Donna Murphy

Donna Murphy, born March 7, 1959, in Corona, Queens, New York, is an American actress and singer whose career on Broadway spans from 1979 to 2017. The eldest of seven children born to Jeanne (née Fink) and Robert Murphy, an aerospace engineer, she is of Irish, French, German, and Czech ancestry. Her family relocated to Hauppauge, Long Island, where Murphy began performing as a child, having requested voice lessons at age three. She later moved to Topsfield, Massachusetts, graduating from Masconomet Regional High School in 1977. Murphy enrolled in the drama program at New York University but left during her sophomore year after being cast as an understudy for the three backup singers in the 1979 Broadway musical They're Playing Our Song. She also studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

Murphy's Broadway career began with that 1979 replacement role in They're Playing Our Song. She subsequently served as an understudy in the musical-opera The Human Comedy in April 1984 and played various roles in The Mystery of Edwin Drood from 1985 to 1987. She also appeared on Broadway as Audrey Fulquard in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's Little Shop of Horrors. Her Off-Broadway work during this period was extensive, encompassing the musical Francis at the York Theatre at St. Peter's in 1981, The Mystery of Edwin Drood at the Public Theater's Delacorte Theatre in 1985, Birds of Paradise at the Promenade Theatre in 1987, Privates on Parade at the Roundabout Theatre in 1989, Song of Singapore in 1991, and the Michael John LaChiusa musical Hello Again at the Lincoln Center Mitzi Newhouse Theater in 1993.

Murphy's Broadway breakthrough came in 1994 when she originated the role of Fosca in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion, earning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 48th Tony Awards. Two years later, she played Anna Leonowens opposite Lou Diamond Phillips in a revival of The King and I, recording a cast album for the production and winning a second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 50th Tony Awards. Murphy remains a five-time Tony nominee overall. Her additional nominations came for portraying Ruth Sherwood in the 2003 revival of Wonderful Town, for which she had previously appeared in the New York City Center Encores! 2000 staged concert of the same musical; for playing Lotte Lenya opposite Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill in the 2007 musical Lovemusik; and for her dual role as Bubbie and Raisel in The People in the Picture, a Roundabout Theatre production that ran from April 28 to June 19, 2011.

The Wonderful Town revival, which ran from 2003 to 2005, also brought Murphy the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, one of her database-verified awards alongside her two Tony wins. Her Lovemusik performance in 2007 earned her an additional Drama Desk Award nomination. Murphy's other notable stage work includes Twelve Dreams at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater in 1995, Helen at the Public Theater in 2002, the role of the Witch in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods at the Public Theater's Delacorte Theatre in 2012, and an appearance in the 2007 New York City Center Encores! staged concert of Follies as Phyllis. She joined the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! as the alternate to Bette Midler in the title role of Dolly Gallagher Levi, playing Tuesday evening performances and other select dates. Her final performance in that run was January 7, 2018, though she returned for six additional performances in July and August 2018 before the production closed on August 25, 2018.

Beyond the stage, Murphy has built a substantial screen career. Her film roles include Anij, the love interest of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998); Juliette Simone, a ballet teacher, in Center Stage (2000); Rosalie Octavius, wife of the villain Dr. Otto Octavius, in Spider-Man 2 (2004); Betty, a surgical research assistant, in Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain (2006); Judy Braddock, mother of Annie Braddock, in The Nanny Diaries (2007); Kathleen Walker in Higher Ground (2011); Marie in Dark Horse (2011); and government agent Dita Mandy in The Bourne Legacy (2012). In the animated musical film Tangled (2010), she voiced Mother Gothel and performed the song "Mother Knows Best."

On television, Murphy appeared on the NBC soap opera Another World from 1989 to 1991 as District Attorney Morgan Graves. In 1997, she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special at the 24th Daytime Emmy Awards for playing Armanda Agrelo in the 1996 HBO Lifestories: Families in Crisis episode "Someone Had to be Benny." Her other television credits include a recurring role as Abigail Adams on Liberty! The American Revolution (1997), Murder One (1995–1996), a recurring role as Carla Tyrell on Law & Order (2000), Hack (2002–2003), Trust Me (2009), and Quantico (2017). In 2022, she joined the cast of HBO's The Gilded Age as Caroline Schermerhorn Astor.

Murphy was married to actor and singer Shawn Elliott from 1990 until his death in March 2016. She is the stepmother of Elliott's two daughters, and in 2005 the couple adopted a daughter from Guatemala.