Although this handsome actress made an inauspicious film debut in the tepid 1986 romantic comedy
About Last Night..., the film proved prophetic. In it, she was relegated to the part of wisecracking best buddy, an archetype she would often embody throughout her career. While her turn as a yuppie in love with a boy trapped in a man's body in the 1988 smash
Big seemed to signal her breakthrough, few of her subsequent projects allowed her to live up to her promise. Trained at Chicago's Goodman School of Drama and a member of the prestigious Steppenwolf Theater (as well as the ex-wife of its founder, Terry Kinney), Perkins had an impressive stage pedigree when she ventured into movies. But Hollywood never seemed to know what to do with her, and although Perkins chose her roles deliberately, rarely appearing in more than one project a year, audiences knew her best as the human version of Wilma in 1994's
The Flintstones. In the late '90s, Perkins gave TV a go, appearing in a number of TV-movies and miniseries, and in 2005 the small screen rewarded her with the star-making role she never found on the big screen: the hilariously self-involved, bleach blonde PTA president on the cable comedy
Weeds.
Elizabeth Perkins Fast Facts:
- Originally aspired to become a veterinarian.
- Began her acting career on Broadway in 1984 in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs.
- Elizabeth Perkins Relationships:
- Alexander Macat - Stepson
- Andreas Macat - Stepson
- Hannah Jo Phillips - Daughter
- James Perkins - Father
- Jo Williams - Mother
- Julio Macat - Husband
- Maurice Phillips - Ex-significant Other
- Maximillian Macat - Stepson
- Terry Kinney - Ex-husband
- Elizabeth Perkins Awards:
- 2009 Emmy: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - Nominee
- 2006 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television - Nominee
- 2007 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television - Nominee
- 2006 Emmy: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - Nominee
- 2007 Emmy: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - Nominee
- College:
- DePaul University, Goodman School of Drama, Chicago, IL (1981)
