“Forgotten Hollywood”- A Moonstruck Career…

Posted on May 1, 2021 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

“`Olympia Dukakis won an Oscar for her role in the 1987 romantic film comedy Moonstruck. That performance changed the trajectory of her steady career. She was also a cousin of unsuccessful 1988 Democratic United States presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.

“`Prior to her time on the big screen, Dukakis began her decades-long stage life working in 1961 in productions at the Williamstown Summer Theater in a town in Massachusetts.  She won an Obie Award for Best Actress  in 1963 for her Off-Broadway performance in Bertolt Brecht’s Man Equals Man.

“`With her hubby Louis Zorich, Dukakis co-founded the Whole Theater Company in Montclair, New Jersey. With Dukakis serving as Artistic Director, the theater rolled out five productions a season over almost two decades. Across that span, productions included the works of Eugene O’Neill, Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee. Among the actors performing with Olympia were Jose Ferrer, Colleen Dewhurst, Blythe Danner, and Samuel L. Jackson.

“`Dukakis became a household name after co-starring with Cher in Moonstruck. Her other movie credits include Working Girl, Steel Magnolias, Mighty Aphrodite, Mr. Holland’s Opus and the Look Who’s Talking series of flicks. She was still working at the time of her passing. A documentary called Olympia was released last year celebrating her long career.

“`Olympia Dukakis brought warmth, humor, and wit to every part. She was eighty-nine.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 1st, 2021 at 7:46 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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