Jennifer Ehle

Jennifer Ehle
Ehle in 2016
Born Jennifer Anne Ehle[1][2]
(1969-12-29) December 29, 1969
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
Occupation Actress
Years active 1991–present
Spouse(s)
Michael Ryan (m. 2001)
Children 2
Parent(s) John Ehle
Rosemary Harris

Jennifer Anne Ehle (/ˈiːliː/; born December 29, 1969) is an American actress. She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice. For her work on Broadway, she won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for The Real Thing, and the 2007 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Coast of Utopia. She is the daughter of English actress Rosemary Harris and American author John Ehle.

Ehle made her West End debut in Peter Hall's 1991 production of Tartuffe, and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1995. Other television credits include The Camomile Lawn (1992), A Gifted Man (2011–2012) and The Looming Tower (2018). She has also appeared in supporting roles in such films as Wilde (1997), Sunshine (1999), The King's Speech (2010), Contagion (2011), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), RoboCop (2014), and Fifty Shades of Grey (2015).[3] Ehle also portrayed Lydia Marsh in The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018).

Early life

Ehle was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to English actress Rosemary Harris and American author John Ehle. Aside from English, her ancestry includes Romanian (from a maternal great-grandmother) and paternaly German.[4][5]

Ehle appeared as a toddler in a 1973 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which her mother played Blanche DuBois.[6] She spent her childhood in both the UK and the US, attending several different schools, including Interlochen Arts Academy. She was raised largely in Asheville, North Carolina. Her drama training was split between the North Carolina School of the Arts[7] and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.[8]

Career

Ehle made her West End debut as Orgon's wife in the 1991 Peter Hall Company production of Tartuffe, for which she won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards.[9][10] Hall then cast her as Calypso in a 1992 television adaptation of Mary Wesley's novel The Camomile Lawn, in which she and her mother played the same character at different ages.[11] This story, produced by UK's Channel 4, was a five-part miniseries about the lives and loves of a family of cousins from 1939 to the present. The two would later reprise this different age portrayal of a character as Valerie in István Szabó's 1999 movie Sunshine.

Her performance as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice earned her a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. After a stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company,[12] she gained her first major feature film role in Paradise Road. She continued her career on both stage and screen. In 2000, she received further critical acclaim for her Broadway debut as Annie in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, winning both a Theatre World Award and the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play. Her mother was also nominated for the same award that year for Waiting in the Wings.[13] After a hiatus, Ehle returned to the stage in 2005 in The Philadelphia Story at the Old Vic opposite Kevin Spacey. The following year, she played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth as part of the Shakespeare in the Park, and won her second Tony award for portraying three characters in Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia triptych, which ran from October 2006 until May 2007.[14]

Her more recent film work includes Before the Rains, an Indian-U.S. co-production directed by Santosh Sivan, and Pride and Glory with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. In 2008, she was featured in the CBS telefilm The Russell Girl.

In August 2009, it was announced that Ehle would play the character of Catelyn Stark in the pilot of HBO's Game of Thrones, an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy book series. Ehle filmed the pilot episode, but decided it was too soon to return to work after the birth of her daughter. She was replaced by Northern Irish actress Michelle Fairley.[15][16]

In 2010, Ehle starred alongside John Lithgow in the production of Mr. & Mrs. Fitch presented by Second Stage Theatre.[17] She played Myrtle Logue, wife of King George VI's speech therapist Lionel Logue, in The King's Speech. George was played by her Pride and Prejudice costar Colin Firth.

In 2011, Ehle played Dr. Ally Hextall in Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed Contagion. In the autumn of 2011, Ehle began a costarring role in the American television series A Gifted Man. Her character is a ghost who visits with her ex-husband and asks him to assist with her low-income clinic.

In 2012, Ehle played CIA officer Jessica in Zero Dark Thirty. In 2014, Ehle played Liz Kline in the remake, Robocop, also starring alongside James Spader as Madeline Pratt in the American TV series The Blacklist. She played Anastasia Steele's mother in the 2015 Fifty Shades of Grey film,[3] and also appeared in Spooks: The Greater Good.[18]

Personal life

Ehle married writer Michael Ryan on November 29, 2001,[19] and they have two children.[20]

Work

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1992The Camomile LawnYoung CalypsoMiniseries, 5 episodes
1993The MaitlandsPhyllisBBC TV production of Ronald Mackenzie's 1930s play
1993Rik Mayall Presents: Micky LoveTamsinMiniseries, 6 Episodes
1995Pride and PrejudiceElizabeth BennetMiniseries, 6 episodes
1997MelissaMelissaMiniseries, 5 episodes
2008The Russell GirlLorraine MorrisseyTV movie
2011Game of ThronesCatelyn StarkUnaired pilot episode
2011A Gifted ManAnna Paul16 episodes
2013Low Winter SunSusanEpisode: "Ann Arbor"
2014, 2015The BlacklistMadeline Pratt2 episodes
2018The Looming TowerAmbassador Barbara BodineEpisode: "The General"

