Cynthia Ellen Nixon
(born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City
(1998–2004, 2008). She is an Emmy, Tony and Grammy award winning actress.
|
CYNTHIA NIXON TICKETS
|
Life and career
Early life and career
Nixon was born in
New York City, New York, the daughter of Anne Knoll, an actress, and Walter Nixon, a radio journalist.
[1] [2] Her first onscreen appearance was as an imposter on
To Tell the Truth
, where her mother worked. She began acting at age 12 as the object of a wealthy schoolmate's crush in
The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid
, a 1979
ABC Afterschool Special. She made her feature debut co-starring with
Kristy McNichol and
Tatum O'Neal in
Little Darlings
(1980). She made her
Broadway debut as the bratty Dinah Lord in a 1980 revival of
The Philadelphia Story
. Alternating between film, TV and stage she did projects like the 1982 ABC-movie
My Body, My Child
, the features
Prince of the City
(1981) and
I Am the Cheese
(1983) and the 1982
off-Broadway productions of
John Guare's
Lydie Breeze
. In 1985 she appeared alongside
Jeff Daniels in
Lanford Wilson's
Lemon Sky
at
Second Stage Theatre.
Nixon graduated from
Hunter College High School,
[3] and made theatrical history while a freshman at
Barnard College in 1984, simultaneously appearing in two hit Broadway plays directed by
Mike Nichols.
[4] These were
The Real Thing
, where Nixon played the daughter of
Jeremy Irons and
Christine Baranski; and
Hurlyburly
, where she played a young woman who encounters sleazy
Hollywood types. The two theaters were just two blocks apart and Nixon's roles were both short, so she could run from one to the other.
She landed her first major supporting part in a movie as an intelligent teenager who aids her boyfriend (
Christopher Collet) in building a nuclear bomb in
Marshall Brickman's
The Manhattan Project
(1986).
[5] Nixon was part of the cast of the
NBC miniseries
The Murder of Mary Phagan
(NBC, 1988) starring
Jack Lemmon and
Kevin Spacey and portrayed the daughter of a presidential candidate (
Michael Murphy) in
Tanner '88
(also 1988),
Robert Altman's sharply observed, episodic political satire for
HBO. She reprised the role for the 2004 sequel
Tanner on Tanner
.
1990s
thumb
, 2008.
On stage, Nixon portrayed Juliet in a 1988
New York Shakespeare Festival production of
Romeo and Juliet
and acted in the workshop production of
Wendy Wasserstein's
Pulitzer Prize-winning
The Heidi Chronicles
, playing several characters after it came to Broadway in 1989. She replaced
Marcia Gay Harden as a pill-popping Mormon wife whose husband reveals his homosexuality in
Tony Kushner's landmark two-part
Angels in America
(1994), received a
Tony nomination for her performance as the headstrong young woman who falls for a mama's boy in
Indiscretions
(
Les Parents Terribles
) (1996, her sixth Broadway show) and, though she originally lost the part to another actress, eventually took over the role of Lala Levy, the aspiring
Scarlett O'Hara in the Tony Award-winning
The Last Night of Ballyhoo
(1997).
Nixon was a founding member of the theatrical troupe
The Drama Dept., which included
Sarah Jessica Parker,
Dylan Baker,
John Cameron Mitchell and
Billy Crudup among its actors, appearing in the group's productions of
Kingdom on Earth
(1996),
June Moon
and
As Bees in Honey Drown
(both 1997),
Hope is the Thing with Feathers
(1998), and
The Country Club
(1999).
Nixon has contributed supporting performances to
Addams Family Values
(1993),
Marvin's Room
(1996)
The Out-of-Towners
(1999) and
Baby's Day Out
(1994).
Stardom
She raised her profile significantly as one of the four regulars of
HBO's successful comedy
Sex and the City
(1998–2004), as the lawyer Miranda Hobbes in support of series star
Sarah Jessica Parker. After
Emmy nominations as
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2002 and 2003, Nixon took home the trophy in 2004 for the series' final season.
thumb and
Swoosie Kurtz at the premiere of
An Englishman in New York
.
The immense popularity of the series led Nixon to enjoy her first leading role in a feature, playing a video artist who falls in love, despite her best efforts to avoid commitment, with a bisexual actor who just happens to be dating a gay man (her best friend) in
Advice From a Caterpillar
(2000), as well as starring opposite
Scott Bakula in the holiday
telepic Papa's Angels
(2000). In 2002 she also landed a stint as Mrs. Piggee in the
indie comedy
Igby Goes Down
, and her turn in the theatrical production of
Clare Booth Luce's play
The Women
was captured for
PBS's Stage On Screen series.
Post-
Sex
, Nixon did a guest stint on
ER
in 2005 as a mother who undergoes a tricky procedure to lessen the effects of a debilitating stroke. She followed up with a turn as
Eleanor Roosevelt for HBO's
Warm Springs
(2005), which chronicled
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's quest for a miracle cure for his paralytic illness. Nixon earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance. She then had a 2005 stint on the Fox hit series
House
episode
Deception, which aired on December 13, 2005 as a patient who suffers a seizure and matches wits with Dr. House (
Hugh Laurie).
In 2006, Nixon won the
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Play) for
David Lindsay-Abaire's
Pulitzer Prize-winning drama
Rabbit Hole
. In 2008, she revived her role as Miranda Hobbes in
Sex and the City
feature film, directed by
HBO executive producer
Michael Patrick King and co-starring the cast of the original series.
Most recently, Nixon won the
Grammy Award for
Best Spoken Word Album along with
Beau Bridges and
Blair Underwood for the album "
An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore)".
