Christine Lahti

Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and film director. Throughout her career, she has garnered 2 Golden Globe Awards from 8 nominations, an Emmy Award from 6 nominations and an Academy Award from 2 nominations. Her first Academy Award nomination was for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1984 film Swing Shift. Her second nomination was for her work as a director when she won the Academy Award for Short Film, Live Action for her 1995 film Lieberman in Love. --- Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret (née Tabar), a painter, homemaker, and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon. Her paternal grandparents were Finnish immigrants and her maternal grandparents were from Austria-Hungary. Lahti was raised Lutheran. 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. After college, Lahti headed to New York City, 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. 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.