Amy Irving

Amy Irving, born September 10, 1953, in Palo Alto, California, is an American actress and singer whose career spans film, television, and stage. The daughter of stage and film director Jules Irving and actress Priscilla Pointer, she grew up in a theatrical household in San Francisco, where her father co-founded the Actor's Workshop and she participated in local theater from childhood. When her father was appointed director of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater, the family relocated to Manhattan, where Irving attended the Professional Children's School. She trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and subsequently at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London.

Irving's Broadway career began with a walk-on role in the 1965–66 production of The Country Wife at age twelve, in which her character sold a hamster to Stacy Keach in a crowd scene. The production was directed by Robert Symonds, a family friend and associate director of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater who later became her stepfather. Her Off-Broadway debut came at age seventeen in And Chocolate on Her Chin. She returned to Broadway in 1980, appearing in Amadeus at the Broadhurst Theatre for nine months, having replaced Jane Seymour. That same year she performed in Heartbreak House alongside Rex Harrison at the Circle in the Square Theatre. In 1994, she appeared in the original Broadway production of Broken Glass at the Booth Theatre, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Play. Three years later she joined Jeanne Tripplehorn and Lili Taylor in a revival of The Three Sisters at the Roundabout Theatre. Irving's final Broadway appearances came during the 2006–07 season in the American premiere of Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center, in which she performed in both Part 1, Voyage, and Part 2, Shipwreck. Her Broadway work also earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1984. In 1994, she and Anthony Hopkins co-hosted the 48th Tony Awards at the Gershwin Theatre.

Her Off-Broadway credits include The Road to Mecca, for which she received an Obie Award in 1988, as well as The Heidi Chronicles, The Vagina Monologues in both London and New York, The Glass Menagerie opposite her mother Priscilla Pointer, Celadine at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the 2006 one-woman play A Safe Harbor for Elizabeth Bishop.

Irving's screen career began with Brian De Palma's Carrie in 1976, in which she played Sue Snell, a role she reprised in The Rage: Carrie 2 in 1999. She followed that with a lead role in De Palma's 1978 supernatural thriller The Fury. In 1980, she starred opposite Richard Dreyfuss in The Competition and appeared in Honeysuckle Rose alongside Willie Nelson, marking her on-screen singing debut. Her performance in Barbra Streisand's Yentl in 1983 earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1988, she received a Golden Globe nomination for her role in Crossing Delancey, and that same year provided the singing voice for Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. She appeared in Woody Allen's ensemble comedy Deconstructing Harry in 1997 and co-starred opposite Michael Douglas in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic in 2000. She reunited with Soderbergh in 2018 for the psychological horror film Unsane. Her television work includes a recurring role as Emily Sloane in Alias, the title role in the miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, and a lead role in the miniseries The Far Pavilions.

Irving has two sons: Max Samuel, born June 13, 1985, with director Steven Spielberg, to whom she was married from 1985 to 1989, and a second son with Brazilian film director Bruno Barreto, whom she married in 1996 and divorced in 2005. In April 2023, she released her debut album, Born In a Trunk, comprising ten cover songs drawn from her life and career.