Olympia Dukakis, Oscar Winner for 'Moonstruck,' Dies at 89

Her final New York stage role was as Flora Goforth, the wealthy widow who spends her dying days at her Italian seaside villa with a seductive young man of mystery in Roundabout Theatre Company's 2011 revival of Tennessee Williams' rarely produced playA three-time Emmy nominee, Dukakis played the transgender landlady Anna Madrigal on Armistead Maupin's fourshe asked to speak with"a human being who's gone through this" when she arrived to play the character the first...

"They found someone," Dukakis recalled."She came, and when she opened the door, she was, like, 6-foot-2, with hands that could wrap around a football, but a soft voice. Lovely breasts. She walks into the room, she sits down, and … she was a sex therapist, and she evidently helps people with these transitions.

"And this is what she said to me: 'All my life, I yearned for the friendship of women.' And I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. I don't know what I expected her to say, but not that. And that I knew. And I totally understood. To have your voice silenced, to not be able to be able to speak and be who you are … Who doesn't know about that? So that’s how I was able to play Anna Madrigal.

Olympia Dukakis was born June 20, 1931, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her father, a Greek immigrant, launched a drama club to stage the classic Greek plays. After graduating from Boston University, where she was a New England fencing champion — she also was pretty good at basketball, tennis, pingpong and riflery — she worked as a physical therapist to earn money to get her masters in theater arts.

After attaining her degree, Dukakis came to New York in 1958 and taught drama at NYU while pursuing parts. In summer stock, she panicked during her first onstage performance, unable to speak for an entire act.

She was so funny in Steel Magnolias! May She Rest In Peace.

Such a solid performer never ever gave a bad one. Always was great regardless of the material. Rip.

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