{{Infobox actress
| bgcolour =
| name = Elizabeth Perkins
| image = Replace this image female.svg
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| birthname =
| birthdate = | location =
Queens, New York,
U.S.
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| occupation =
| spouse = Julio Macat (2000-Present)
Terry Kinney (1984-?) (Divorced) 1 Child
}}
Elizabeth Perkins (born
November 18,
1960) is an
Emmy and
Golden Globe award-nominated American
film, television and
theater actress.
Early life
Perkins was born in
Queens, New York City to James Perkins, a farmer, writer and businessman, and Jo Williams, a drug treatment counselor and concert pianist.
[http://www.filmreference.com/film/56/Elizabeth-Perkins.html] Her paternal grandparents were Greek immigrants who anglicized their surname from "Pisperikos" to "Perkins" when they immigrated to the United States.
[http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800012200/bio][http://www.playboy.com/magazine/20q_archive/elizabeth-perkins.html] Perkins was raised in
Vermont; her parents divorced in 1963. After finishing highschool at
Northfield Mount Hermon School she spent three years in
Chicago studying acting at the famous
Goodman School of Drama. In 1984, she made her theatrical debut on Broadway in Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs", and afterward worked in a number of ensemble companies, including The New York Shakespeare Festival and the Steppenwolf Theater. She has always considered theater work to be a priority in her career.
Career
She was listed as one of the twelve "Promising New Actors of 1986" in John Willis' Screen World, and she has since landed numerous film roles. Perkins made her film debut in 1986 in
Edward Zwick's ''
About Last Night...'' and had a career breakthrough co-starring with
Tom Hanks in ''
Big''. She received critical acclaim for her performance in
Barry Levinson's ''
Avalon'', and was the stand-out actor opposite William Hurt in
''The Doctor'' (1991), in which she received critical acclaim for her performance as a terminal cancer patient. Her biggest Hollywood success so far has been in ''
Big'', opposite
Tom Hanks, in which she played the adult love interest to his 12 year old mind in an adult body.
In 1993, Perkins made her television debut in ''For Their Own Good''. She later starred in the comedy series ''
Battery Park'' and ''
If These Walls Could Talk'', and has since regularly appeared in television films. Recently, Perkins appeared as a psychiatrist in the 2005 suspense thriller,
The Ring Two, starring
Naomi Watts. Perkins plays
Celia Hodes, upstanding
PTA mother, alongside
Mary-Louise Parker and
Justin Kirk on the
Showtime series ''
Weeds''. Thanks to her work on ''
Weeds'', Perkins has received two
Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Miniseries or Made for TV Motion Picture (in
2006 and
2007). She has also been nominated for an
Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. At a screening of the season 2 finale of ''Weeds'', at the
Museum of TV and Radio on October 25, 2006, Perkins said that she considers playing Celia Hodes her favorite role in her career because she is so different than characters she is usually cast for.
Personal life
Perkins' first husband was Chicago actor
Terry Kinney; the couple have a daughter Hannah, but later divorced. In
2000 she married her present husband, Argentinian-born cinematographer
Julio Macat, with whom she inherited three teenage stepsons: Maxmillian, Alexander and Andreas.
[According to ''Parade'' Magazine (August 5, 2007)]