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1994BackbeatCynthia Powell
1997Paradise RoadRosemary Leighton-Jones
1997WildeConstance Lloyd Wilde
1998Bedrooms and HallwaysSally
1999SunshineValerie Sonnenschein
1999This Year's LoveSophie
2002PossessionChristabel LaMotte
2006Alpha MaleAlice Ferris
2005The River KingBetsy Chase
2008Pride and GloryAbby Tierney
2008Before the RainsLauraMalayalam-language film
2009The GreatestJoan
2010The King's SpeechMyrtle Logue
2011The Ides of MarchCindy Morris
2011ContagionAlly Hextall
2011The Adjustment BureauBrooklyn Ice House Bartender
2012Zero Dark ThirtyJessica
2014RoboCopLiz Kline
2014Black or WhiteCarol Anderson
2014The ForgerKim Cutter
2014A Little ChaosMadame De Montespan
2015AdvantageousIsa Cryer
2015Fifty Shades of GreyCarla Wilks
2015Spooks: The Greater GoodGeraldine Maltby
2016Little MenKathy Jardine
2016The Fundamentals of CaringElsa
2016A Quiet PassionVinnie Dickinson
2017Fifty Shades DarkerCarla WilksUnrated edition
2017DetroitMorgue Doctor
2017I Kill GiantsMrs. Thorson
2018The Miseducation of Cameron PostDr. Lydia Marsh
2018MonsterKatherine O'Brien
2018Fifty Shades FreedCarla Wilks
2018Vox LuxJosie the Publicist
2018The Professor and the MadmanAda MurrayIn post-production

Theatre

YearTitleRoleCompanyVenue
1959 Pink ThunderbirdEdinburgh Festival
Laundry and BourbonEdinburgh Festival
1991TartuffeElmirePeter Hall Company
1992Breaking the CodePat GreenTriumph Productions Tour
1995–1996Richard IIILady AnneRoyal Shakespeare Company
1995–1996Painter of DishonourSerafinaRoyal Shakespeare Company
1995–1996The RelapseAmandaRoyal Shakespeare Company
1999The Real ThingAnnieDonmar Warehouse
1999SummerfolkVarvara MikhailovnaNational Theatre
2000The Real ThingAnnieAlbery Theatre and Barrymore Theatre
2001Design for LivingGildaRoundabout Theatre CompanyAmerican Airlines Theater
2005The Philadelphia StoryTracy LordThe Old Vic, London
2006MacbethLady MacbethShakespeare in the ParkDelacorte Theater
2006The Coast of Utopia: VoyageLiubov BakuninVivian Beaumont Theater
2006The Coast of Utopia: ShipwreckedNatalie HerzenVivian Beaumont Theater
2007The Coast of Utopia: SalvageMalwida von MeysenbugVivian Beaumont Theater
2010Mr. and Mrs. FitchMrs. FitchSecond Stage Theatre
2017OsloMona JuulVivian Beaumont Theatre

Honors

Awards
Nominations

References

  1. ↑ "World Authors, 1980–1985". google.ca.
  2. ↑ "Performing Arts". google.ca.
  3. 1 2 Jennifer Ehle to play mum in 50 Shades of Grey. 3 News NZ. 9 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Rosemary Harris and the Picture: Madonna of the Slaughtered Jews. Nmia.com. Retrieved on February 8, 2013. Archived July 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "ehle". ancestry.com.
  6. ↑ "Jennifer Ehle". TVGuide.com.
  7. ↑ "Drama – Home Page". uncsa.edu.
  8. ↑ "High Profile Alumni". cssd.ac.uk.
  9. ↑ http://www.geocities.ws.dwan_y/tartuffe.html%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  10. 1 2 Lees, Caroline. "Classic recipes for success". Sunday Times. 9 February 1992
  11. ↑ Dave Kehr (June 16, 2000). "AT THE MOVIES; A Resemblance? It's Only Natural". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  12. ↑ "What Lizzie did next". The Age. Melbourne. April 23, 2005. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  13. ↑ Doug Feiden (June 5, 2000). "'Kiss Me Kate' is big Tony winner 'Copenhagen' and 'Contact' also honored". Daily News. New York. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  14. ↑ "Utopian win for Jennifer Ehle and Tom Stoppard at Tony Awards". Daily Mail. London. June 11, 2007. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Fairley to replace Ehle in HBO's 'Thrones'". The Hollywood Reporter. October 14, 2010. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
  16. ↑ Jace Lacob (September 22, 2011). "A Gifted Man's Leading Lady". The Daily Beast.
  17. ↑ "Tony Winners Lithgow and Ehle Are 'MR. & MRS. FITCH' For Second Stage Theatre" August 19, 2009, Broadway World
  18. ↑ Stuart Kemp (November 7, 2013). "AFM: Kit Harington, Jennifer Ehle Sign on for 'Spooks'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  19. ↑ "Jennifer Ehle – Biography". Yahoo! Movies. 15 January 2014.
  20. ↑ Moore, Suzanne (20 December 2011). "Celebrities' Christmas memories". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
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