Christine Baranski

Christine Jane Baranski (born May 2, 1952) is an American actress, singer, and producer. She is a 15-time Emmy Award nominee, winning once in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Maryann Thorpe in the sitcom Cybill (1995–98). Baranski has received further critical acclaim for her performance as Diane Lockhart in the legal drama series The Good Wife (2009–2016) and its spinoff series The Good Fight (2017–present), as well as her recurring role as Dr. Beverly Hofstadter in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2009–2019) for which she received four Emmy nominations. She is also known for her roles in numerous successful TV films, such as her portrayal of Kate in To Dance with the White Dog (1993), Prunella Stickler in Eloise at the Plaza, and Eloise at Christmastime (both 2003), and Amanda in Who Is Simon Miller? (2011).

Christine Baranski
Baranski in 2015
Born	Christine Jane Baranski (1952-05-02) May 2, 1952 Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Education	Juilliard School (BFA)
Occupation	Actress singer producer
Years active	1977–present
Spouse(s)	Matthew Cowles ​ ( m. 1983; died 2014)
Children	2, including Lily

Baranski won two Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the original Broadway productions of The Real Thing in 1984 and Rumors in 1989. Her other major Broadway credits include Hide and Seek (1980), Hurlyburly (1984), The House of Blue Leaves (1986), Nick & Nora (1991), and Boeing Boeing (2008). Baranski has starred in numerous films, including 9½ Weeks (1986), Legal Eagles (1986), Reversal of Fortune (1990), Addams Family Values (1993), Jeffrey (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Bulworth (1998), Cruel Intentions (1999), Bowfinger (1999), Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Chicago (2002), Mamma Mia! (2008), The Bounty Hunter (2010), Into the Woods (2014), A Bad Moms Christmas (2017), and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).

Early life and education

Baranski was born in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Virginia (née Mazurowska) and Lucien Baranski, who edited a Polish-language newspaper.[1][2] She is of Polish descent, and her grandparents were actors in the Polish theater.[3][4] Baranski was raised in a Polish-Catholic neighborhood in Cheektowaga, where she attended high school at the Villa Maria Academy.[5][6] She then studied at New York City's Juilliard School[7] (Drama Division Group 3: 1970–1974)[8] where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974.[9]

Career

Stage

Baranski at the Metropolitan Opera 2010 opening night of Das Rheingold

Baranski made her Off-Broadway debut in Coming Attractions at Playwrights Horizons in 1980, and has appeared in several Off Broadway productions at the Manhattan Theatre Club, starting with Sally and Marsha in 1982.

Baranski made her Broadway debut in Hide & Seek in 1980. For her next Broadway performance, in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, she won the 1984 Tony Award Best Featured Actress in a Play. Other Broadway credits include Hurlyburly, The House of Blue Leaves, Rumors (for which she won her second Tony), Regrets Only, Nick & Nora, and the Encores! concert staging of Follies.

At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Baranski starred as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd in 2002 (for which she won the 2003 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical) and as the title character in Mame in 2006.[10][6]

In her first Broadway production since 1991, she was featured as the maid Berthe in the 2008 revival of Boeing Boeing.[11] The show garnered two Tony Awards, one for Best Revival of a Play and the other for Best Actor (Mark Rylance). The original cast was Bradley Whitford (Bernard), Kathryn Hahn (Gloria), Christine Baranski (Berthe), Gina Gershon (Gabriella), and Mary McCormack (Gretchen). The show closed on January 4, 2009.

She also appeared in a one-night-only concert benefit performance of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music for Roundabout Theatre Company as Countess Charlotte Malcolm on January 12, 2009.[12] The cast included Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Victor Garber, and Marc Kudisch, among others.

She has won both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards twice.

In 2018 Baranski was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.[13]

Film

Baranski has also appeared in various film roles. Some of her better known roles are as Katherine Archer in The Birdcage (1996), Martha May Whovier in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Mary Sunshine in Chicago (2002), and Connie Chasseur in The Ref (1994).

She received further recognition for her role as Tanya Chesham-Leigh in the hit musical film Mamma Mia! (2008), and its sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).

She also played Cinderella's stepmother in the 2014 film adaptation of the musical Into the Woods.[14]

Baranski also starred in the films 9½ Weeks (1986), Legal Eagles (1986), Reversal of Fortune (1990), Addams Family Values (1993), Jeffrey (1995), Bulworth (1998), Cruel Intentions (1999), Bowfinger (1999), Chicago (2002), Trolls (2016), and A Bad Moms Christmas (2017) Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)'.

