- Cynthia Nixon
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Cynthia Nixon 
Nixon at the Tribeca premiere of An Englishman in New York in 2009Born Cynthia Ellen Nixon
April 9, 1966
New York City, New York, U.S.Occupation Actress Years active 1978–present Partner Danny Mozes (1988–2003; 2 children)
Christine Marinoni (2004–present; 1 child)Children 3 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). She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award.
Contents
Personal life
Nixon was born in New York City, the daughter of Anne Knoll, an actress from Chicago, and Walter E. Nixon, a Texas-born radio journalist.[1][2] She graduated from Hunter College High School,[3] and attended Barnard College.[4]
From 1988 to 2003, Nixon was in a relationship with English professor Danny Mozes. They have two children together, daughter Samantha Mozes (born November 1996) and son Charles Ezekiel Mozes (born December 16, 2002).[5] Since 2004, Nixon has been in a relationship with education activist Christine Marinoni.[6] She remarked in 2007: "In terms of sexual orientation I don't really feel I've changed... I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman."[6] On May 17, 2009, at a rally in support of same-sex marriage, Nixon announced that she and Marinoni had become engaged the month before.[7] Marinoni gave birth to their son, Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni, on February 7, 2011.[8]
In October 2006, Nixon was diagnosed with breast cancer during a routine mammogram.[9] She initially decided not to go public with her illness because of the stigma involved,[10] but in April 2008 she announced her battle with the disease in an interview with Good Morning America.[9] Since then, Nixon has become a breast cancer activist. She convinced the head of NBC to air her breast cancer special in a prime time program,[10] and became an Ambassador for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.[11]
Career
Early career
In 1984, while a freshman at Barnard College, Nixon made theatrical history by 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 executives. The two theaters were just two blocks apart and Nixon's roles were both short, so she could run from one to the other. In 1984 she played the role of Salieri's maid/spy, Lorl, in Amadeus, standing out well amidst a powerhouse cast at just 17 years of age.
Nixon's 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 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.
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).[12] 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 political satire for HBO. She reprised the role for the 2004 sequel Tanner on Tanner.
1990s
Nixon at the Berlin premiere of Sex and the City: The Movie, 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 was the guest star in the second episode of the long running NBC television series Law & Order. She replaced Marcia Gay Harden as Harper Pitt in Tony Kushner's Angels in America (1994), received a Tony nomination for her performance 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 in the Tony-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), Baby's Day Out (1994), Marvin's Room (1996) and The Out-of-Towners (1999).
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. 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.
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 role 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' Stage On Screen series.
Post-Sex in the City, 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 polio. Nixon earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance. In December 2005, she appeared in the Fox TV series House in the episode "Deception", as a patient who suffers a seizure.
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. This part was later played by Nicole Kidman in the movie adaptation of the play. In 2008, she revived her role as Miranda Hobbes in the Sex and the City feature film, directed by HBO executive producer Michael Patrick King and co-starring the cast of the original series.[13] Also in 2008, she won an Emmy for her guest appearance in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, portraying a woman with dissociative identity disorder.
In 2009, 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), making her the 14th person to win an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy.
2010s
It was announced in June 2010 that Nixon will appear in four episodes of Showtime's series The Big C.[14]
Nixon is set to appear in an upcoming Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode based on the problems surrounding the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Her character will be "Amanda Reese, the high-strung and larger-than-life director behind a problem-plagued Broadway version of Icarus," loosely modeled after Spider-Man director, Julie Taymor.[15]
In 2012, Nixon will star as Professor Vivian Bearing in the Broadway debut of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize winning play 'Wit.' Produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, the play will open January 26, 2012 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. [16]
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes 1980 Little Darlings Sunshine 1981 Prince of the City Jeannie 1982 My Body, My Child Nancy TV movie 1983 I Am the Cheese Amy Hertz 1984 Amadeus Lorl 1986 The Manhattan Project Jenny Anderman Nominated for a Young Artist Award 1987 O.C. and Stiggs Michelle 1988 Tanner '88 Alexandra (Alex) Television series 1988 The Murder of Mary Phagan Doreen 1989 Let It Ride Evangeline 1990 Law & Order Laura di Biasi Television – Episode: "Subterranean Homeboy Blues" 1991 Love, Lies and Murder Donna Television 1993 The Pelican Brief Alice Stark 1993 Murder She Wrote Television – 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 Television – Episode: "Alien Radio" 2000 Papa's Angels Sharon Jenkins 2001 Advice From a Caterpillar Missy 2002 Igby Goes Down Mrs. Piggee 2003 Kiss Kiss, Dahlings/The Last Mile 1998–2004 Sex and the City Miranda Hobbes Women in Film Lucy Award (shared with cast)[17]
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2001)
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2003)
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Comedy Series (2004)
Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Comedy Series (2002–03)
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1999–2000, 2002–03)
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2000, 2002, 2004)
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Television Series (2002)2005 Rabbit Hole Becca Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play 2005 Warm Springs Eleanor Roosevelt Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie 2005 ER A stroke victim Television 2005 House Anica Jovanovich Television – Episode: "Deception" 2005 Little Manhattan Leslie 2006 One Last Thing... Carol 2007 The Babysitters Gail Beltran 2007 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Janis Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series (2008) 2008 Sex and the City: The Movie Miranda Hobbes 2009 Lymelife Melissa Bragg 2009 An Englishman in New York Penny Arcade 2010 Sex and the City 2 Miranda Hobbes ShoWest Ensemble Award
Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress
Nominated — People's Choice Awards for Favorite Cast2010–present The Big C Rebecca Television 2011 Too Big to Fail Michele Davis Television 2011 Rampart 2011 "greys anatomy"
filming Further reading
- The Advocate: Cynthia Nixon is More Than Just Sex
- AP: Former 'Sex' star Nixon switches roles. Emmy winning actress reportedly in relationship with a woman
- NY Daily News: For Cynthia, romance is academic
- NYT: A Career After 'Sex,' but Still in the City
- Bgay.com – Cynthia Nixon Talks About Her Love for Another Woman
References
- ^ "The lesbian love affair you WON'T see in Sex and the City". Daily Mail (London). 2008-05-15. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-566486/The-lesbian-love-affair-WONT-Sex-City.html.
