- Born
- Died
- Birth nameShirley Enola Knight
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Shirley Knight was an American actress who appeared in more than 180 feature films, television movies, television series, and Broadway productions in her career playing leading and character roles.
She was a member of the Actors Studio. Knight was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962).
In 1976, Knight won a Tony Award for her performance in Kennedy's Children, a play by Robert Patrick. In later years, she played supporting roles in many films, including Endless Love (1981), As Good as It Gets (1997), Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), and Grandma's Boy (2006). For her performances on television, Knight was nominated eight times for a Primetime Emmy Award (winning three), and she received a Golden Globe Award.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tango Papa
- SpousesJohn Hopkins(1969 - July 23, 1998) (his death, 1 child)Eugene Persson(March 14, 1959 - 1969) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsNoel Johnson KnightVirginia Webster
- Uniquely-shaped, pouty full-lips (in early roles)
- Won Broadway's 1976 Tony Award as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for "Kennedy's Children". She was also nominated in 1997 as Best Actress (Play) for "The Young Man from Atlanta".
- She and her daughter Kaitlin Hopkins both made guest appearances on Law & Order (1990).
- She was nominated for a 1977 Joseph Jefferson Award for Guest Artist for her performance in the play, "The Landscape of the Body", at the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
- Appeared in the L.A. stage and British film version of Dutchman (1966), a racial drama, which was produced by her then-husband Eugene Persson. She won the Venice Film Festival award for her cinematic performance.
- She was the daughter of Virginia (Webster) and Noel Johnson Knight, an oil company executive. She was raised in Mitchell, Kansas, and Lyons, KS.
- [on David Janssen, with whom she worked on three episodes of The Fugitive (1963)] I loved him. He was so sweet. I felt sorry for him toward the end. Now they have several people as leads in a show, they have these huge casts, but David was that show. He had those long, long, long hours, and a role where he was always doing physical things.
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