, and producer
Common
clues: Actress Lena; Lena or Ken of movies; Lena of "Chocolat"; "Havana" actress; Ken of “thirtysomething”
Crossword puzzle frequency: 4 times a year
Video:
Lena Olin - She


Lena Maria Jonna Olin (born March 22, 1955 in Stockholm, Sweden) is an internationally acclaimed Academy Award-nominated Swedish actress.



[Lena Olin from "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Courtesy LenaOlin.net]


Olin was born in Stockholm as the youngest of three children. Her father, Stig Olin, was a singer, a composer, and an actor who appeared in several of Ingmar Bergman's films. Her mother, Britta Holmberg, was also an actress and singer. Her brother is the Swedish singer Mats Olin.


After studying acting at Sweden's National Academy of Dramatic Art (Scenskolan aka NAMA today) 1976-79, Olin performed for over a decade with Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre-ensemble (1980-1994) in classic plays by Shakespeare and Strindberg, and appeared in smaller roles of several Swedish films directed by Bergman and in productions of Swedish Television's TV-Theatre Company.


Olin's international debut in a lead role on film was in the 1984 Swedish film After the Rehearsal, which was directed by Bergman. The year before she had appeared in a small role in Bergman's Fanny and Alexander. In 1988, Olin starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in her first English speaking and internationally produced film, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and became a respected actress outside of Europe as well. Olin upon this received offers from the US and Hollywood. In 1989, she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Enemies: A Love Story, in which she portrayed the survivor of a Nazi camp. In 1994 Olin starred in Romeo Is Bleeding and played her, perhaps, most extreme character to date; the outrangeous hit woman Mona Demarkov - still one of the actresses most popular portrayals on film.


From 2002 to 2006, Olin appeared opposite Jennifer Garner in her first American television role ever; on the second season of the successful television series Alias. For her work on the series as Irina Derevko, Olin received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2003. Olin received good reviews for her part in Alias — particularly her chemistry with Victor Garber, who played her former husband and sometime-enemy Jack Bristow — and was rumored to have been offered a salary in excess of $100,000 per episode to remain part of the cast. She left the show after her first and only season, however, to spend more time with her family in New York.


In May 2005, Olin returned to Alias for a two-episode appearance at the end of the show's fourth season, and subsequently appeared again in the fifth season, initially in a cameo in December 2005, and then following a four-month hiatus she appeared again in April 2006, and for the finale on May 22, 2006.


Lena Olin currently lives in New York with her husband and children. In 2005 she returned to Sweden for a brief period of filming and starred in a fine supporting role in Danish director Simon Staho's experimental/avant garde film Bang Bang Orangutang (with a punk music soundtrack by a.o. The Clash). Upcoming projects are films The Devil You Know, Awake and (rumoured) Daughter of the Queen of Sheba (which is to be directed by Lasse Hallström).


***


Kenneth Edward "Ken" Olin (born July 30, 1954) is an American actor, director and producer. He first became well known for his starring role on the television series Thirtysomething, and is currently a television producer and director.




Olin was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a former Peace Corps official and pharmaceutical company owner. He was raised in Highland Park, IL. He graduated from The Putney School in Putney, Vermont in 1972, then completed his college career at the University of Pennsylvania. He is married to his thirtysomething co-star, Patricia Wettig, with whom he has a son, Clifford, and a daughter, Roxanne (better known as "Roxy") who appears on The City. Olin is Jewish.


As an actor, Olin played Michael Steadman on Thirtysomething (1987–1991) and Dr. Roger Cattan on L.A. Doctors (1998-1999). He was also noted for his performance as Detective Harry Garibaldi on Hill Street Blues and as the lead in the short-lived but critically praised EZ Streets. Olin has also performed in a number of television programs including Alias (as David McNeil), Falcon Crest, and Murder, She Wrote. He currently has a recurring role (as David Caplan) on Brothers & Sisters.


He is also known for his work as a director, most recently of the television program Alias (for which he as also served as co-executive producer and producer). He has worked with actress Lena Olin (no relation) and Jennifer Garner on Alias. In addition, he has directed episodes of L.A. Doctors, The West Wing, Felicity, Judging Amy, Freaks and Geeks, Thirtysomething, EZ Streets and Brothers & Sisters.



This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lena Olin" & “Ken Olin”.