Lee Grant

Daughter of Abraham (1896-1989), born in New York, and Witia (née Haskell) Rosenthal (1898-1980), born in Russia. Paternal granddaughter of Fishel (1866-1940) and Ida (née Palea) Rosenthal (1866-1949). Both were born in Russia and emigrated to America in 1892.

Academy Award-winner Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal on October 31, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City, to Witia (Haskell), a teacher and actress, and Abraham Rosenthal, an educator and realtor. Her father was of Romanian Jewish descent, and her mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant. Lee made her stage debut at age 4 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, playing the abducted princess in "L'Orocolo". After graduating from high school, she won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. When she was a teenager Grant established herself as a formidable Broadway talent when she won The Critics' Circle Award for her portrayal of the shoplifter in "Detective Story".

According to her autobiography "I Said Yes to Everything", Grant lost her virginity at age 17 to an Irish dancer named Buster Burnell in August 1943.

She reprised the role in the film version (Detective Story (1951), a performance that garnered her the Cannes Film Festival Citation for Best Actress as well as her first Academy Award Nomination. Immediately following her screen debut, however, Lee became a victim of the McCarthy-era blacklists in which actors, writers, directors, etc. , were persecuted for supposedly "Communist" or "progressive" political beliefs, whether they had them or not. Except for an occasional role, she did not work in film or television for 10 years.

In 1966 Lee Re-started her acting career in the TV series Peyton Place (1964), for which she won an Emmy Award as Stella Chernak, and she later garnered her first Academy Award for Shampoo (1975), also receiving Academy Award nominations for The Landlord (1970) and Voyage of the Damned (1976).

Is one of 25 actresses to have won an Academy Award for their performance in a comedy; hers being for Shampoo (1975). The others, in chronological order, are: Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night (1934)), Loretta Young (The Farmer's Daughter (1947)), Josephine Hull (Harvey (1950)), Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday (1950)), Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday (1953)), Goldie Hawn Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class (1973)), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall (1977)), Maggie Smith (California Suite (1978)), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard (1980)), Jessica Lange (Tootsie (1982)), Anjelica Huston (Prizzi's Honor (1985)), Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck (1987)), Cher (Moonstruck (1987)), Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy (1989)), Mercedes Ruehl (The Fisher King (1991)), Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny (1992)), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway (1994)) Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite (1995)), Frances McDormand (Fargo (1996)), Helen Hunt (As Good as It Gets (1997)), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)), and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)).

Was the 76th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Shampoo (1975) at The 48th Annual Academy Awards (1976) on March 29, 1976.

Revealed in 1978 that she had undergone an abortion early in her career.

Since 1980 Lee has been concentrating on her directorial career, which began as part of the Women's Project at The Americal Film Institute (AFI); her adaptation of August Strindberg's, "Stronger, The" was consequently selected as one of the 10 best films ever produced for AFI.

In 1983 she received the Congressional Arts Caucus Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting and Independent Filmmaking.

Reportedly declined the lead role that ultimately went to Bea Arthur on The Golden Girls (1985), because she didn't want to play a grandmother. Grant's daughter, Dinah Manoff, went on to co-star as Carol Weston in Empty Nest (1988), a direct spin-off of The Golden Girls (1985). Grant appeared as a guest star on the 4th season of the show in 1992, playing the title character in Empty Nest: The Return of Aunt Susan (1992).

In 1987 she received an Academy Award for the HBO documentary, Down and Out in America (1986) and directed Nobody's Child (1986) for CBS, for which she received the Directors Guild Award.

Has three grandsons: Dashiell (b. 1997), Oliver (b. 2002), and Desi (b. 2002) via her daughter, actress Dinah Manoff, with whom Grant herself was three months pregnant when she completed her run of the Broadway play "A Hole in the Head".

On the August 3, 2014 broadcast of CBS News Sunday Morning (1979), Grant admitted to having had her first facelift at age 30. On the same broadcast, she stated she had five grandchildren. She did not say whether any of those were step-grandchildren.

As of 2016 she is the fourth earliest surviving recipient of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, behind only Angela Lansbury, Ann Blyth and Nancy Olson. She was nominated in 1952 for Detective Story (1951).

Finally came out with her real age in 2017, after decades of skimming years off her birthdate.