Amy Irving

Amy Davis Irving (born September 10, 1953) is an American actress and singer, who worked in film, stage, and television.

Her accolades include an Obie Award, and nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award.

Born in Palo Alto, California, to actors Jules Irving and Priscilla Pointer, Irving spent her early life in San Francisco before her family relocated to New York City during her teenage years.

Irving was born on September 10, 1953, in Palo Alto, California.

Her father was film and stage director Jules Irving (born Jules Israel) and her mother is former actress Priscilla Pointer.

Her brother is writer and director David Irving and her sister, Katie Irving, is a singer and teacher of deaf children.

Irving's father was of Russian-Jewish descent, and one of Irving's maternal great-great-grandfathers was also Jewish.

Irving was raised in her mother's faith of Christian Science, and her family observed no religious traditions.

She spent her early life in San Francisco, California, where her father co-founded the Actor's Workshop, and where she was active in local theater as a child.

She attended the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and appeared in several productions there.

She also trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

As a teenager, Irving relocated with her family to New York City, where her father was appointed the director of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater.

There, Irving graduated from the Professional Children's School.

She made her Off-Broadway debut at age 17 in And Chocolate on Her Chin.

Irving's first stage appearance was at nine months old in the production "Rumplestiltskin" where her father brought her on the stage to play the part of his child who he trades for spun gold.

Then at age two, she portrayed a bit-part character ("Princess Primrose") in a play which her father directed.

In New York, she made her Broadway debut in The Country Wife (1965–1966) at age 13.

She had a walk-on role in the 1965–66 Broadway show The Country Wife at age 12.

Her character was to sell a hamster to Stacy Keach in a crowd scene.

The play was directed by family friend Robert Symonds, the associate director of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater, and who later became her stepfather after her father died and her mother remarried.

Within six months of returning to Los Angeles from London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the mid-1970s, Irving was cast in a major motion picture and was working on various TV projects such as guest spots in Police Woman, Happy Days, and a lead role in the mini-series epic Once an Eagle opposite veterans Sam Elliott and Glenn Ford, and a young Melanie Griffith.

She played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Theatre in 1975, and returned to the role at the Seattle Repertory Theatre (1982–1983).

Irving auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, which went to Carrie Fisher.

She then starred in the Brian DePalma-directed films Carrie as Sue Snell (her mother was also in Carrie), and The Fury as Gillian Bellaver.

Irving subsequently studied theater at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater and at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before making her feature film debut in Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976), followed by a lead role in the 1978 supernatural thriller The Fury (1978).

In 1980, Irving appeared in a Broadway production of Amadeus and the film Honeysuckle Rose (1980).

She starred with Richard Dreyfuss in 1980 in The Competition.

Also in 1980, she appeared in Honeysuckle Rose, which also marked her on-screen singing debut.

Both her and Dyan Cannon's characters were country-and-western singers, and both actresses did their own singing in the film.

She was cast in Barbra Streisand's musical epic Yentl (1983), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1983, she featured in Barbra Streisand's directorial debut, Yentl, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1984, she co-starred in Micki + Maude.

In 1988, she received an Obie Award for her Off-Broadway performance in a production of The Road to Mecca, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the comedy Crossing Delancey (1988).

In 1988, she was in Crossing Delancey (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination).

Irving went on to appear in the original Broadway production of Broken Glass (1994) and the revival of Three Sisters (1997).

In film, she starred in the ensemble comedy Deconstructing Harry (1997), and reprised her role in The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) before co-starring opposite Michael Douglas in Steven Soderbergh's crime-drama Traffic (2000).

In 1999, she reprised her role as Sue Snell in The Rage: Carrie 2.

She subsequently appeared in the independent films Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001) and Adam (2009).

From 2006 to 2007, she starred in the Broadway production of The Coast of Utopia.

In 2018, she reunited with Soderbergh, appearing in a supporting role in his horror film Unsane.