Sunday, November 7, 2010

Jill Clayburgh - 1944-2010

In Memory of Jill Clayburgh, April 30, 1944 - November 5, 2010
Academy Award nominee Jill Clayburgh lost her two decade long battle with lymphoctic leukemia at her home in Connecticut, USA on November 5, 2010. Born in New York City on April 30, 1944 Ms. Clayburgh performed on Broadway before rising to film stardom. Her significant roles on Broadway included The Rothschilds, and Pippin. Leaving Broadway for the Silver Screen, Jill became an accomplished film star playing roles in numerous hit movies across a wide spectrum of genres.

Jill Clayburgh peers on the screen included Anne Bancroft, Shirley Maclaine and Jane Fonda. These four Actresses are credited with changing the scope and complexities of characters played by women in films. Like her peers Jill Clayburgh excelled in a wide variety of roles including comedy, she co-starred in the 1976 film Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Her Academy Award nominations came in back to back years, 1978 for An Unmarried Woman, for which she received The Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, then again in 1979 for Starting Over another comedy with Burt Reynolds as her co-star.

In Lombard, Ms. Clayburgh portrayed film legend Carloe Lombard as she continued to exhibit her acting diversity which she studied as a member of the Charles Street Repertory Theater in Boston in the early sixties. Her final film role is scheduled for release on November 24, 2010 as Mrs. Randall in the comedy drama, Love and Other Drugs.

Even Television Audiences know the work of Jill Clayburgh, where she received Emmy Award nominations for her work in Hustling in 1975 and again for a guest appearance in the series Nip/Tuck in 2005. Other Television credits include Law and Order, The Practice and Ally McBeal.

Jill Claybough won accolades from the Entertainment Industry during the years 1978 - 1981, when she was nominated for eight significant acting awards including two Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards during this three year span of her decades long career. Throughout her career, Ms. Claybough was a hard working actress who put all her effort into each and every role, presenting the complexities of each of the varied characters she portrayed in Theater and on Film. For the last two decades she continued to work and perform despite a constant health battle. As an Actress and a courageous person, mother and wife, Jill Claybough will be missed on the stages of Broadway and will live on through the gifted performances that she has left us with in over two dozen movie roles.

No comments:

Post a Comment