Lizbeth MacKay
Encyclopedia
Lizbeth Mackay is an American
actress. She works primarily in the theatre and television.
. She is the daughter of Robert J. Mackay, a salesman, and Alice (née Steurnagel), a dancer. She has two children, Caitlin and John. Nicknamed Liz, Mackay is a graduate of Adelphi University and the Yale
Graduate School of Drama.
, in 1970. She appeared in many productions at the Cleveland Playhouse from 1975–1978, including Man and Superman
, Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Relatively Speaking, Of Mice and Men
, Great Expectations, and Little Foxes
. She played Alice in You Can't Take It with You
at Center Stage
, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1979, Crimes of the Heart
at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles (1983), and The Dining Room
, Plaza Theatre, Dallas, Texas
(1983). Mackay starred in Night, Mother with Katherine Helmond
in early 1998 at the Orpheum Theatre in Foxboro
, Massachusetts for which she won an Elliot Norton Award. later that year, she starred in A View From The Roof at Barrington Stage Company
and the Orpheum Theatre. She appeared in Wendy Wasserstein
's Third
presented by the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2008.
Mackay made her Broadway
debut in a 1970 production of Othello
. She made her Off-Broadway
debut in the role of Lenny Magrath in Crimes of the Heart
at the Manhattan Theatre Club
in 1980, and went on to play the role on Broadway
in 1981. She won the 1982 Theatre World Award
for her performance in Crimes of the Heart. Additional New York City
stage credits include Sons of the Prophet (2011), All My Sons
(2008), Two-Headed at the Women's Project Theater (2000), The Price
(1999), The Heiress
(1995), Abe Lincoln in Illinois
(1993), and Death and the Maiden
(1992).
(1992), Marvin's Room
(1996), and One True Thing
(1998). On television, she appeared in the soap opera
s All My Children
as Leora Sanders in 1981 and One Life to Live
(2004) and the primetime series The Cosby Mysteries
(1995), Ed
(2000), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
(2002), Law & Order: Criminal Intent
(2005), and several episodes of the original Law & Order
(1992, 1998, 2003).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress. She works primarily in the theatre and television.
Biography
Mackay was born in Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. She is the daughter of Robert J. Mackay, a salesman, and Alice (née Steurnagel), a dancer. She has two children, Caitlin and John. Nicknamed Liz, Mackay is a graduate of Adelphi University and the Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
Graduate School of Drama.
Stage
Mackay made her stage debut at the American Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, ConnecticutStratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
, in 1970. She appeared in many productions at the Cleveland Playhouse from 1975–1978, including Man and Superman
Man and Superman
Man and Superman is a four-act drama, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to calls for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905, but with the omission of the 3rd Act...
, Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Relatively Speaking, Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California, USA....
, Great Expectations, and Little Foxes
Little Foxes
Little Foxes is a book written by Michael Morpurgo in 1984.-Plot:Billy Bunch is an orphan who has had many foster families, but none of them have worked out. He is currently living with a foster mother in the suburbs of a city. They don't get on well, and at school Billy is not good at subjects,...
. She played Alice in You Can't Take It with You
You Can't Take It with You
You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936, and played for 837 performances...
at Center Stage
Center Stage (theater)
Center Stage is the state theater of Maryland and Baltimore's largest professional producing theater. Center Stage was founded in 1963 as a regional playhouse....
, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1979, Crimes of the Heart
Crimes of the Heart
Crimes of the Heart is a play by Beth Henley.-Synopsis:At the core of the tragic comedy are the three Magrath sisters, Meg, Babe, and Lenny, who reunite at Old Granddaddy's home in Hazlehurst, Mississippi after Babe shoots her abusive husband. The trio was raised in a dysfunctional family with a...
at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles (1983), and The Dining Room
The Dining Room
The Dining Room is a play by the American playwright A. R. Gurney. It was first produced in New York, New York at the Studio Theatre of Playwrights Horizons, opening January 31, 1981....
