Judith Ivey
Judith Ivey is an actor, born 1951.
Two Tony Awards sit at the front of Judith Ivey's career, both for Best Featured Actress in a Play, for Steaming in 1981 and Hurlyburly in 1984. She was nominated again for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard in 1992 and for The Heiress, and she has spent much of her later career directing theatre rather than acting in it. The screen came second and never quite caught up.
Her film debut was the female lead in the 1984 comedy The Lonely Guy, and the parts that followed leaned on the same quality: an unhurried Texan warmth that makes an audience relax, at which point she can do whatever she likes with them. The Woman in Red and Hello Again use the comic version. The Devil's Advocate uses the other one, in a handful of scenes as Mrs. Lomax that are far more disquieting than the film's louder business, and In Country and Harry & Son use her for plain, unsentimental grief.
Television gave her the volume. She joined Designing Women as B.J. Poteet for the show's final stretch, played Ellen Parker across White Collar, led The 5 Mrs. Buchanans, and voiced Eleanor Sherman in The Critic. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for the television film What the Deaf Man Heard in 1997. Later work has been sparing and well chosen: Barbara Bowerman in Without Limits, Belle Block in Flags of Our Fathers, and Agata in Women Talking, which brought her the best notices of her film career.
Movies (14)
- The Devil's Advocate (1997)
- Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
- The Woman in Red (1984)
- Women Talking (2022)
- A Life Less Ordinary (1997)
- Mystery, Alaska (1999)
- Without Limits (1998)
- Washington Square (1997)
- In Country (1989)
- Hello Again (1987)
- Harry & Son (1984)
- The Lonely Guy (1984)
- Everybody Wins (1990)
- There Goes the Neighborhood (1992)
TV (8)
Where to start with Judith Ivey
Start with Women Talking. Agata is the role that finally gives her a script worthy of the stage work, and she plays the steadiest woman in the room without a single gesture asking to be admired.
Then double back to The Lonely Guy to see what Hollywood originally wanted from her, and to The Devil's Advocate to see what it should have wanted instead: her scenes as Mrs. Lomax are quiet, wrong-footing and much stranger than anything else in the film.
In Country is the one for people who like actors working without cushioning, Without Limits is a small part played with real specificity, and White Collar is the most enjoyable long-form use of her, dropped into a light caper show as the one person nobody can charm. If you only want the comedy, The Woman in Red and Designing Women are where the timing shows.