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Deirdre O'Connell (actress)

American actress

Summary

American actress

Field	Value
image	deirdre o connell 2022 1.jpg
caption	O'Connell at the 75th Tony Awards in 2022
birth_date
birth_place	Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
occupation	Actress
years_active	1985–present

Deirdre O'Connell is an American character actress who has worked extensively on stage, screen, and television. She has won a Tony Award and has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Drama Desk Award.

Early life

O'Connell grew up in Massachusetts, U.S. She is the oldest of three children of Anne Ludlum, playwright and actress, and Thomas E. O'Connell, founding president of Berkshire Community College. She attended Taconic High School. O'Connell enrolled at Antioch College in Ohio, but withdrew before graduating.

Career

O'Connell began her career at Stage One, an experimental theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. She made her Broadway debut in the 1986 revival of The Front Page, and was nominated for the 1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the off-Broadway production Love and Anger. She is the recipient of two Drama-Logue Awards and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for her stage work in Los Angeles.

O'Connell made her screen debut in Tin Men. Additional film credits include State of Grace, Straight Talk, Leaving Normal, Fearless, City of Angels, Hearts in Atlantis, Imaginary Heroes, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Wendy and Lucy, What Happens in Vegas, Secondhand Lions, and Synecdoche, New York.

She was a regular on L.A. Doctors and has made numerous guest appearances on series such as Kate & Allie, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Six Feet Under, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Nurse Jackie. From 1994 to 2010, O'Connell appeared on six episodes of Law & Order, four of them as Dr. Valerie Knight, Anita Van Buren's oncologist in Season 20. In 2024, she portrayed Francis Cobb in the HBO series The Penguin.

Awards and nominations

In 2020, O'Connell received a Special Citation from the New York Drama Critics' Circle for career excellence, including her performance in Lucas Hnath's Dana H. at the Vineyard Theatre. She also won the 2010 Ovation Award for Featured Actress in a Play for the role of Judy in the Center Theatre Group production of In the Wake. She received 2020 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show performance in Lucas Hnath's Dana H. and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.

In 2022, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Dana H.

In 2024, she was nominated for Critics' Choice Awards for The Penguin in the Best Supporting Actress in a Movie/Miniseries. In 2025, she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role
1987	Tin Men	Nellie
1988	Stars and Bars	Shanda Gage
1989	Misplaced	Ella
1990	Brain Dead	Mrs. Halsey
1990	State of Grace	Irene
1990	Pastime	Inez Brice
1992	Falling from Grace	Sally Cutler
1992	Straight Talk	Lily
1992	Leaving Normal	Ellen
1992	CrissCross	Shelly
1992	Cool World	Isabelle Malley
1993	Fearless	Nan Gordon
1995	Smoke	Sue
1996	Lifeform	Dr. Gracia Scott
1998	City of Angels	Mrs. Balford
1999	Just Looking	Mrs. Braverman
2001	Hearts in Atlantis	Mrs. Gerber
2001	Ball in the House	Phyllis
2002	Dragonfly	Gwyn
2003	Secondhand Lions	Helen
2004	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Hollis Mierzwiak
2004	Imaginary Heroes	Marge Dwyer
2005	Winter Passing	Deirdre
2005	A Couple of Days and Nights	Cosmo
2006	Stephanie Daley	Jane
2007	Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot	Cynthia
2008	What Happens in Vegas	Mrs. Fuller
2008	Synecdoche, New York	Ellen’s Mother
2008	Wendy and Lucy	Deb (voice)
2009	The Greatest	Joyce
2009	A Dog Year	Donna Brady
2014	Gabriel	Meredith
2014	Apartment Troubles	Ina
2014	St. Vincent	Linda
2014	The Quitter	Kathleen Lembo
2016	Detours	Beth
2017	The Boy Downstairs	Amy
2018	Diane	Donna
2018	Lez Bomb	Rose
2020	Before/During/After	Nancy
2022	The Requin	Anne
2025	Eddington	Dawn