Television

An urban legend is that she appeared as a child actress as "Chris Charney", who is another actress, on The Brady Bunch. Baranski has denied this,[15] and stated that "the first real TV show" that she worked on was the comedy series Cybill, when she was in her 40s. Earlier, she had appeared in short-term roles on various daytime soap operas, including All My Children and Another World.

Baranski was featured as Cybill Shepherd's sarcastic, hard-drinking friend Maryann Thorpe in the CBS sitcom Cybill, which ran from 1995 until 1998, during which time she hosted Saturday Night Live and won an Emmy Award as Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series along with three other nominations. During this, Baranski portrayed a librarian named Sonja Umdahl in the "Dick and the Single Girl" episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun.[16] A few years later, Baranski received an Emmy nomination for a guest starring role in the NBC series Frasier as a controversial tough love radio psychiatrist named Dr. Nora. The episode, which was named for the character, parodied Dr. Laura Schlessinger.[17][18][19] The episode was pulled from syndication by Paramount.[18][19] Baranski had an uncredited role in the series Now and Again as the voice of Roger's overbearing wife Ruth, who was never seen by viewers.

Baranski later appeared in the 2000–2001 sitcom Welcome to New York and, with John Laroquette, in the 2003–2004 NBC sitcom Happy Family. She co-starred with Bernadette Peters in a pilot for an ABC sitcom, Adopted, in 2005, which was not picked up. She also played Faith Clancy, the mother of Jim Clancy in Ghost Whisperer.

In 2009 Baranski began guest-starring in The Big Bang Theory as Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, a dispassionate psychiatrist and neuroscientist and mother of one of the protagonists, Leonard Hofstadter. She first appeared in the second-season episode "The Maternal Capacitance", for which she received an Emmy nomination. Due to the popularity of her first appearance, Baranski returned in the third season for the Christmas episode "The Maternal Congruence", receiving another Emmy nomination. She appeared in a total of 16 episodes during the show's run, earning 4 Emmy nominations for her recurring role.

From 2009 to 2016, she played the role of Diane Lockhart, a top litigator and senior partner of a Chicago law firm on the CBS series The Good Wife. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for six seasons of the series, in the years 2010 to 2015. Besides her work on The Good Wife and the aforementioned guest appearances on The Big Bang Theory, her other recent appearances include Ugly Betty in 2009 as Victoria Hartley, the haughty mother of Betty's new boyfriend.

Baranski currently stars in a spinoff of The Good Wife, titled The Good Fight. The series began airing on CBS and then CBS All Access starting in February 2017. Her character, Diane Lockhart, joins another law firm after being forced to return to work.[20]

Personal life

Baranski was married to actor Matthew Cowles from October 1983 until his death on May 22, 2014.[2][21] They have two daughters, Isabel (born 1984), a lawyer, and Lily (born 1987), an actress.[22][23] She is Roman Catholic.[24]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Soup for One	Blonde in Bar
1983	Lovesick	Nymphomaniac
1984	Crackers	Maxine
1986	9½ Weeks	Thea
1986	Legal Eagles	Carol Freeman
1987	The Pick-up Artist	Harriet
1990	Reversal of Fortune	Andrea Reynolds
1993	The Night We Never Met	Lucy
1993	Life with Mikey	Carol
1993	Addams Family Values	Becky Martin-Granger
1994	The Ref	Connie Chasseur
1994	Getting In	Mrs. Margaret "Maggie" Higgs
1994	The War	Miss Strapford
1995	New Jersey Drive	Prosecutor
1995	Jeffrey	Ann Marwood Bartle
1996	The Birdcage	Katherine Archer	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1998	The Odd Couple II	Thelma
1998	Bulworth	Constance Bulworth
1999	Cruel Intentions	Bunny Caldwell
1999	Bowfinger	Carol
2000	How the Grinch Stole Christmas	Martha May Whovier
2002	The Guru	Shantal
2002	Chicago	Mary Sunshine	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2003	Marci X	Mary Ellen Spinkle
2004	Welcome to Mooseport	Charlotte Cole
2005	Scooby Doo! in Where's My Mummy?	Amelia Von Butch (voice)
2006	Falling for Grace	Bree
2006	Relative Strangers	Arleen Clayton
2006	Bonneville	Francine
2008	Mamma Mia!	Tanya Chesham-Leigh
2010	The Bounty Hunter	Kitty Hurley
2010	The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie	Singing That's Pure Mike Nichols/Bossom Buddies
2012	Foodfight!	Hedda Shopper (voice)
2014	Into the Woods[14]	Cinderella's Stepmother	Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble
2016	Trolls	Chef (voice)
2016	Miss Sloane[25]	Evelyn Sumner
2017	A Bad Moms Christmas	Ruth
2018	Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again	Tanya Chesham-Leigh

