American actress Michelle Williams' first screen appearance was at age thirteen in a 1993 episode of the television series Baywatch , and she made her film debut as the love interest of a teenage boy in Lassie (1994). [1] [2] She had guest roles in the sitcoms Step by Step and Home Improvement , and played the younger version of Natasha Henstridge's character in the science fiction film Species (1995). [3] [4] Greater success came to Williams when played the sexually troubled teenager Jen Lindley in the teen drama series Dawson's Creek (1998–2003). [1] [3] In 1999, she made her stage debut with the Tracy Letts-written play Killer Joe . [1]
In the 2000s, Williams eschewed parts in big-budget films in favor of roles with darker themes in independent productions such as Me Without You (2001) and The Station Agent (2003). [5] [6] Despite positive reviews, these films were not widely seen. [7] [8] This changed in 2005 when Williams played the neglected wife of Heath Ledger's character in Brokeback Mountain , a drama about star-crossed gay lovers, which became a critical and commercial success; Williams gained a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. [9] [10] [11] Her career did not progress much in the next few years, but Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy (2008), in which she starred as a drifter searching for her missing dog, was critically acclaimed. [7] [8] [12] Martin Scorsese's thriller Shutter Island (2010), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in which Williams had a supporting part, became her most widely seen film to that point. [8] [11]
Williams received two consecutive Oscar nominations for Best Actress for starring as an unhappily married woman in Blue Valentine (2010) and Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn (2011); she also won a Golden Globe Award for the latter. [13] [14] [15] She next played Glinda in the commercially successful fantasy feature Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). [16] [17] On Broadway, she played Sally Bowles in a revival of the musical Cabaret in 2014, and a sexual abuse survivor in a revival of the play Blackbird in 2016. [18] For the latter, she gained a Tony Award for Best Actress nomination. [19] She earned another Academy Award nomination for playing a grieving mother in Manchester by the Sea (2016). [20] The 2017 musical The Greatest Showman and the 2018 superhero film Venom emerged as two of her highest-grossing releases. [8] [21] She returned to television in 2019 to portray Gwen Verdon opposite Sam Rockwell's Bob Fosse in the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon , winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress. [22] [23] Williams received her fifth Oscar nomination for starring as a troubled mother in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans (2022). [24]
† | Denotes films that have not yet been released |
† | Denotes series that have not yet been aired |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | Baywatch | Bridget | Episode: "Race Against Time: Part 1" | [66] |
1994 | Step by Step | J.J. | Episode: "Something Wild" | [67] |
1995 | Home Improvement | Jessica Lutz | Episode: "Wilson's Girlfriend" | [68] |
1995 | Raising Caines | Trish Caines | Main role; season 1 | [69] |
1996 | My Son Is Innocent | Donna Winston | Television film | [70] |
1997 | Killing Mr. Griffin | Maya | Television film | [71] |
1998–2003 | Dawson's Creek | Jen Lindley | Main role; 6 seasons | [72] |
2000 | If These Walls Could Talk 2 | Linda | Television film | [73] |
2013 | Cougar Town | Laurie's foster sister | Episode: "Blue Sunday" | [74] [75] |
2019 | Fosse/Verdon | Gwen Verdon | Miniseries; also executive producer | [76] |
TBA | Dying for Sex † | Molly | Upcoming miniseries | [77] |
Year | Title | Role | Venue | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | Killer Joe | Dottie | SoHo Playhouse | [78] |
2002 | Smelling a Rat | Melanie-Jane | Samuel Beckett Theatre | [79] |
2004 | The Cherry Orchard | Varya | Williamstown Theatre Festival | [80] |
2014 | Cabaret | Sally Bowles | Studio 54 | [81] |
2016 | Blackbird | Una Spencer | Belasco Theatre | [82] |
Year | Title | Role | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | The Woman in Me | Narrator | [83] |
Year | Title | Performer(s) | Album | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | "Paradise" | Wild Nothing | Nocturne | [84] |
Soundtrack | Year | Song | Label | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
My Week with Marilyn | 2011 | "When Love Goes Wrong, Nothin' Goes Right / Heat Wave" | Sony Music | [85] |
"It's a Wrap, I Found a Dream" | ||||
"That Old Black Magic" | ||||
The Greatest Showman | 2017 | "A Million Dreams" | Atlantic Records | [86] |
"Tightrope" | ||||
Fosse/Verdon | 2019 | "Razzle Dazzle" | [87] |
Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and she served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, having originated many roles in musicals, including Lola in Damn Yankees, the title character in Sweet Charity, and Roxie Hart in Chicago.
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She became one of Hollywood's most bankable stars during the 1980s and 1990s, winning a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical drama film directed by Bob Fosse and starring Roy Scheider. The screenplay, by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse, is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as a dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Fosse's manic effort to edit his film Lenny while simultaneously staging the 1975 Broadway musical Chicago. It borrows its title from the Kander and Ebb tune "All That Jazz" in that production.
Robert Louis Fosse was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), and Chicago (1975). He directed the films Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret (1972), Lenny (1974), All That Jazz (1979), and Star 80 (1983).
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