BREAKING: Stage and screen actress Olympia Dukakis, who won an Oscar for her performance in “Moonstruck,” has died at age 89, her agent says.
FILE - In this Jan. 24, 1988 file photo, Actress Olympia Dukakis, winner of a Golden Globe for "Best Performance in a Supporting Role" and Cher, winner of the "Best Performance by an Actress in a musical or comedy", hold the awards they received for performances in the hit movie "Moonstruck" at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Dukakis won her Oscar through a surprising chain of circumstances, beginning with author Nora Ephron’s recommendation that she play Meryl Streep’s mother in the film version of Ephron’s book “Heartburn.” Dukakis got the role, but her scenes were cut from the film. To make it up to her, director Mike Nichols cast her in his hit play “Social Security.” Director Norman Jewison saw her in that role and cast her in “Moonstruck.
After earning her bachelor’s degree, she worked at an understaffed hospital in Marmet, West Virginia, and at the Hospital for Contagious Diseases in Boston.It was a shocking change, she told an interviewer in 1988, noting that she had gone from the calm world of science to one where students routinely screamed at the teachers.Her first graduate school performance was a disaster, however, as she sat wordless on the stage.
During their first years of marriage, acting jobs were scarce, and Dukakis worked as a bartender, waitress and other jobs.
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