- ^ Tallmer, Jerry (2009-03-18-24). "Cynthia Nixon brings focus to "Distracted"". The Villager. http://www.thevillager.com/villager_307/cynthianixon.html. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
- ^ "Cynthia Nixon Addresses Hunter College High School Graduates". www.hunter.cuny.edu. 2004-06-24. http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/news/newsreleases/2004/nixon.shtml. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
- ^ a b "Cynthia Nixon Biography". Yahoo! Movies. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800093058/bio.
- ^ Silverman, Stephen (2008-04-16). "Cynthia Nixon's Latest Role: Breast Cancer Advocate – and Survivor". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20191916,00.html. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
- ^ a b Hiscock, John (2008-05-13). "Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon: 'I'm just a woman in love with a woman'". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/05/13/bfnixon113.xml. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "Cynthia Nixon Announces Engagement". Access Hollywood. 2009-05-17. http://www.accesshollywood.com/cynthia-nixon-announces-engagement_article_18045. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
- ^ Jordan, Julie (2011-02-08). Cynthia Nixon & Christine Marinoni Welcome a Son. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20464553,00.html. Retrieved 2011-07-10.
- ^ a b "Cynthia Nixon Beats Breast Cancer, Becomes Advocate". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4656719&page=1.
- ^ a b "Celebrities Inspiration Roundup". American Breast Cancer Guide. http://www.abcgonline.com/archive/2005/01_cel/index.htm.
- ^ "Cynthia Nixon to Serve as Ambassador for Susan G. Komen for the Cure". Susan G. Komen for the Cure. http://cms.komen.org/komen/NewsEvents/KomenNews/080415_Nixon_Ambassador.
- ^ Bob Considine (2008-05-30). "‘Sex’ star Cynthia Nixon on her cancer, girlfriend". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24878731/. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
- ^ ""Sex and the City" Movie Close to Green Light". ABC News. 2006-11-14. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=entertainment&id=4761610.
- ^ "Cynthia Nixon to Take on The Big C with 4 Episode Arc". TVGuide.com. http://www.tvguide.com/News/Cynthia-Nixon-BigC-1019860.aspx.
- ^ Ausiello, Michael. "Law & Order: CI Exclusive: Cynthia Nixon Set For Episode Inspired by Spider-Man Musical". tvline.com. http://www.tvline.com/2011/04/law-order-ci-exclusive-cynthia-nixon-set-for-episode-inspired-by-spider-man-musical/. Retrieved 2001-04-30.
- ^ "Cynthia Nixon Returns to Broadway in 'Wit'". Broadway.me. http://broadway.me/cynthia-nixon-returns-to-broadway-in-wit. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
- ^ Past Recipients. Wif.org. Retrieved on 2011-08-09.
External links
- Cynthia Nixon at the Internet Movie Database
- Cynthia Nixon at the Internet Broadway Database
- Cynthia Nixon at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Interview with Nixon on educational advocacy
- Cynthia Nixon – Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
- Love and Obstacles: The Case for Gay Marriage discussion with David Boies, Brian S. Brown, R. Clarke Cooper, Gene Robinson, and Jeffrey Toobin as part of the The New Yorker Festival at SVA Theatre 1, October 2010
Awards for Cynthia Nixon Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Comedy Series (2001–2025) Doris Roberts (2001) · Doris Roberts (2002) · Doris Roberts (2003) · Cynthia Nixon (2004) · Doris Roberts (2005) · Megan Mullally (2006) · Jaime Pressly (2007) · Jean Smart (2008) · Kristin Chenoweth (2009) · Jane Lynch (2010) · Julie Bowen (2011)
Complete List · (1953–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025) Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress - Drama Series (2001–2025) Sally Field (2001) · Patricia Clarkson (2002) · Alfre Woodard (2003) · Sharon Stone (2004) · Amanda Plummer (2005) · Patricia Clarkson (2006) · Leslie Caron (2007) · Cynthia Nixon (2008) · Ellen Burstyn (2009) · Ann-Margret (2010) · Loretta Devine (2011)
Complete List · (1974–2000) · (2001–2025) Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (2001–2025) Mary-Louise Parker (2001) · Lindsay Duncan (2002) · Vanessa Redgrave (2003) · Phylicia Rashād (2004) · Cherry Jones (2005) · Cynthia Nixon (2006) · Julie White (2007) · Deanna Dunagan (2008) · Marcia Gay Harden (2009) · Viola Davis (2010) · Frances McDormand (2011)
Complete list · (1947–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025) Categories:- 1966 births
- Actors from New York City
- American child actors
- American film actors
- American television actors
- Barnard College alumni
- Breast cancer survivors
- Emmy Award winners
- Grammy Award winners
- LGBT people from the United States
- LGBT television personalities
- Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from New York City
- Living people
- Tony Award winners
- GLAAD Media Awards winners
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