Happy Birthday, Illeana Douglas

The above was taken back in April, and it depicts my joyous opportunity to reunite and catch up with actress/author/presenter Illeana Douglas (Illeana Hesselberg, b. 1961)

I knew Illeana shortly after moving to NYC in the late ’80s. We were both members of the Manhattan Punchline Comedy Corps, a sort of comedy bootcamp/internship offered by the hard-working Steve Kaplan’s much-missed Manhattan Punchline Theatre. I’m certain to write about that bygone institution at some point. Other folks there at the time included Maude Mitchell (later to win an OBIE as Nora in A Doll’s House); indie film actor Michael Leydon Campbell, who’s been in several Ed Burns films (he’s fourth billed in Sidewalks of New York); Deb Rabbai, co-creator of Broadway’s next Hit Musical!; and hard working character actors like Dan Hagen; Sheila Head; and Kevin Draine, whom you have no doubt seen on some screen, somewhere, sometime. And (as they say on Gilligan’s Island)… the rest.

Anyway, the occasion for the photo was her book event at The Lambs, concerning her excellent new tome Connecticut in the Movies. Illeana grew up partially in the Nutmeg State, but also in her native Massachusetts, and in New York (both Manhattan and Astoria, Queens). Her paternal grandfather was Hollywood movie star Melvyn Douglas. Her maternal grandmother had been a Rockette. Her roots are a wonderful smorgasbord of Latvian Jewish, Italian, Romanian (she’s named after Princess Illeana), and Anglo-American (from whence the Douglas surname was plucked). I was delighted to learn that her paternal great-grandmother was born in Stewart County in my dad’s home state of Tennessee…but ECSTATIC to learn that we share some common ancestors on that same side dating back to Colonial New England. We’re distant cousins! I wish I’d looked into that before this morning, but I never dreamt it would be the case.

Anyway prior to the Punchline, Illeana had studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Neighborhood Playhouse, and worked as an assistant to Studio 54’s Steve Rubell. It was while working for show biz publicist Peggy Siegel that she met Martin Scorsese, who was then editing The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) down the hall. She was hired to overdub voices as they worked on the picture, which led to a romantic relationship with Scorsese that lasted until 1997, and roles in the films New York Stories (1989), Goodfellas (1990), and Cape Fear (1991).

Illeana really pops on the screen; actors who are both physically striking and endowed with great goofiness (and when required, pathos) are rare, so she began to work a LOT, often in critically acclaimed indie films, many of them black comedies. Initially it was smaller supporting roles in things like Irwin Winkler’s Guilty By Suspicion (1991) with De Niro; the Andes cannibalism drama Alive (1993), Nancy Savoca’s Household Saints (1993), Richard Glatzer’sGrief (1993), and Robert Redford’sQuiz Show (1994).

With the screen adaption of Howard Korder’sSearch and Destroy (1995) she began to be promoted to lead parts and roles in all-star ensembles for a spell. Subsequent films include GusVan Sant’sTo Die For (1995), top billing in Wedding Bell Blues (1996), and the lead in Allison Anders‘ Grace of My Heart (1996), in which she plays a thinly disguised Carole King. Dozens of pictures followed, some of the notable ones being Ghost World (2001), Dummy (2002, in which Adrien Brody becomes a ventriloquist), The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) with Eddie Murphy, Factory Girl (2006, as Diana Vreeland), Peter Bogdanovich’sShe’s Funny That Way (2014), and Jerry Lewis’s last movie Max Rose (2016). Oh, and I would be remiss if I omitted Mega Shark Versus Kolossus (2015)!

Along the way there were lots of high profile guest shots on shows like Seinfeld,Frasier,The Larry Sanders Show,her memorable and Emmy-nominated recurring part on Six Feet Under, as well as Law and Under, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, Shrill, et al.

Illeana literally has classic Hollywood flowing through her veins, so it was a match made in heaven several years ago when she started appearing on TCM, presenting, producing, writing, and starring in wrap-arounds for old movies, and discussing them with critics and other stars. She’s a kindred spirit to most readers of this bloviating blog, I ween. And that rarest of things: a LIVING classic star. Many happy returns of the day!

More on Illeana Douglas’s Connecticut in the Movieshere.