Artist Bio

(Bio as of March 2008)

Lois Smith most recently appeared at the Goodman in The Trip to Bountiful during the 2007/2008 Season. She has appeared at Steppenwolf Theatre Company (of which she has been an ensemble member since 1993) in The Grapes of Wrath directed by Frank Galati (which transferred to London and to Broadway, and for which she received a Tony
Award nomination), Buried Child directed by Gary Sinise (which transferred to Broadway, and for which she received a Tony Award nomination), The Mesmerist, Mother Courage and The Royal Family. She has appeared on Broadway in Time Out for Ginger, The Young and the Beautiful, Blues for Mr. Charlie and the original production of Orpheus Descending. She has appeared in many other plays on Broadway, off-Broadway and in regional theaters including Uncle Vanya at Mark Taper Forum; The Sea Gull at Guthrie Theater; and The Cherry Orchard, Escape from Happiness and Mrs. Warren’s Profession at Centerstage. She also appeared in The Front Page at Long Wharf Theatre; The Stick Wife at Hartford Stage; and Defying Gravity off-Broadway. Ms. Smith played Carrie Watts in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful at Signature Theatre Company, for which she received an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley-Evans Award. Ms. Smith is a longtime member of The Actors Studio and The Ensemble Studio Theatre, where she has appeared in many one-act play marathons including plays by Romulus Linney and Horton Foote’s The Man Who Climbed the Pecan Trees. This year she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. Film credits include East of Eden with James Dean, Five Easy Pieces (for which she won a National Society of Film Critics Award), Next Stop Greenwich Village, Four Friends, Black Widow, Falling Down, Fried Green Tomatoes, Twister, Larger than Life, How to Make an American Quilt, Dead Man Walking, Minority Report, Hollywood/and, Sweet Land and Diminished Capacity. Ms. Smith’s early television play credits include Miss Julie and The Mas­ter Builder on Public Television’s Play of the Week. Since then she has appeared in many television films and miniseries and guest-starred in series including Frasier, Just Shoot Me, Law and Order, Cold Case, E.R., Grey’s Anatomy, Truman, The Laramie Project and Iron Jawed Angels.

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