, Plaza Theatre, Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
(1983). Mackay starred in Night, Mother with Katherine Helmond
Katherine Helmond
Katherine Marie Helmond is an American film, theater and television actress, who played Emily Dickinson on Meeting of Minds, as well as such fictional characters as Jessica Tate on Soap, Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss?, Doris Sherman on Coach, and Lois Whelan on Everybody Loves...
in early 1998 at the Orpheum Theatre in Foxboro
Foxboro
Foxboro or Foxborough may refer to:Places*Foxborough, Massachusetts, a town in Norfolk County** Foxboro *Foxboro, Ontario, a community in Hastings County*Foxboro, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community in Douglas CountyOther...
, Massachusetts for which she won an Elliot Norton Award. later that year, she starred in A View From The Roof at Barrington Stage Company
Barrington Stage Company
Barrington Stage Company is a regional theatre company in The Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. It was co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director, Julianne Boyd, and Managing Director, Susan Sperber, in Sheffield, Massachusetts...
and the Orpheum Theatre. She appeared in Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...
's Third
Third (play)
Third was the last play written by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein.-Production history:Third premiered at Washington D.C.'s Theater J, in January–February 2004 as a one-act play, directed by Michael Barakiva and featuring Kathryn Grody.The Lincoln Center for the...
presented by the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2008.
Mackay made her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in a 1970 production of Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
. She made her Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
debut in the role of Lenny Magrath in Crimes of the Heart
Crimes of the Heart
Crimes of the Heart is a play by Beth Henley.-Synopsis:At the core of the tragic comedy are the three Magrath sisters, Meg, Babe, and Lenny, who reunite at Old Granddaddy's home in Hazlehurst, Mississippi after Babe shoots her abusive husband. The trio was raised in a dysfunctional family with a...
at the Manhattan Theatre Club
Manhattan Theatre Club
Manhattan Theatre Club is a theater company located in New York City. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country’s most acclaimed...
in 1980, and went on to play the role on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1981. She won the 1982 Theatre World Award
Theatre World Award
The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
for her performance in Crimes of the Heart. Additional New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
stage credits include Sons of the Prophet (2011), All My Sons
All My Sons
All My Sons is a 1947 play by Arthur Miller. The play was twice adapted for film; in 1948, and again in 1987.The play opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1947 and ran for 328 performances...
(2008), Two-Headed at the Women's Project Theater (2000), The Price
The Price (play)
The Price is a 1968 play by Arthur Miller. It is a piece about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions. The play opened on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on February 7, 1968 where it played until the production moved to the 46th Street Theatre on November 18, 1968....
(1999), The Heiress
The Heiress
The Heiress is a 1949 American drama film. It was written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, adapted from their 1947 play of the same title that was based on the 1880 novel Washington Square by Henry James. The film was directed by William Wyler, with starring performances by Olivia de Havilland as...
(1995), Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (play)
Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a play written by the American playwright Robert E. Sherwood in 1938. The play, in three acts, covers the life of President Abraham Lincoln from his childhood through his final speech in Illinois before he left for Washington. The play also covers his romance with Mary...
(1993), and Death and the Maiden
Death and the Maiden (play)
Death and the Maiden is a 1990 play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. The world premiere was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 July 1991, directed by Lindsay Posner...
(1992).
Television and film
Mackay's feature film credits include Malcolm XMalcolm X (film)
Malcolm X is a 1992 biographical motion picture about the Muslim-American figure Malcolm X . It was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Denzel Washington as the titular character. It co-stars Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., and Delroy Lindo...
(1992), Marvin's Room
Marvin's Room (play)
Marvin's Room is a play by written by Scott McPherson that premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on 15 November 1991, and later adapted for a film of the same title in 1996 ....
(1996), and One True Thing
One True Thing
One True Thing is a 1998 American drama film directed by Carl Franklin. It tells the story of a woman who is forced to put her life on hold in order to care for her mother who is dying of cancer. It was adapted by Karen Croner from the novel by Anna Quindlen. The movie stars Meryl Streep, Renée...
(1998). On television, she appeared in the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
as Leora Sanders in 1981 and One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
(2004) and the primetime series The Cosby Mysteries
The Cosby Mysteries
The Cosby Mysteries is a American television mystery series that starred Bill Cosby. It was the first television series to star Cosby since The Cosby Show and lasted only one season...
(1995), Ed
Ed (TV series)
Ed is an NBC television program co-produced by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated, NBC Productions, and Viacom Productions that aired from 2000 to 2004....
(2000), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
(2002), Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
(2005), and several episodes of the original Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
(1992, 1998, 2003).