Christine Baranski

She had an older brother, Michael J. Baranski (1949–1998), an advertising executive who died at age 48.

She is of Polish descent, and her grandparents were stage actors in Poland before emigrating to America.

Baranski was raised in a heavily Polish and Roman Catholic neighborhood in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga.

She attended high school at the Villa Maria Academy where she was class president and salutatorian.

Christine Jane Baranski (born May 2, 1952) is an American actress.

She has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Tony Awards.

She later studied at New York City's Juilliard School (Drama Division Group 3: 1970–1974), where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1974.

Baranski made her Off-Broadway debut in Coming Attractions at Playwrights Horizons in 1980, and has appeared in several Off-Broadway productions at the Manhattan Theatre Club, starting with Sally and Marsha in 1982.

Baranski made her Broadway debut in Hide & Seek in 1980.

Baranski won two Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Charlotte in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing (1984) and as Chris Gorman in Neil Simon's Rumors (1989).

Her major Broadway credits include Hurlyburly (1984), The House of Blue Leaves (1986), and Boeing Boeing (2008).

For her next Broadway performance, in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, she won the 1984 Tony Award Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Other Broadway credits include Hurlyburly, The House of Blue Leaves, Rumors (for which she won her second Tony), Regrets Only, Nick & Nora, and the Encores! concert staging of Follies.

Baranski appeared in the films 9½ Weeks (1986), Legal Eagles (1986), Reversal of Fortune (1990), Addams Family Values (1993), Jeffrey (1995), The Odd Couple II (1998) Bulworth (1998), Cruel Intentions (1999), Bowfinger (1999), Trolls (2016) and A Bad Moms Christmas (2017).

Baranski appeared in short-term roles on various daytime soap operas, including All My Children and Another World.

Baranski is also known for her film roles in Reversal of Fortune (1990), The Birdcage (1996), Cruel Intentions (1999), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Chicago (2002), Mamma Mia! (2008), Into the Woods (2014), and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).

In her first Broadway production since 1991, Baranski was featured as the maid Berthe in the 2008 revival of Boeing Boeing.

The show garnered two Tony Awards, one for Best Revival of a Play and the other for Best Actor (Mark Rylance).

The original cast was Bradley Whitford (Bernard), Kathryn Hahn (Gloria), Christine Baranski (Berthe), Gina Gershon (Gabriella), and Mary McCormack (Gretchen).

She received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Maryann Thorpe in the sitcom Cybill (1995–1998).

Baranski was featured as Cybill Shepherd's sarcastic, hard-drinking friend Maryann Thorpe in the CBS sitcom Cybill, which ran from 1995 until 1998, during which time she hosted Saturday Night Live and won an Emmy Award as Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series along with three other nominations.

During this, Baranski portrayed a librarian named Sonja Umdahl in the "Dick and the Single Girl" episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun.

A few years later, Baranski received an Emmy nomination for a guest starring role in the NBC series Frasier as a controversial tough love radio psychiatrist named Dr. Nora.

The episode, which was named for the character, parodied Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

The episode was pulled from syndication by Paramount.

Baranski had an uncredited role in the series Now and Again as the voice of Roger's overbearing wife Ruth, who was never seen by viewers.

Some of her better-known roles are as Katherine Archer in The Birdcage (1996), Martha May Whovier in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Mary Sunshine in Chicago (2002) and Connie Chasseur in The Ref (1994).

She portrayed Mrs. Lovett in the Kennedy Center's production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2002).

Baranski was born in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Virginia (née Mazurowska) and Lucien Baranski, who edited a Polish-language newspaper.

At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Baranski starred as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd in 2002 (for which she won the 2003 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical) and as the title character in Mame in 2006.

Baranski received further recognition for her role as Tanya Chesham-Leigh in the hit musical film Mamma Mia! (2008), and its sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).

Baranski is also known for her roles as Diane Lockhart in the legal drama series The Good Wife (2009–2016) and its spin-off series The Good Fight (2017–2022) as well as Agnes van Rhijn in the HBO Max period drama The Gilded Age (2022–present).

For her recurring role as Dr. Beverly Hofstadter in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2009–2019), she received four Emmy Award nominations.

The show closed on January 4, 2009.

Baranski also appeared in a one-night-only concert benefit performance of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music for Roundabout Theatre Company as Countess Charlotte Malcolm on January 12, 2009.

The cast included Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Victor Garber and Marc Kudisch.

Baranski has won both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Awards twice.

Baranski played Cinderella's stepmother in the 2014 film adaptation of the musical Into the Woods.

In 2018, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Baranski has appeared in various film roles.