Personal life
Ruehl was born in
Queens, New York. Her father was an
FBI agent and her mother, also named Mercedes, was a school
teacher.
[http://www.filmreference.com/film/30/Mercedes-Ruehl.html] She was raised in the
Catholic religion
[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_n8_v24/ai_15667421] and has German, Irish, and Cuban ancestry.
[http://www.lasculturas.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=1] Ruehl attended
College of New Rochelle[http://www.cnr.edu/CNR/cnr-wealth.html] and graduated in 1969. She is married to painter
David Geiser,
[http://www.artdealers.org/events/forum07t.html] with whom she adopted a son, Jake (born 1997). She had another son, Christopher, whom she placed in adoption in 1976; Christopher later became Jake's godfather.
[http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019603/bio]
Career
Ruehl began her career in regional theatre, taking odd jobs between engagements. In the late 1970s, Ruehl began chalking up New York stage successes, notably in ''
I'm Not Rappaport'' (1985). On the stage, she won the 1985
Obie Award for her performance in ''
The Marriage of Bette and Boo'' and twenty years later, an Obie for ''
Woman Before a Glass''. She also received a 1991
Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for ''
Lost in Yonkers''. Her performances in two other plays earned her two other Tony nominations:
In 1995 as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for a revival of ''The Shadow Box'';
In 2002 as Best Actress (Play) for Edward Albee's ''The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?''.
Her most acclaimed film role was in ''
The Fisher King''; her performance in the film earned her the 1991
Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as well as an
American Comedy Award, a
Boston Society of Film Critics Award, a
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, and a
Golden Globe. Earlier she had won the 1989
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ''
Married to the Mob''. She played
KACL station manager Kate Costas in five episodes of ''
Frasier'', and had a major role in the made-for-TV film ''
All-American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story''.She is the first Cuban American female Academy Award winner.
She has also played the mother of Vincent Chase in
HBO's ''
Entourage''.