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985–1986	Loving	Sherri Rescott Watley	TV series
1987	Kate & Allie	Catherine	Episode: "Louis in Love"
1990	H.E.L.P.	Terrance	Episode: "Fire Down Below"
1992	Lifestories: Families in Crisis	Nancy Carlson	Episode: "Gunplay: The Last Day in the Life of Brian Darling"
1993	Sirens	Off. Heidi Schiller	Main role (season 1)
1994	Chicago Hope	Ellen Wheeler	Episodes: "You Gotta Have Heart", "Genevieve and Fat Boy"
1994	Law & Order	Jane Schuman	Episode: "Breeder"
1995	Fighting for My Daughter	Peggy	TV film
1995	Kansas	Holly	TV film
1995	Trial by Fire	Roberta	TV film
1996	Our Son, the Matchmaker	Winona	TV film
1996	Chasing the Dragon	Doris	TV film
1996–1997	Second Noah	Shirley Crockmeyer	Main role
1997	A Deadly Vision	Marilyn Middleton	TV film
1997	Breast Men	Lacey	TV film
1998	From the Earth to the Moon	Barbara Young	Episode: "The Original Wives Club"
1998–1999	L.A. Doctors	Suzanne Blum	Main role
1999	Murder in a Small Town	Kate Faxton	TV film
2001	Just Ask My Children	Ms. Landry	TV film
2001	The Practice	Jenny Baldwin	Episode: "Vanished: Parts 1 & 2"
2001	Law & Order	Joanna Wilder	Episode: "All My Children"
2002	Six Feet Under	LAC Arts Interviewer	Episode: "The Last Time"
2005	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Nina Lipton	Episode: "The Good Child"
2009–2010	Law & Order	Dr. Valerie Knight	Guest role (season 20)
2010	You Don't Know Jack	Linda	TV film
2011	Unforgettable	Sue Kelly	Episode: "With Honor"
2011	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Judge Owens	Episode: "True Believers"
2012	Person of Interest	Joan	Episode: "Risk"
2012	The Closer	Liz Provenza	Episode: "Fool's Gold"
2014	Nurse Jackie	Helen	Episodes: "Rag and Bone", "Candyman", "Sisterhood"
2014–2018	The Affair	Athena Bailey	Recurring role
2016–2018	The Path	Gab Armstrong	Recurring role
2017	Madam Secretary	Audrey Stewart	Episode: "Article 5"
2017	The Holdouts	Annie	TV film
2018	$1	Carol	"1.3"
2018	Daredevil	Anna Nelson	3 episodes
2021	Tell Me Your Secrets	Gayle Scott	Episode: "Someone Worse Than Me"
2022–2024	Outer Range	Patricia Tillerson	5 episodes
2024	The Penguin	Francis Cobb	Miniseries; main role
2025	The Beast in Me	Carol McGiddish	4 episodes

References

Cassidy, Benjamin. (2 August 2019). "O'Connell returns to Berkshires in WTF's 'Before the Meeting'". The Berkshire Eagle.
Piepenburg, Erik. (22 March 2016). "Deirdre O'Connell, Theater's Master of the Melancholy Mom". The New York Times.
[http://www.amrep.org/people/deidre.html American Repertory Theatre listing]
[http://www.filmbug.com/db/61434 Filmbug.com]
(16 April 2020). "Heroes of the Fourth Turning and A Strange Loop Named Winners of 2020 New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards".
(17 January 2011). "2009/2010 Ovation Award Winners.".
[https://playbill.com/article/lucille-lortel-awards-will-honor-deidre-oconnell-and-david-henry-hwang Lucille Lortel Awards Will Honor Deirdre O'Connell and David Henry Hwang]
[https://ew.com/theater/tony-awards-2022-nominations-list/ Tony Awards 2022: See the full list of nominees]
[https://www.eonline.com/news/1410809/the-2025-critics-choice-awards-tv-nominations-are-finally-here]
"2025 Emmy nominations are announced".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

living-people 21st-century-american-actresses 20th-century-american-actresses actresses-from-berkshire-county,-massachusetts american-film-actresses american-stage-actresses american-television-actresses people-from-pittsfield,-massachusetts tony-award-winners place-of-birth-missing-(living-people) year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)

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