Swoosie Kurtz

Biography

Swoosie Kurtz (born 1944 in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American actress whose career has been built largely on the Broadway stage and on television, though she has also become a recognisable supporting presence in American film. Her first name came from a B-17 bomber flown by her father during the Second World War. She matters for her range: she has moved between comedy and drama with ease and has won some of the most prestigious awards in American theatre.

Kurtz began performing as a teenager. Her first television appearance came at 17, in an episode of The Donna Reed Show, and in 1971 she became a regular on the daytime drama As the World Turns. She made her Broadway debut in 1975, in a revival of Ah, Wilderness! Her breakthrough came in 1978 with Uncommon Women and Others, Wendy Wasserstein's play, and with the musical A History of the American Film, which earned her a Drama Desk Award. Soon after she won a Tony for Fifth of July, by Lanford Wilson, and in 1986 she won a second Tony for The House of Blue Leaves, by John Guare.

On television, the sitcom Love, Sidney brought her the first of her Emmy nominations, and in 1990 she won the award for a guest role on Carol Burnett's Carol & Company. From 1991 to 1996 she starred in Sisters, the longest-running television role of her career. In film her work has mostly been in supporting parts, in titles such as The World According to Garp, Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions, Citizen Ruth and Liar Liar. Her legacy lies in a long, steady career in which theatre, television and cinema have fed one another. In recent years she has continued working in series such as Mike & Molly and Call Me Kat.

Key films

• Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
• Liar Liar (1997)
• Cruel Intentions (1999)
• Citizen Ruth (1996)
• The World According to Garp (1982)