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Joan Allen (b. August 20, 1956 in Rochelle, Illinois, USA) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress.

Biography

Early life

Allen was born to gas-station owner Jeff Allen and his wife Dorothy, a homemaker and is the youngest of 4 children. She attended Rochelle Township High School, and was voted most likely to succeed. She transferred to Northern Illinois University in 1976 where she graduated, this is the same university Dan Castellaneta, Justin Mentell, and Matt Ricci attended. Allen began her acting career as a stage actress and on television before making her film debut in the movie, Compromising Positions (1985).

Career

In 1989 Allen returned to the stage and won a Tony Award in her Broadway debut performance in Burn This. She also starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Heidi Chronicles.

She received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Pat Nixon in Nixon (1995) and for her role as a woman whose husband is accused of witchcraft in The Crucible (1996). She was also nominated for Best Actress in The Contender, (produced by co-star Gary Oldman and producer Douglas Urbanski) as a politician who becomes the object of scandal. Allen is respected by her peers both for her professionalism and the intense preparation she brings to each of her roles. For example, to play a blind woman in the cult classic Manhunter (1986), she went to a school for the blind and wore a blindfold for several days. Brian Cox, her co-star in Manhunter and The Bourne Supremacy, called Allen the finest actress he had ever worked with and one of the best in the business.

In 2001 Allen starred in the miniseries The Mists of Avalon, which aired on TNT.

Personal life

In 1990, Allen married actor Peter Friedman. The couple separated in 2002, but live close to each other to share time with their daughter, Sadie, born in 1994.[1][2] She has a Boston Terrier called Nora

Filmography

• Compromising Positions (1985)
• Manhunter (1986)
• Zeisters (1986)
• Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
• Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
• In Country (1989)
• Ethan Frome (1993)
• Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
• Josh and S.A.M. (1993)
• Mad Love (1995)
• Nixon (1995)
• The Crucible (1996)
• The Ice Storm (1997)
• Face/Off (1997)
• Pleasantville (1998)
• It's All the Rage (1999)
• When the Sky Falls (2000)
• The Contender (2000)
• The Mists of Avalon (2001)
• Off the Map (2003)
• The Notebook (2004)
• The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
• Yes (2004)
• The Upside of Anger (2005)
• Bonneville (2006)
• Good Sharma (2006)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

External links

• Joan Allen Fan Site

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