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Joan Allen biography

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  • ZODIAC SIGN: Leo
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Actress Joan Allen is a founding member of Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She has also made several critically acclaimed film appearances.

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Joan Allen was born August 20, 1956, in Rochelle, Illinois. She began her professional career at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. On Broadway, she received a Tony for her performance in Burn This (1987), and was nominated in the same category for The Heidi Chronicles (1989). Allen's first film was Compromising Positions (1985),

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followed by several other critically acclaimed film performances.

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Actress, born August 20, 1956, in Rochelle, Illinois. Allen attended Rochelle Township High School, where she studied drama,failed cheerleading, and was voted most likely to succeed. Along with GarySinise, Laurie Metcalf and John Malkovich, Allen is one of the foundingmembers of Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she began herprofessional career. She studied theater at Eastern Illinois University.
On Broadway, Allen received a Tony Award for her performance opposite JohnMalkovich in Lanford Wilson's Burn This (1987), and was nominated inthe same category for The Heidi Chronicles (1989). Off-Broadway, shewon an Obie for her starring role in The Marriage of Bette & Boo. She reprised her Steppenwolf Theatre role in And A Nightingale Sang,receiving the Clarence Derwent, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle andTheatre World Awards.

Allen's first film was Compromising Positions (1985), followed byPeggy Sue Got Married (1986), starring Kathleen Turner, Tucker: A Man and His Dream(1988), starring Jeff Bridges, and Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993).

In 1996, Allen dropped ten pounds to star opposite Anthony Hopkins in Oliver Stone'sNixon, where her eerily accurate portrayal of Pat Nixon won her anAcademy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She received hersecond consecutive Best Supporting Actress nomination in 1997 for ArthurMiller's The Crucible, also featuring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder.

In 1997, Allen starred in John Woo's thriller, Face/Off (1997), withJohn Travolta and Nicolas Cage, and in Ang Lee's poignant drama, The IceStorm, with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. In 1998, she appeared inPleasantville as Betty Parker, a June Cleaver-esque housewife whodiscovers her true self.

Allen garnered more critical praise, along with her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, for her performance in The Contender (2000). She played a vice presidential hopeful

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