Blythe Danner Biography

A genteel blonde with a throaty voice who made her mark on the stage before concentrating on raising a family, Blythe Danner has often been called one of America's most underrated and underused actresses. After an upbringing on Philadelphia's Main Line, Danner spent part of 1961 as a foreign exchange student in Germany and was present when the Berlin Wall was erected. When she returned to the USA, she attended Bard College and spent a summer singing with a jazz group in Vermont.
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Following her graduation, Danner landed a job with the Theatre Company of Boston, where she made her professional debut as Laura in "The Glass Menagerie". Her NYC debut came with the troupe's 1966 revue "The Infantry" which was staged off-Broadway. Danner first gained prominence with the Lincoln Center productions "Summertime" (1968) and "The Miser" (1969), and her winsome performances led to her first Broadway play. As Jill Tanner, the free-spirited divorcee who intrigues a blind neighbor in "Butterflies Are Free" (also 1969), the actress ascended to stardom and won a Tony Award in the process.

Although she had begun working in television (i.e., "George M", NBC 1970; "Doctor Cook's Garden", ABC 1971), Danner was not considered enough of a name to reprise her stage role when it came time to film "Butterflies Are Free" (the part went to Goldie Hawn). Instead, she acted opposite Alan Alda in the thriller "To Kill a Clown" and cut a buoyant figure—and displayed a lovely singing voice—as Martha Jefferson opposite Ken Howard's Thomas Jefferson in the film of the hit musical "1776" (both 1972). She and Howard shared chemistry and they rejoined in the Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy roles in a short-lived sitcom adaptation of "Adam's Rib" (ABC, 1973).

Danner got to display her formidable talents as a woman torn between two friends in "Lovin' Molly" (1974), an underrated adaptation of Larry McMurtry's novel "Leaving Cheyenne". On the small screen, the actress was perfectly cast as Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald in the ABC drama "F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles'" (1974). That same year, Danner also began a long-running association with the Williamstown Theatre Festival, starring as Nina in "The Seagull" which was filmed and aired on public television.

As a script girl who falls for a cowboy hero (Jeff Bridges), Danner enlivened "Hearts of the West" (1975) but she was wasted in the sci-fi tinged "Futureworld" (1976). Except for her expert portrayal of Robert Duvall's long-suffering wife in "The Great Santini" (1979), her best work in the second half of the 70s was on the small screen. She was terrific as the baseball player's spouse in "A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story" (NBC, 1978), opposite Edward Herrmann, and as Michael Moriarty's WASPish wife in the superior "Too Far To Go" (NBC, 1979), adapted from John Updike's short stories.

As the 80s progressed and her children grew, Danner became more active, earning a 1980 Tony nod for her adulterous wife in Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" before headlining a revival of "The Philadelphia Story". She also delivered excellent performances as Annie Sullivan in "Helen Keller -- The Miracle Continues" (syndicated, 1984) and as the wife of a lawyer (Anthony Hopkins) who is targeted for murder in "Guilty Conscience" (CBS, 1985). Danner and Judith Ivey were both too WASPish, however, to convincingly play Jewish sisters in the 1986 film adaptation of Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical "Brighton Beach Memoirs". On the other hand, she and Ivey worked well as the two spouses of Richard Chamberlain's writer in a 1987 Broadway revival of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit". The following year, Danner picked up another Tony nomination as Blanche Du Bois in "A Streetcar Named Desire". Continuing her stage career, she was excellent as Beatrice to Kevin Kline's Benedick in a Central Park staging of "Much Ado About Nothing".

The 1990s saw Danner work frequently with her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow, including on stage at Williamstown in "Picnic" in 1991 and "The Seagull" in 1994. Paltrow also played Danner’s daughter in the 1992 NBC miniseries "Cruel Doubts". Danner had one of her best screen roles as Nick Nolte's estranged wife in "The Prince of Tides" (1991). She later co-starred with Roy Scheider in "The Myth of Fingerprints" (1997) and was one of the hostages taken by John Travolta in "Mad City" (also 1997). Danner was bizarrely cast as Kate Capshaw's mother in the romantic comedy "The Love Letter" (1999) but was better suited to the low-key comedy as Robert De Niro's WASPish wife in "Meet the Parents" (2000). In 2001, she was cast as the mother of Cameron Diaz and Jordana Brewster in "The Invisible Circus" before she tackled her first Broadway musical role as Phyllis in the revival of Stephen Sondheim & James Goldman's "Follies".

In 2002, Danner received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Movie for her role as Corinne Mulvaney in the Lifetime drama "We Were The Mulvaneys." Danner began the fall of 2002 with what looked to be a positive note, returning to series television with the CBS hospital drama "Presidio Med," but tragedy struck in her personal life when husband Bruce Paltrow died of complications from pneumonia and a recurrence of throat cancer while vacationing in Rome to celebrate their daughter's 30th birthday. Mother and daughter bounced back to work together in "Sylvia" (2003), with Danner playing Aurelia Plath, mother of the noted poet Sylvia Plath. On television, Danner struck a lighter note with a recurring role on the hit sit-com "Will & Grace" (NBC, 1998- ), playing Marilyn Truman, Will's brittle blueblood mother whose life goes into a tailspin when her husband (Sydney Pollack) leaves her for his mistress. Danner then reprised her role as Dina Byrnes in the sequel, “Meet the Fockers” (2004). As with its predecessor, wild hype trumped mediocre reviews, as this tepid comedy attracted audiences in droves and became a box office hit. Danner had a banner year in 2005, scoring three Emmy nominations: for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series on "Will & Grace;" Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for " Back When We Were Grownups" (2004) as a 53-year-old single mother and grandmother with a colorful family; and the trophy she took home, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series with her delightful turn as Izzy Huffstodt, off-kilter mother of psychiatrist Craig 'Huff' Huffstodt (Hank Azaria) on the acclaimed Showtime series "Huff" (2004.

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