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Busting Loose	Debbie	Episode: "The Decision: Part 1"
1980	Playing for Time	Olga	TV movie
1982	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Helena	TV movie
1982	Another World	Beverly Tucker	Unknown episodes
1984	All My Children	Jewel Maniscalo	Unknown episodes
1985	Big Shots in America	Cara	TV movie
1985	The Equalizer	Victoria Baines	Episode: "Mama's Boy"
1987	The House of Blue Leaves	Bunny Flingus	TV movie
1988	The Thorns	Polly	Episode: "The Maid"
1991	Law & Order	Katherine Masucci Beigel	Episodes: "The Torrents of Greed Parts 1 & 2"
1992	Screenplay	Blair Bennett	Episode: "Buying a Landslide"
1993	To Dance with the White Dog	Kate	TV movie
1994	Law & Order	Rose Siegal	Episode: "Nurture"
1995–98	Cybill	Maryann Thorpe	87 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1995) Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series (1995) Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1995, 1996) Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1996–98) Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (1995) Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series (1996)
1996	Saturday Night Live	Herself (host)	Episode: "Christine Baranski/The Cure"
1997	3rd Rock from the Sun	Sonja Umdahl	Episode: "Dick and the Single Girl"
1999	Now and Again	Ruth Bender (voice)	Episode: "Origins"; uncredited
1999	Frasier	Dr. Nora Fairchild	Episode: "Dr. Nora" Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
2000–01	Welcome to New York	Marsha Bickner	13 episodes
2001	Citizen Baines	Glenn Ferguson Baines Welch	Episode: "Three Days in November"
2002	Presidio Med	Dr. Terry Howland	Episodes: "Pick Your Battles", "Best of Enemies"
2003	Eloise at the Plaza	Prunella Stickler	TV movie
2003	Eloise at Christmastime	Prunella Stickler	TV movie
2003–04	Happy Family	Annie Brennan	22 episodes
2004	Spellbound		TV movie
2005	Recipe for a Perfect Christmas	Lee Bellmont	TV movie
2005	Adopted	Judy Rabinowitz	TV movie
2005	In the Game		TV pilot
2005	Ghost Whisperer	Faith Clancy	Episodes: "Voices", "The Crossing"
2006	Inseparable	Barbara	TV movie
2006	American Dad!	Homeless Woman (voice)	Episode: "Failure Is Not a Factory-installed Option"
2009	Ugly Betty	Victoria Hartley	3 episodes
2009	Psych	Alice Clayton	Episode: "He Dead"
2009–2019	The Big Bang Theory	Dr. Beverly Hofstadter	16 episodes Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (2009, 2010, 2015, 2016)
2009–2016	The Good Wife	Diane Lockhart	156 episodes[26] Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2010–15) Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2009, 2010, 2011)
2011	Who Is Simon Miller?	Amanda	TV movie
2011	Ugly Americans	Grimes' mummy (voice)	Episode: "Mummy Dearest"
2013	Family Guy	Herself (voice)	Episode: "Call Girl"
2015-2020	BoJack Horseman	Amanda Hannity (voice)	Episodes: "Hank After Dark", "The New Client"
2017	Regular Show	Guardian (voice)	Episode: "A Regular Epic Final Battle"
2017–present	The Good Fight	Diane Lockhart	40 episodes Nominated — TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama (2019)
2017	Michael Jackson's Halloween	Mrs. Grau (voice)	TV special
2017	Spirit Riding Free	Miz McDonnell (voice)	Episode: "Lucky and the Long Way Home"
2018	Fancy Nancy	Mrs. Devine (voice)	2 episodes
TBA	The Gilded Age	Agnes van Rhijn	Upcoming series

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Company	April	Playwrights Horizons Theatre-in-the-Park[27]
1980	Hide & Seek	Elly Bart	Broadway
1980	Coming Attractions	Ensemble	Playwrights Horizons
1982	Sally and Marsha	Marsha	Manhattan Theatre Club
1983	Sunday in the Park with George	Clarisse (later named Yvonne)	Playwrights Horizons
1984	The Real Thing	Charlotte	Broadway
1984	Hurlyburly	Bonnie	Broadway
1986	The House of Blue Leaves	Bunny Flingus	Broadway
1988	Rumors	Chris Gorman	Broadway
1991	Lips Together, Teeth Apart	Chloe Haddock	Off-Broadway
1991	Nick & Nora	Tracy Gardner	Broadway
1997	Promises, Promises	Marge MacDougall	Encores!
2002	Sweeney Todd	Mrs. Lovett	Kennedy Center
2006	Mame	Mame Dennis	Kennedy Center
2007	Follies	Carlotta Campion	Encores![28]
2008	Boeing-Boeing	Berthe	Broadway
2013	On Your Toes	Peggy Porterfield	Encores![29]
2015	Follies	Phyllis Rogers Stone	London

