Joanna Gleason

Joanna Gleason (née Hall; born June 2, 1950, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian-American actress and singer whose career has spanned Broadway, film, and television. She is the daughter of Monty Hall, who worked for Toronto radio stations early in his career before transitioning to television and achieving widespread fame as the host of Let's Make a Deal, and Marilyn Hall. Gleason grew up in Beverly Hills, where she attended Beverly Hills High School, graduating in 1968. During her high school years she participated in productions of The Music Man, The Mikado, The Grass Harp, and The Madwoman of Chaillot, and received acting instruction from John Ingle, who taught at the school from 1955 to 1985 and later became known for his role as Edward Quartermaine on General Hospital. She went on to study at UCLA and then Occidental College, from which she graduated. Her siblings include television writer and director Sharon Hall Kessler and Emmy Award-winning television writer and director Richard Hall.

Gleason made her professional stage debut in Promises, Promises in 1972. Her Broadway career began in 1977, when she originated the role of Monica in Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart's I Love My Wife, earning a Theatre World Award for the performance. She returned to Broadway in 1984 as a replacement in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, taking on the role of Charlotte, which had been originated by Christine Baranski. The following year she played Pam in a revival of Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play as well as a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play. She won the Drama Desk Award in that same category in 1986 for two off-Broadway performances: Virginia in Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play and Trudy in Andrew Bergman's Social Security.

Gleason achieved her greatest stage success as the original Baker's Wife in Into the Woods, the musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. The production first ran at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in 1986 before transferring to Broadway the following year. For the role, she won both the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical in 1988. The Tony Award was presented to her by her co-star Bernadette Peters. Her performance was preserved on the original cast recording and in a filmed version broadcast on the PBS anthology series Great Performances.

In 1991, Gleason played the lead role of Nora Charles in Nick & Nora, a musical adaptation of The Thin Man with music and lyrics by Charles Strouse and Richard Maltby Jr. and a book by Arthur Laurents. The production encountered significant difficulties during previews and closed after only nine performances. It was during this production that Gleason met actor Chris Sarandon, whom she married in 1994. The two later returned to the stage together in Thorn and Bloom in 1998 and collaborated on several films, including Road Ends, Edie & Pen, Let the Devil Wear Black, and American Perfekt. Gleason had previously been married to acting coach Paul G. Gleason, whose surname she retained professionally after their divorce on June 28, 1982, and subsequently to Michael Bennahum. In 2005, Gleason appeared on Broadway in the musical adaptation of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, playing Muriel, a performance that earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In 2007, she was honored by the New England Theatre Conference with a Special Award for Achievement in Theatre.

Gleason's film career began in 1986 with roles in two productions: Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, in which she played Carol, and Mike Nichols' Heartburn, in which she played Diana. She worked with Allen again in Crimes and Misdemeanors in 1989, playing Wendy, the wife of Allen's character. In 1997 she appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights as Dirk's mother, opposite Mark Wahlberg. Additional film credits include F/X2 (1991), Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), The Wedding Planner (2001), and Sex and the City (2004).

On television, Gleason was cast in 1979 as supporting character Morgan in the sitcom Hello, Larry, starring McLean Stevenson, which ran for two seasons. She played Beaver's ex-wife Kimberly in the 1983 television movie Still the Beaver. From 1992 to 1995 she played Nadine Berkus on Love & War, directing several episodes of the series as well. She played Joan Silver on Temporarily Yours in 1997, and from 1998 to 2000 starred as Charlotte in the Lifetime series Oh Baby, also directing episodes of that show. She subsequently starred opposite Bette Midler on Bette as agent Connie Randolph. From 2014 to 2016 she appeared in six episodes of the Canadian black comedy series Sensitive Skin as Veronica. Her extensive guest-starring credits include appearances on The West Wing, Friends, ER, The Good Wife, The Practice, King of the Hill, Murphy Brown, Blue Bloods, and The Newsroom, among others. Gleason has also taught acting, holding classes and workshops across the country.