Mercedes Ruehl

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Mercedes Ruehl (born February 28, 1948) is an Academy Award-winning United States theater and film actress.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Career
2 Personal life
3 References
4 External links

Biography

Career

Ruehl began her career in regional theatre, taking odd jobs between engagements. In the late 1970s, Ruehl began chalking up New York stage successes, notably in I'm Not Rappaport.

On the stage, she won the 1985 Obie Award for her performance in The Marriage of Bette and Boo and twenty years later, an Obie for Woman Before a Glass. She also received a 1991 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for Lost in Yonkers. Her performances in two other plays earned her two other Tony nominations:

In 1995 as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for a revival of The Shadow Box;
In 2002 as Best Actress (Play) for Edward Albee' s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?.

Her most acclaimed film role was in The Fisher King; her performance in the film earned her the 1992 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as well as an American Comedy Award, a Boston Society of Film Critics Award, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, and a Golden Globe. Earlier she had won the 1989 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Married to the Mob.

She played a KACL station manager in five episodes of Frasier, and had a major role in the made-for-TV film The Mary Kay Letourneau Story: All-American Girl.

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Personal life

Ruehl was born in Queens, New York of Irish and Cuban extraction. She attended College of New Rochelle<ref>http://www.cnr.edu/CNR/cnr-wealth.html</ref>, graduating in 1969.

Ruehl is married to painter David Geiser<ref>http://www.artdealers.org/events/forum07t.html</ref> and lives with their son Jake. She had another son Christopher, who she gave up for adoption in the 1970s; Christopher later became Jake's godfather<ref>http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019603/bio</ref>.

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