Blythe Danner

Blythe Katherine Danner was born on February 3, 1943, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Katharine and Harry Earl Danner, a bank executive. She has Pennsylvania Dutch, English, and Irish ancestry, with a maternal grandmother who was a German immigrant and a paternal great-grandmother born in Barbados to a family of European descent. Danner graduated from George School, a Quaker high school near Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1960, and later earned a degree from Bard College. She has a brother, opera singer and actor Harry Danner, a sister, and a maternal half-brother.

Danner's stage career began with the 1967 musical Mata Hari and a 1968 Off-Broadway production of Summertree. Her Broadway career, which spanned from 1968 to 2014, opened with Cyrano de Bergerac in 1968, followed by a Theatre World Award-winning performance in The Miser in 1969. She went on to win the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1970 for her role as a free-spirited divorcée in Butterflies Are Free, which ran on Broadway from 1969 to 1972. Her additional Broadway credits include Betrayal, the farce Blithe Spirit, and the comedy Twelfth Night. For 25 years, Danner has also been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she serves on the board of directors. In 2015, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Her film career began in earnest in 1972, when she appeared opposite Alan Alda in To Kill a Clown and portrayed Martha Jefferson in the film adaptation of 1776. That same year, she played the unknowing wife of a murderer opposite Peter Falk and John Cassavetes in the Columbo episode "Étude in Black." Subsequent film roles included Lovin' Molly (1974), directed by Sidney Lumet, Futureworld (1976) with Peter Fonda, The Great Santini (1979), and Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990). She appeared in two films drawn from Pat Conroy novels, The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides (1991), and collaborated with Woody Allen on three films: Another Woman (1988), Alice (1990), and Husbands and Wives (1992). Her other film credits include To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), The X-Files (1998), Forces of Nature (1999), and The Love Letter (1999). Beginning in 2000, Danner played Dina Byrnes in the comedy Meet the Parents opposite Robert De Niro, reprising the role in Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2010), with a fourth installment, Focker In-Law, announced for release on November 25, 2026. Additional film credits include The Last Kiss (2006), Paul (2011), Hello I Must Be Going (2012), I'll See You in My Dreams (2015), and What They Had (2018).

On television, Danner played lawyer Amanda Bonner in the series Adam's Rib opposite Ken Howard, and portrayed Zelda Fitzgerald in F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles' (1974). She appeared in the M*A*S*H episode "The More I See You" as the love interest of Alan Alda's character Hawkeye Pierce, and in the 1982 television film Inside the Third Reich as the wife of Albert Speer. She co-starred with her daughter, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, in the 1992 television film Cruel Doubt and again in the 2003 film Sylvia, in which she portrayed Aurelia Plath. From 2001 to 2006, Danner appeared regularly on NBC's Will & Grace as Will Truman's mother Marilyn, a role for which she received two Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. From 2004 to 2006, she starred in the comedy-drama series Huff, playing Izzy Huffstodt, and won two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for that role. She also received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for We Were the Mulvaneys (2002) and Back When We Were Grownups (2004), the latter of which also earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. Two television films adapted from Anne Tyler novels, Saint Maybe and Back When We Were Grownups, were produced for the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

In 2006, Bryn Mawr College's Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center presented Danner with an inaugural Katharine Hepburn Medal. That same year, she was also recognized for her longstanding environmental work; Danner has been active with INFORM, Inc., serves on the Board of Environmental Advocates of New York and the board of directors of the Environmental Media Association, and received the 2002 EMA Board of Directors Ongoing Commitment Award. In 2011, she joined Moms Clean Air Force to advocate against toxic air pollution. Following the death of her husband, producer and director Bruce Paltrow, from oral cancer in 2002, Danner became involved with the Oral Cancer Foundation, filming a public service announcement in 2005 and lending her name to the Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund, which supports research and treatment with a focus on communities affected by healthcare disparities. Danner and Bruce Paltrow had two children together, actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow. Her niece is actress Katherine Moennig, the daughter of her maternal half-brother William.