Video games

Year	Project	Role
2013	Skylanders: Swap Force	Kaos' Mother
2017	Steven Universe: Save the Light	Hessonite[30][31]
2019	Steven Universe: Unleash the Light

Audio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2019	The Two Princes	Queen Livinia	Audio drama

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Christine Baranski

References

1. "Christine Baranski – Family and Companions" Yahoo!7 Movies Archived 2007-03-14 at the Wayback Machine movies.yahoo.com
2. "Christine Baranski Biography (1952–)" filmreference.com, accessed April 29, 2011
3. "Polonia: Western New York's Polish-American Legacy". WNED Archived 2007-08-09 at the Wayback Machine wned.org
4. Triplett, William (May 12, 2002). "For Baranski, A Most Meaty Opportunity; In 'Sweeney Todd,' Actress Sinks Her Teeth Into a Singing Role". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012.
5. Rousuck, J. Wynn (May 21, 2006). "The lady has it: Christine Baranski stars in 'Mame' for the 2nd time". The Baltimore Sun.
6. Gans, Andrew (June 16, 2006). "DIVA TALK: Chatting with Mame's Christine Baranski". Playbill. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008.
7. Shulman, Randy (June 8, 2006). "Christine Baranski: TV and stage actress talks about starring in 'Mame' and 'Cybill'". Metro Weekly. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006.
8. "Alumni News". The Juilliard School. September 2009. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
9. "All Movie Guide: Christine Baranski". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 27, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
10. Brantley, Ben (May 15, 2002). "Adding Love To the Pies' Time-Tested Recipe", The New York Times.
11. Simonson, Robert (May 7, 2008). "Playbill.Com's Brief Encounter With Christine Baranski" Archived 2009-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, Playbill.
12. Gans, Andrew (January 12, 2009). "Starry A Little Night Music Concert Presented in Manhattan Jan. 12" Archived 2009-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, Playbill.
13. "Cicely Tyson, Christine Baranski, David Henry Hwang, More Inducted Into Theater Hall of Fame November 12". Playbill. November 12, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
14. Cerasaro, Pat (July 23, 2013). WORLD EXCLUSIVE! New Confirmed Casting For the INTO THE WOODS Movie, Starring Streep & Depp Broadway World, Retrieved July 27, 2013
15. "Christine Baranski: Wasn't Me on 'The Brady Bunch'!". BlogTalkRadio.com. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
16. "Dick and the Single Girl". IMDb. May 11, 1997. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
17. Starr, Michael (April 28, 1999). "Resurgent 'Frasier' takes on Dr. Laura". Deseret News. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
18. Lowry, Brian (November 7, 2000). "Syndicated 'Frasier' Episode Spoofing Dr. Laura Is Pulled". Los Angeles Times. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
19. Starr, Michael (November 7, 2000). "Who Stole 'Dr. Nora?' – 'Frasier's' Spoof of TV Shrink Disappears". New York Post. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
20. Poniewozik, James (February 16, 2017). "Review: On ‘The Good Fight,’ a Lawyer Claws Her Way Back to Normal". The New York Times.
21. Simonson, Robert (May 27, 2014). "Matthew Cowles, Actor and Husband of Christine Baranski, Dies" Archived 2014-05-27 at the Wayback Machine Playbill.
22. Klein, Alvin (January 25, 1998). "THEATER; Being Irish And Being Married". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
23. Stephen Colbert (host) (April 28, 2016). "Christine Baranski". The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Season 1. Episode 131. CBS. Archived from the original on October 11, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
24. Stagnaro, Angelo (February 26, 2017). "Where the Stars Go to Pray: The Churches of Hollywood". National Catholic Register. Irondale, Ala. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
25. Macdonald, Moira (December 8, 2016). ‘Miss Sloane’ review: An intriguing character who needs a more intriguing film The Seattle Times, Retrieved December 8, 2016.
26. "Filmography by TV series for Christine Baranski". IMDb. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
27. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/25/883324881/actor-christine-baranski
28. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/theater/reviews/10foll.html
29. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/theater/reviews/on-your-toes-with-christine-baranski-at-city-center.html
30. "Meet Hessonite, the Villainous New Steven Universe Gem Voiced by Christine Baranski". The Mary Sue. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
31. "Unleash the Light". App Store. Retrieved November 27, 2019.

External links

• Christine Baranski on IMDb
• Christine Baranski at TV.com
• Christine Baranski at AllMovie
• Christine Baranski at the Internet Broadway Database
• Christine Baranski at the Internet Off-Broadway Database