Academy Award-winner Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal on October 31, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City, to Witia (Haskell), a teacher and actress, and Abraham Rosenthal, an educator and realtor. Her father was of Romanian Jewish descent, and her mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant. Lee made her stage debut at age 4 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, playing the abducted princess in 'L'Orocolo'. After graduating from high school, she won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied acting with. When she was a teenager Grant established herself as a formidable Broadway talent when she won The Critics' Circle Award for her portrayal of the shoplifter in 'Detective Story'. She reprised the role in the film version ( (1951), a performance that garnered her the Cannes Film Festival Citation for Best Actress as well as her first Academy Award Nomination. Immediately following her screen debut, however, Lee became a victim of the McCarthy-era blacklists in which actors, writers, directors, etc., were persecuted for supposedly 'Communist' or 'progressive' political beliefs, whether they had them or not.
Apr 27, 2016 Lee Grant on her career's brightest and darkest moments - Duration: 7:54. CBS Sunday Morning 94,052 views. Peter Falk and Lee Grant on Broadway in Neil Simon's 'The Prisoner of Second Avenue,' directed by Mike Nichols. Lee Grant dancing on the set of 'Detective Story.' Lee and Dinah.
Except for an occasional role, she did not work in film or television for 10 years. In 1966 Lee re-started her acting career in the TV series (1964), for which she won an Emmy Award as Stella Chernak, and she later garnered her first Academy Award for (1975), also receiving Academy Award nominations for (1970) and (1976). Since 1980 Lee has been concentrating on her directorial career, which began as part of the Women's Project at The Americal Film Institute (AFI); her adaptation of 's, 'Stronger, The' was consequently selected as one of the 10 best films ever produced for AFI. In 1987 she received an Academy Award for the HBO documentary, (1986) and directed (1986) for CBS, for which she received the Directors Guild Award.
In 1983 she received the Congressional Arts Caucus Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting and Independent Filmmaking. Subsequently, Women in Film paid tribute to her in 1989, with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award.
Both the New York City Council and the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors have recognized Ms. Grant for the contribution her films have made to the fight against domestic violence.- IMDb Mini Biography By:Spouse (2)(1973 -present)(October 1952 -1960) ( divorced) ( 1 child)Trade Mark (4). Academy Award acceptance speech: Thank you. I really must have won it otherwise why would I wear an old wedding dress? Laughter from the audience I think we referring to the Oscar had a fight twenty years ago, but he's changed.
I know I haven't. But I would like to thank the artistic community for sustaining me in my wins and losses and sitting on the curb, whatever it was. I don't think there's an award for what Warren Beatty had to do to get 'Shampoo' on, but I respect him and love him, and Robert Towne. And my director Hal Ashby, who encourages an actor to fly without a net because you know that he's there to catch you.
Lee Grant is a Hollywood veteran with remarkable staying power. Not that she hasn't experienced setbacks and disappointments along the way.
She talks about that and more with our Michelle Miller:Lee Grant has been studying her face for more than 80 years - and so have we, on stage, on television, and in movies such as 'Shampoo,' 'Valley of the Dolls,' and 'In the Heat of the Night.' For four and 1/2 years, sitting in her Manhattan apartment, the Academy Award-winning actress and director confronted her past, writing it all down by hand. The result is the new, thoroughly-honest memoir, 'I Said Yes to Everything.' .Blue Rider PressHer real name is Lyova Haskell Rosenthal. Her family had a vision for her: a life of fame and of glamour (maybe as a dancer).' A rich, rich, rich American, with a slightly English accent,' Grant said. 'You know, what they saw in the movies.'
'So there was play-acting going on,' said Miller.' Not play-acting. There was just a yearning, a wish, an immigrant's wish.
And it all depended on me to carry out the wish.' To make that wish come true, she threw herself into studying theater. Her early training led to a part in the 1949 Broadway play, 'Detective Story,' a role she repeated in the film. It earned her the first of four Oscar nominations.But as quickly as she had ascended, it all came crashing down.She was blacklisted for 12 years, from the time she was 24 to 36 - prime years for an actress. 'Can you imagine?' She said.Starting in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed actors, directors and writers to discover if the entertainment industry was indoctrinating Americans with Communist ideology.Miller asked, 'What did you think about Communism at the time?
Was it something that you were passionate about?' 'I knew nothing about it,' Grant said. 'And it was one of the big rifts between my husband and myself. He was a Communist. And I didn't have the base for that kind of philosophy. I just couldn't understand it.'
Lee Grant and the fallout of the blacklistNot only was Grant in love with an American Communist, screenwriter Arnie Manoff, she had agreed to speak at the memorial service of a fellow actor, J. Edward Bromberg, who had been blacklisted and died of a heart attack just short of his 48th birthday.' And two days later, I was in a union meeting, Actors Equity meeting, and the actor in front of me said, 'I see you've made the list,' Grant recalled. 'And I said, 'What list?'
And he said, 'Red Channels.' He had this book of Red Channels, and my name was in it: 'Lee Grant' was in it with the words that I'd said at his memorial.' 'What is it to see your name on that list today?' Miller asked.' Well, I'm in good company!' Grant replied.Her name was placed on a list that included Leonard Bernstein, Lena Horne, Arthur Miller, Pete Seeger, Orson Welles, and many others.'
From that day, for 12 years, I couldn't work again in film or television,' Grant said.And once her name appeared, she had to testify in Washington, D.C., before the Un-American Activities Committee.' They asked me if I got my work through the Communists,' Grant said.
'They apparently had put together 'Communist agent' with 'theater agent.' So an agent, they thought, was a Communist agent.' They were, they were so stupid!'