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Christine Lahti
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Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and filmmaker.
She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 1984 film Swing Shift.
Her other film roles include …And Justice for All (1979), Housekeeping (1987), Running on Empty (1988), Leaving Normal (1992), and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019).
For her directorial debut with the 1995 short film Lieberman in Love, she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Lahti made her Broadway debut in 1980 as a replacement in Loose Ends and starred in the Broadway productions of Present Laughter (1982) and The Heidi Chronicles (1989).
A six-time Emmy Award nominee, she won Emmy in 1998 for her role as Kate Austin in the CBS series Chicago Hope (1995–99). She returned to Broadway in 2009 to star in God of Carnage. She has had a number of recurring roles: as Sonya Paxton in the NBC series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2009–11), as Doris McGarrett in the CBS series Hawaii Five-0 (2012–19), as Laurel Hitchin in NBC’s The Blacklist (2015–17), and as Sheryl Luria in the CBS/Paramount+ series Evil (2019–24).
Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret (née Tabar), a painter, homemaker, and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon.
She has three sisters, Carol, Catherine, and Linda, and two brothers, Paul Jr. and James Lahti.[5] Her paternal grandparents were Finnish immigrants[6][7] and her maternal grandparents were from Austria-Hungary. Lahti was raised in the Lutheran Church.[8]
Lahti studied Fine Arts at Florida State University and received her bachelor’s degree in Drama from the University of Michigan, where she joined Delta Gamma sorority. She studied acting at HB Studio[9] in New York City, as well as completing a two-year professional actor training program at the William Esper Studio for the performing arts in Manhattan.[10]
After college, Lahti headed to New York City in 1973, where she worked as a waitress and did commercials. Her breakthrough movie was …And Justice for All (1979) with Al Pacino.
In the film Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), starring Richard Dreyfuss and John Cassavetes, she was cast as a physician who grows attached to a paralyzed patient seeking the right to leave the hospital. Later, she was cast in an important role in Running on Empty, a 1988 movie in which she and Judd Hirsch played the parents of a musically promising son; the family went underground to avoid the FBI after the parents had damaged a napalm factory, and they all must periodically move on short notice and assume new identities. She has also focused on television, beginning with her role in the made-for-TV adaptation of The Executioner’s Song (1982). She appeared on Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein’s seriocomic play, The Heidi Chronicles.
Lahti received Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Swing Shift (1984), and won the Oscar for Best Short Film, Live Action for Lieberman in Love (1995), in which she starred and also directed. It was adapted from Lieberman in Love, a short story by W. P. Kinsella.
Lahti won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1998 for her role in Chicago Hope.
At the Governor’s Ball held after the 49th Annual Emmy Awards, 1997
In 2001, her first directorial feature, My First Mister, was released. Starring Leelee Sobieski and Albert Brooks, the movie debuted with good reviews.
Lahti starred in the executive ADA role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sonya Paxton while the character Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) was in appeals. She was in the first 4 episodes of the 11th season[11] and returned for the show’s eighth episode, where she clashed with Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March).
Lahti later guest starred in the ninth and 17th episodes of the 12th season, where she reprised her role as Paxton. Her character was murdered in the 17th episode.
She returned to Broadway upon joining the cast of the Tony Award–winning play God of Carnage on November 17, 2009, replacing Marcia Gay Harden. Both actresses had a few special appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In September 2011, Lahti starred with Morgan Freeman in the Broadway debut of Dustin Lance Black’s play, 8—a reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California’s Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage—as Kris Perry.
In March 2012, she was featured with Jamie Lee Curtis and Jansen Panettiere at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. The production was broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.
Her book of essays, True Stories From an Unreliable Eyewitness, was published in 2018 by Harper Wave.
In 2020, Lahti appeared as a guest on the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip marathon fundraiser episode of The George Lucas Talk Show.
Lahti has been married to TV director Thomas Schlamme since September 4, 1983. They have three children. Lahti resides in Los Angeles, California, with her family.
Filmography
1979 …And Justice for All Gail Packer
1981 Whose Life Is It Anyway? Dr. Clare Scott
1981 Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains Aunt Linda
1984 Swing Shift Hazel Zanussi, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actress Oscar nom
1986 Desert Bloom Rose Chismore Uncredited
1986 Just Between Friends Sandy Dunlap
1987 Stacking Kathleen Morgan aka Season of Dreams
1987 Housekeeping Sylvie
1988 Running on Empty Annie Pope/Cynthia Manfield, LA Film Critics Association, Best Actress
1989 Miss Firecracker Clara Archer
1989 Gross Anatomy Dr. Rachel Woodruff
1990 Funny About Love Meg Lloyd Bergman
1991 The Doctor Anne MacKee
1992 Leaving Normal Darly Peters
1995 Lieberman in Love Shaleen, also director, Academy Best Live Action Short Film Oscar
1995 The Four Diamonds Doctor and Queen Raptenahad
1995 Hideaway Lindsey
1996 Pie in the Sky Ruby
2001 My First Mister Mall Patron, Also director
2003 Out of the Ashes Gisella Perl
2008 Smart People Nancy
2008 Yonkers Joe Janice
2009 Obsessed Reese
2010 Flying Lessons Carolyn Conway
2012 Petunia Felicia Petunia
2012 Touchback Thelma
2013 Hateship, Loveship Eileen
2015 The Steps Sherry
2015 Touched with Fire Sara
2015 Safelight Peg
2016 Operator Beth Larsen
2017 Becks Ann
2019 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Ellen
2025 Bird In Hand Carlotta