[6]
Personal life
Nixon has two children, daughter Samantha (b. 1995) and son Charles Ezekiel (b. 2001),
[7] with Danny Mozes, an
English professor, with whom she was in a relationship from 1988 to 2003.
[8] [9]
Nixon began dating education activist Christine Marinoni in January 2004;
[10] media reports of the relationship started surfacing in September of the same year.
[11] In February 2005, the ''New York Post'' and other sources reported that Nixon had moved to Brooklyn to live with Marinoni. However, Nixon told the ''The New York Times'' in January 2006 that she had not moved and that keeping her kids in their Manhattan Public school (government funded)|public schools took priority. Discussing her relationship in an interview in ''New York Magazine'' in 2006, Nixon stated that she never felt any struggle with her sexuality: "I never felt like there was an unconscious part of me around that woke up or that came out of the closet; there wasn't a struggle, there wasn't an attempt to suppress. I met this woman, I fell in love with her, and I'm a public figure."
[12] In an interview in May 2007, she said:
In March 2008, Fox News reported that Nixon has been in a relationship with Marinoni since 2003. "I'm in a fantastic relationship. It's been about four years", Nixon, 41 at the time, said."
[13] In April 2008, she received an award from the Point Foundation, which provides scholarships to gay students in the U.S., for being a role model for young gay people.
[14] At a rally in support of
same-sex marriage on May 17, 2009, Nixon announced that she and Marinoni had become engaged the month before.
[15] [16]
Nixon made the announcement during the the Love, Peace and Marriage Equality rally in New York. She told the crowd there that she would soon walk down the aisle with Marinoni, reports Contactmusic. Nixon’s co-actress
Kristin Davis, who also loaned her support to the gay rights event, was also there when the announcement was made.
Breast Cancer
In an interview with
Good Morning America
that aired on
April 15,
2008, Nixon announced for the first time that she battled breast cancer, after being diagnosed during a routine mammogram in October, 2006.
[17] Initially she did not go public because of the stigma involved,
[18] but since then, she not only has openly admitted that she had cancer, she has become a breast cancer activist and was able to convince the head of
NBC to air her breast cancer special in
primetime.
In 2008, she began to serve as Ambassador for
Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
[19]
Filmography
| Year
| Film
| Role
| Notes
|
| 1980
| Little Darlings
| Sunshine
|
|
| 1981
| Prince of the City
| Jeannie
|
|
| 1982
| My Body, My Child
| Nancy
| Miniseries
|
| 1983
| I Am the Cheese
| Amy Hertz
|
|
| 1984
| Amadeus
| Lorl
|
|
| 1986
| Manhattan Project
| Jenny Anderman
| Nominated for a Young Artist Award
|
| 1987
| O.C. and Stiggs
| Michelle
|
|
| 1988
| Tanner '88
| Alexandra (Alex)
| TV series
|
| 1988
| The Murder of Mary Phagan
| Doreen
|
|
| 1989
| Let It Ride
| Evangeline
|
|
| 1990
| Law & Order
| Laura di Biasi
| TV Episode: Subterranean homeboy blues
|
| 1991
| Love, Lies and Murder
| Donna
| TV
|
| 1993
| The Pelican Brief
| Alice Stark
|
|
| 1993
| Murder She Wrote
|
| TV Episode: Threshold of Fear
|
| 1993
| Addams Family Values
| Heather
|
|
| 1993
| Through an Open Window
|
| Short
|
| 1994
| Baby's Day Out
| Gilbertine
|
|
| 1996
| Marvin's Room
| Retirement Home Director
|
|
| 1999
| The Outer Limits
| Trudy
| TV Episode: Alien Radio
|
| 2000
| Papa's Angels
| Sharon Jenkins
|
|
| 2001
| Advice From a Caterpillar
| Missy
|
|
| 2002
| Igby Goes Down
| Mrs. Piggee
|
|
| 2002
| Kiss Kiss, Dahlings/The Last Mile
|
|
|
| 1998-2004
| Sex and the City
| Miranda Hobbes
| Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series - 2002 Nominated Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series - 2003 Won
- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series - 2004 Nominated Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV - 2000 Nominated Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV - 2001 Nominated Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV - 2003 Nominated Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV - 2004 Nominated Satellite Award Best Supporting Actress on TV - 2005 Won
Screen Actors Guild Awards Best TV Ensemble - 2004 Nominated Screen Actors Guild Awards Best TV Ensemble - 2005 Won
Screen Actors Guild Awards Best TV Ensemble - 2002 Nominated Screen Actors Guild Awards Best TV Ensemble - 2001 Nominated TV Land Award for Best Braces Won
Lucy Award Most Beautiful Actress
|
| 2005
| Rabbit Hole
| Becca
| Won - Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
|
| 2005
| Warm Springs
| Eleanor Roosevelt
| Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie
|
| 2005
| ER
| A stroke victim
| TV
|
| 2005
| House
| Anica
| TV Episode: Deception (House)
|
| 2005
| Little Manhattan
| Leslie
|
|
| 2006
| One Last Thing...
| Carol
|
|
| 2007
| The Babysitters
| Gail Beltran
|
|
| 2007
| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
| Janice
| TV - Won - Emmy award for Outstanding guest actress in a drama series
|
| 2008
| Sex and the City: The Movie
| Miranda Hobbes
| Gross revenue - $415,129,126
|
| 2009
| Lymelife
| Melissa Bragg
|
|
| 2009
| An Englishman in New York
| Penny Arcade (performer)
|
|
| 2010
| Sex and the City 2
| Miranda Hobbes
| Nominated People's Choice Award For Favourite Cast
|