Lee Grant

She married playwright, Arnold Manoff in 1951 and divorced him nine years later. She has two children with him; Dinah and Tom Manoff.

She later married Joseph Feury in 1962, with whom she currently lives.

Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal to Abraham W. Rosenthal and Witia in New York City. When she was four-years-old, she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera.

When she was 11 years old, she took American Ballet classes. She also had the privilege to study at the ‘Art Students League of New York’, ‘Julliard School of Music’, ‘The High School of Music & Art’ and ‘George Washington High School’.

She graduated from high school at the age of 14 and attended the ‘Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre’ and later, the ‘Actors Studio’, in New York.

When she was a teenager, she established herself as a Broadway star when she won ‘The Critics’ Circle Award’ for her portrayal of the shoplifter in ‘The Detective Story’, in 1949. She reprised the role for the film noir adaptation of the same, two years later.

From 1952 to 1964 she was blacklisted from radio, film and most of the television work by the House Committee on Un-American Activities as she refused to testify against her husband. As a result her prime years were wasted. In 1964, she was removed from the blacklist. During the period she was blacklisted she worked sporadically in the theater.

She got her real breakthrough when she starred in the television series, ‘Peyton Palace’ from 1965 to 1966. She was cast as ‘Stella Chernak’ for the role and she appeared in a total of 71 episodes in this period. She also won a prestigious honor for her performance.

In 1968, she appeared in an episode of ‘Mission Impossible’, playing the role of the wife of a US ambassador who was clandestine to disgrace a scoundrel ambassador. The following year, she appeared in ‘The Big Bounce’ and ‘Marooned’.

She was cast as ‘Joyce Enders’ for the Hal Ashby film, ‘The Landlord’, in 1970 for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’ and was also nominated for two other important awards. The same year, she appeared in ‘There Was a Crooked Man’.

From 1965 to 1966, she starred in the American prime-time soap opera, ‘Peyton Palace’, which earned her a ‘Primetime Emmy Award’ for her performance. One of the highest-rated television shows at the time, the series became extremely popular and spawned a sequel to the show titled, ‘Return to Peyton Palace’. Her role as ‘Stella Chernak’ was critically-acclaimed and is largely considered her major work as she appeared in a total of 71 episodes.

In 1975, she was cast in the satirical rom-com film, ‘Shampoo’, which became a sleeper-hit at the time of its release. The movie is considered one of Grant’s best during her career, which went on to collect a total of $49,407,734 at the box-office and also earned her a prestigious Academy Award. The movie went on to become the fourth most successful film that year and was later inducted into the list of ‘AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs’.