Stage Prior to appearing in films, Dukakis began a decades-long stage life. She started in productions at the
Williamstown Theatre Festival in
Williamstown, Massachusetts. By 1963, she had begun her career on screen. Transitioning to a professional life centered in
New York City, she performed many times in productions in
Central Park at the renowned
Delacorte Theater. Returning to
Western Massachusetts in 2013 for her last stage performance, she played Mother Courage in
Mother Courage and Her Children at Shakespeare & Company, in
Lenox, Massachusetts. In 1963, Dukakis's early
Off-Broadway presence was rewarded with an
Obie Award for Distinguished Performance, as Widow Leocadia Begbick in
Man Equals Man (a.k.a., ''A Man's A Man
). She continued to perform there every few years, with her last appearance on that stage occurring in 2003, where she played multiple roles in The Chekov Cycle''. In 1973, along with her husband,
Louis Zorich, and with other acting couples, she co-founded the Whole Theater Company. The company's first play was
Our Town. With Dukakis as artistic director, the theater rolled out five productions per season for almost two decades. Across that span, productions included works by
Euripides,
Eugene O'Neill,
Samuel Beckett,
Tennessee Williams,
Edward Albee, and
Lanford Wilson. Among the actors performing with Dukakis and her husband were
José Ferrer,
Colleen Dewhurst,
Blythe Danner, and
Samuel L. Jackson. Dukakis's stage directing credits include many classics, such as
Orpheus Descending,
The House of Bernarda Alba,
Uncle Vanya, and
A Touch of the Poet, as well as more contemporary works, such as ''
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Kennedy's Children''. She also adapted plays such as "Mother Courage" and
The Trojan Women for her
Montclair, New Jersey-situated theater company. Her
Broadway theatre credits include ''Who's Who in Hell
and Social Security.'' She appeared in
Martin Sherman's one-woman play,
Rose, entirely a monologue about a woman who survived the
Warsaw Ghetto, in London and then on Broadway. For the role, she won the 2000
Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance. Twenty-two years after earning her first Obie, she won her second in 1985, an Ensemble Performance Award, for playing Soot Hudlocke in
The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Dukakis appeared in a number of films, including
Steel Magnolias, ''
Mr. Holland's Opus, Jane Austen's Mafia!, The Thing About My Folks and Moonstruck'', for which she won an
Oscar for
Best Supporting Actress. She also played the role of Anna Madrigal in the
Tales of the City television mini-series, which garnered her an
Emmy Award nomination, and appeared on
Search for Tomorrow as Dr. Barbara Moreno (1983), who romanced
Stu Bergman. She appeared as
Dolly Sinatra in the mini-series of
Frank Sinatra's life (1992).
Moonstruck (1987) was directed by
Norman Jewison who predicted Dukakis would receive honors for the role. She believed him after receiving the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In addition to her Oscar, she took the
Golden Globe in the same category. The honors compounded as she collected the Los Angeles and New York Film Critics Awards, all in recognition of her talent, some acting improvised, as she delivered a serious while hilarious performance. Her role of the no-nonsense matriarch, Rose Castorini, plays off
Cher's
Best Actress Award-winning role as daughter Loretta. She was nominated for the Canadian Academy Award for
The Event (2003) and in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, her roles included
3 Needles, ''
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, In the Land of Women,
and Away From Her'', the 2006 film which cast her alongside
Gordon Pinsent as the spouses of two
Alzheimer's patients. She took on significant work on the small screen as well. In 1998, she starred as Charlotte Kiszko in the
British TV drama
A Life for a Life: The True Story of Stefan Kiszko (ITV), based on the actual story of a man wrongfully imprisoned for seventeen years for the
murder of a child, Lesley Molseed, after police suppressed evidence of his innocence. In another genre entirely, she provided the voice of Grandpa's love interest for
The Simpsons episode "
The Old Man and the Key" (2002). In 2000, she played alongside
Ian Holm,
Judi Dench,
Joan Sims (her final acting performance before her death in 2001), and
Romola Garai (her first professional role) in the
television film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells. The same year, she starred in the revival of
Tennessee Williams' ''
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, opposite Kevin Anderson at the Hartford Stage, and co-adapted and starred in the world-premiere of Another Side of the Island'', based on
William Shakespeare's
The Tempest, at
Alpine Theatre Project in
Whitefish, Montana. In 2011, Dukakis guest-starred on
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as attorney Debby Marsh. In 2013, she starred in and executive-produced the 2013 film
Montana Amazon, co-starring
Haley Joel Osment. The same year, on May 24, she was honored with the 2,498th star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2018, Dukakis starred in
Eleftheromania, which follows an
Auschwitz survivor as she recites a true story about a group from the
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The following year, Dukakis reprised the role of Anna Madrigal, which she had first played in 1993, in a
Netflix update of
Armistead Maupin's
Tales of The City. In 2018,
Olympia, an American documentary film about her life and career, had its festival premiere at DOC NYC. The film, directed by Harry Mavromichalis, features
Whoopi Goldberg,
Laura Linney,
Ed Asner,
Lainie Kazan,
Armistead Maupin,
Austin Pendleton,
Diane Ladd and Dukakis's cousin, Governor
Michael Dukakis. It was released theatrically in the United States in July 2020. Dukakis's final performance is as a judge in the 2021 film
Not to Forget. ==Personal life==