Leslie Ayvazian is an Armenian award-winning playwright and character actress. [1]
Ayvazian is the recipient of the Roger L. Stevens (1994) and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (1996) for her work Nine Armenians, which was produced at Manhattan Theatre Club. She also received a fellowship from the New Jersey Council of the Arts and assistance from the New Harmony Writers Project in developing the play. Her numerous works have been produced off-Broadway, in major regional theatres, and in Poland and Slovakia. Most recently, the Atlantic Theater Company produced her play "Make Me" as part of their 2008-2009 Stage 2 season.
In addition to her writing achievements, Ayvazian is an accomplished actress and teacher. She has also appeared in the films Working Girl , Alice and Regarding Henry , and is a recurring guest star in the Law and Order franchise .
Ayvazian is currently an adjunct professor at the graduate school of Columbia University.
Mae Questel was an American actress. She was best known for providing the voices for the animated characters Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. She began in vaudeville, primarily working as an impressionist. She later performed on Broadway and in films and television, including her role as Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989).
Martita Edith Hunt was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havisham in David Lean's Great Expectations.
Carole "Kelly" Bishop is an American actress and dancer, best known for her roles as matriarch Emily Gilmore on the series Gilmore Girls and as Marjorie Houseman, the mother of Jennifer Grey's Frances "Baby" Houseman in the film Dirty Dancing. Bishop originated the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line, for which she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. She also starred as Fanny Flowers in the ABC Family short-lived comedy-drama series Bunheads and is currently starring as Mrs. Ivey in The Watchful Eye (2023).
Mildred Dorothy Dunnock was an American stage and screen actress. She was twice nominated for an Academy Award: first Death of a Salesman in 1951, then Baby Doll in 1956.
Craig Stevens was an American film and television actor, best known for his starring role on television as private detective Peter Gunn from 1958 to 1961.
Arlene Leanore Golonka was an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Millie Hutchins on the television comedy The Andy Griffith Show and Millie Swanson on Mayberry R.F.D., and often portrayed bubbly, eccentric blondes in supporting character roles on stage, film, and television.
Alexandra Neil is an American stage, film and television actress. She is also an activist – co-founder of Downtown Women for Change in NYC.
Jacqueline Victoire Brookes was an American film, television, and stage actress, best known for her work both off-Broadway and on Broadway.
Mary Maguire Alden was an American motion picture and stage actress. She was one of the first Broadway actresses to work in Hollywood.
Nydia Eileen Westman was an American actress and singer of stage, screen, and television.
Harold George Bryant Davenport was an American film and stage actor who worked in show business from the age of six until his death. After a long and prolific Broadway career, he came to Hollywood in the 1930s, where he often played grandfathers, judges, doctors, and ministers. His roles include Dr. Meade in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Grandpa in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Bette Davis once called Davenport "without a doubt [. . .] the greatest character actor of all time."
Laila Robins is an American stage, film and television actress. She has appeared in films including Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), An Innocent Man (1989), Live Nude Girls (1995), True Crime (1999), She's Lost Control (2014), Eye in the Sky (2015), and A Call to Spy (2019). Her television credits include regular roles on Gabriel's Fire, Homeland, and Murder in the First. In 2022, she portrays Pamela Milton in the final season of The Walking Dead.
Beth Fowler is an American actress and singer, best known for her performances on Broadway and for her role as Sister Ingalls, on Orange Is the New Black. She is a two-time Tony Award nominee.
Elisabeth Risdon was an English film actress. She appeared in more than 140 films between 1913 and 1952. A beauty in her youth, she usually played in society parts. In later years in films she switched to playing character parts.
Hessy Doris Lloyd was an English–American film and stage actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in The Time Machine (1960) and The Sound of Music (1965). Lloyd appeared in two Academy Award winners and four other nominees.
Nana Irene Bryant was an American film, stage, and television actress. She appeared in more than 100 films between 1935 and 1955.
Carol Woods is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in Sweet and Lowdown (1999), The Honeymooners (2005) and Across the Universe (2007). In February 2008, she received a standing ovation during the 50th Grammy Awards broadcast singing "Let It Be" from the Across the Universe soundtrack, with Timothy Mitchum.
Sarah Ann Padden was an English-born American theatre and film character actress. She performed on stage in the early 20th century. Her best-known single-act performance was in The Clod, a stage production in which she played an uneducated woman who lived on a farm during the American Civil War.
William Louis Payne was an American character actor of the silent and sound film eras, as well as legitimate theater.
Irma St. Paule was a Ukrainian-born American character actress who appeared on stage, screen and television from 1985 to 2007. Often portraying elderly characters, she appeared in productions on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and in regional theatre productions across the United States during her career.