The Return of the Classic Films Obituary Thread

[CBHagman]

6. Actress and activist Olympia Dukakis, 89

A note on her obituaries: In discussing several of her most notable roles, there are unavoidable spoilers for the films/series themselves.

https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/olympia-dukakis-dead-moonstruck-actress-obit-1163911/

Despite her success on the stage, over the first two decades of her career, Dukakis was primarily cast in bit parts in films and television. Stardom, however, arrived seemingly overnight after Dukakis was cast as the Italian-American mother of Cher’s character in the 1987 comedy Moonstruck.

Playing matriarch Rose Castorini in the film, Dukakis earned accolades for her performance, which resulted in Best Supporting Actress wins at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.

[SNIP]

During the 1990s, Dukakis earned three Emmy nominations for her television roles, including for 1992’s Sinatra miniseries (she played Dolly Sinatra) and the 1998 TV movie More Tales of the City. The latter was the second installment in a series of TV movies based on the works of author Armistead Maupin, with Dukakis in the role of the landlord Anna Madrigal. The actress played that character in three TV movies over a decade-long span, as well as reprised the role when Tales of the City was turned into a Netflix miniseries in 2019. She was one of the only actors to appear in all iterations of the saga — alongside Laura Linney and Barbara Garrick.

Here's her IMDB page:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001156/