Joan Allen was born on August 20, 1956 in Rochelle, Illinois, the
youngest of four children. She is the daughter of homemaker Dorothea
Marie (Wirth) and gas station owner James Jefferson Allen. Her mother's
family was German, and her father had English, Scots-Irish, and German
ancestry. She attended Rochelle Township High School where she was
voted most likely to succeed. Joining Chicago's famed Steppenwolf
Theatre Company ensemble in 1977, she was one of the group's original
members and starred in a number of its original productions. Her first
major film credits included two critically-lauded supporting
performances that showcased her versatility: a comedic turn in the
suburban murder mystery
Tödliche Beziehung (1985)
and a dramatic role as a blind woman befriended by a serial killer in
Manhunter - Roter Drache (1986). Around the same time,
Allen was making a name for herself on the New York stage; she would
eventually become one of the New York theater world's most honored
actresses and a winner of every major prize for her work on Broadway
and off. She received a Best Actress Tony Award in 1988 for her
performance, opposite John Malkovich, in
Lanford Wilson's Burn This and was
Tony-nominated in the same category in 1989 for the title role in The
Heidi Chronicles.
Continuing her work in film as well, Allen received her first Academy
Award nomination for her role as Pat Nixon in
Oliver Stone's
Nixon - Der Untergang eines Präsidenten (1995), for which she also won awards
from seven critics' associations, including the Los Angeles Film
Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics. Allen
received her second consecutive Best Supporting Actress Oscar
nomination for her role in
Arthur Miller's
Hexenjagd (1996). Subsequently,
her work in Der Eissturm (1997),
opposite Kevin Kline and
Sigourney Weaver, and in
Pleasantville - Zu schön, um wahr zu sein (1998), opposite
William H. Macy and
Jeff Daniels, earned her high
praise and several critics' awards; she also co-starred in the action
blockbuster Im Körper des Feindes (1997) opposite
John Travolta and
Nicolas Cage. For her starring role in
Rufmord - Jenseits der Moral (2000), Allen
received Best Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, the Academy
Awards, the SAG Awards, and the Independent Spirit Awards.
Throughout the early 2000s Allen worked in both film and television,
with roles in three of the Bourne films -
Die Bourne Verschwörung (2004),
Das Bourne Ultimatum (2007),
and Das Bourne Vermächtnis (2012) -
as well as Wie ein einziger Tag (2004),
An deiner Schulter (2005),
and Death Race (2008). Allen also
received Emmy nominations for
Die Nebel von Avalon (2001)
and for the title role in the biopic
Georgia O'Keeffe (2009),
for which she was also executive producer. She was also recently seen
in HBO's drama series Luck (2011).
Allen married actor
Peter Friedman in 1990, and the
two divorced in 2002; Allen's daughter Sadie was born in 1994.
