Christine Lahti

Christine Lahti
Lahti at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, April 2008
Born	Christine Ann Lahti (1950-04-04) April 4, 1950 Birmingham, Michigan, United States
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Occupation	Actress, film director
Years active	1973–present
Spouse(s)	Thomas Schlamme (m. 1983–present)
Children	3

Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and film director. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film Swing Shift. Her other film roles include ...And Justice for All (1979), Housekeeping (1987), Running on Empty (1988), and Miss Firecracker (1989). For her directorial debut with the 1995 short film Lieberman in Love, she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Lahti made her Broadway debut in 1980 as a replacement in Loose Ends, and went on to star in the Broadway productions of Present Laughter (1982) and The Heidi Chronicles (1989). An eight-time Golden Globe nominee and six-time Emmy Award nominee, she won a Golden Globe for the 1989 TV movie No Place Like Home, and won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1998 for her role as Kate Austin in the CBS series Chicago Hope (1995–99). She returned to Broadway in 2009 to star in God of Carnage. She also had a recurring role as Sonya Paxton in the NBC series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2009–11).

Early life

Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret (née Tabar 1920-1995) a painter, homemaker, and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti (1919–2001), a surgeon. She has three sisters, Carol, Catherine, and Linda, and two brothers, Paul Jr. and James Lahti. Her paternal grandparents were Finnish immigrants and her maternal grandparents were from Austria-Hungary. Lahti was raised in the Lutheran Church.

Lahti studied Fine Arts at Florida State University and received her bachelor's degree in Drama from the University of Michigan, where she joined Delta Gamma sorority.

Career

After college, Lahti headed to New York City in 1973, where she worked as a waitress and did commercials. Her breakthrough movie was ...And Justice for All (1979) with Al Pacino. After featuring in a few films and TV shows in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lahti chose roles that allowed her to spend time with her three children. An important role was in Running on Empty, a 1988 movie in which she and Judd Hirsch played the parents of a musically promising son; the family went underground to avoid the FBI after the parents had damaged a napalm factory, and they all must periodically move on short notice and assume new identities. She has also focused on television, beginning with her role in the made-for-TV adaptation of The Executioner's Song (1982). She appeared on Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein's seriocomic play, The Heidi Chronicles. Lahti received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Swing Shift (1984), and won an Academy Award for Best Short Film, Live Action for Lieberman in Love (1995), in which she starred and directed. It was adapted from Lieberman in Love, a short story by W. P. Kinsella. Lahti won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award in 1998 for her role in Chicago Hope.

At the Governor's Ball held after the 49th Annual Emmy Awards, 1997

In 2001, her first directorial film, My First Mister, was released. Starring Leelee Sobieski and Albert Brooks, the movie debuted with good reviews. In DVD commentary she applauds the work of her cast and crew, remarking "[I] was very lucky to have such a wonderful crew..." She said she felt regret that the film was rated R, for language, despairing that the movie might not be viewed by teenagers who would like and relate with the characters. Also, Lahti mentioned that she would have liked to have had more time to shoot different perspectives in order to facilitate story arc. Lahti starred in the Executive ADA role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sonya Paxton, while the character Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) was in appeals. She was in the first four episodes of the 11th season and returned for the show's eighth episode, where she clashed with Alexandra Cabot. Lahti later guest starred in the ninth and seventeenth episode of the 12th season where she reprised her role as Executive ADA Sonya Paxton. Her character was murdered in the seventeenth episode.

She returned to Broadway upon joining the cast of the Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage on November 17, 2009, replacing actress Marcia Gay Harden. Both actresses had a few special appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In September 2011, Lahti starred with Morgan Freeman in the Broadway debut of Dustin Lance Black's play, '8'—a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage—as Kris Perry. In March 2012, she was featured with Jamie Lee Curtis and Jansen Panettiere at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. The production was broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Personal life

Lahti has been married to television director Thomas Schlamme since September 4, 1983. They have three children. She is active in political causes.

Lahti and Schlamme live in Los Angeles with their children.

Since May 2005, Lahti has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1978	The Last Tenant	Carol	Television movie
1978	Dr. Scorpion	Tania Reston	Television movie
1979	...And Justice for All	Gail Packer
1980	The Henderson Monster	Dr. Louise Casimir	Television movie
1981	Whose Life Is It Anyway?	Dr. Clare Scott
1981	Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains	Aunt Linda
1982	The Executioner's Song	Brenda	Television movie
1984	Single Bars, Single Women	Elsie	Television movie
1984	Swing Shift	Hazel	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1985	Love Lives On	Marylin	Television movie
1986	Desert Bloom	Rose Chismore	Uncredited
1986	Just Between Friends	Sandy Dunlap
1987	Stacking	Kathleen Morgan	aka Season of Dreams
1987	Housekeeping	Sylvie
1988	Running on Empty	Annie Pope/Cynthia Manfield	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1989	Miss Firecracker	Clara Archer
1989	Gross Anatomy	Dr. Rachel Woodruff
1989	No Place Like Home	Zan Cooper	Television movie Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1990	Funny About Love	Meg Lloyd Bergman
1991	The Doctor	Anne MacKee
1991	Crazy from the Heart	Charlotte Bain	Television movie
1992	Leaving Normal	Darly Peters
1992	The Fear Inside	Meredith Cole	Television movie Nominated—CableACE Award for Best Actress in a Movie or Miniseries
1995	Lieberman in Love	Shaleen	Also director Academy Award for Live Action Short Film
1995	The Four Diamonds	Doctor and Queen Raptenahad
1995	Hideaway	Lindsey
1996	Pie in the Sky	Ruby
1997	Hope	Emma Percy	Television movie
1999	Judgment Day: The Ellie Nesler Story	Ellie Nesler
2000	An American Daughter	Lyssa Dent Hughes	Television movie Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
2001	My First Mister	Mall Patron	Also director
2002	Women vs. Men	Dana	Television movie
2002	The Pilot's Wife	Kathryn Lyons	Television movie
2003	Out of the Ashes	Gisella Perl	Television movie
2004	Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman	Rose	Television movie
2008	Smart People	Nancy
2008	Yonkers Joe	Janice
2009	Obsessed	Reese
2009	Operating Instructions	H. Keller	Television movie
2010	Flying Lessons	Carolyn Conway
2011	Petunia	Felicia Petunia
2011	The Doctor	Emily Campbell
2012	Touchback	Thelma
2013	Hateship, Loveship	Eileen
2014	Mania Days	Sara	Post-production
2015	The Steps	Sherry

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	The Harvey Korman Show	Maggie Kavanaugh	5 episodes
1987	Amerika	Alethea Milford	2 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1995–1999	Chicago Hope	Dr. Kathryn Austin	97 episodes Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1996–97, 1999) Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (1996–99) Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (1996–98) Nominated—Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series
1994	Frasier	Laura	Episode: "Author, Author"
2001	Ally McBeal	Sydney Gale	Episode: "Queen Bee"
2004–2005	Jack & Bobby	Grace McCallister	22 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
2006	Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip	Martha O'Dell	3 episodes
2009–2011	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	EADA Sonya Paxton	7 episodes
2012–2013	Hawaii Five-0	Doris McGarrett	8 episodes
2015	Grace and Frankie	Lydia Foster	Episode: "The Funeral"
	The Blacklist	Laurel Hitchin	Episode: "Arioch Cain (No.50}"

External links

• Christine Lahti at the Internet Movie Database
• Christine Lahti at the Internet Broadway Database
• Christine Lahti at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Christine Lahti biography by Finn Film Entertainment