Christine Ebersole

Christine Ebersole is a two-time Tony Award-winning actress who was born on February 21, 1953 in Winnetka, near Chicago, Illinois. She went to the New Trier High School graduating in 1971, then MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, until 1975 and finally attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

She made her Broadway debut in 1976, assuming the role of Nancy in Angel Street and made her Off-Broadway debut in Green Pond at the Westside Theatre in 1977. Ebersole quickly became a regular on the Broadway stage in both musicals and plays, with appearances in On The Twentieth Century (1978), Oklahoma! (1979), Camelot (1980), Harrigan ‘n Hart (1985), Getting Away with Murder (1996), and Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (2000). Her career reached a new level after her performance as Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street, and Ebersole was awarded a Tony in 2001.

She returned to Broadway to star in Dinner at Eight in 2002, earning a Tony nomination, and in the Broadway premiere of Steel Magnolias in 2005. Her most notable stage performance would be next on her résumé, as she was cast in the dual role of “Little” Edie Beale and the older Edith Bouvier Beale in the acclaimed Playwrights Horizons production of Grey Gardens in 2006. After scooping a plethora of Off-Broadway awards including Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Obie Awards, Ebersole transferred with the musical to Broadway in October of that same year and ultimately took home her second Tony Award in 2007.

She starred as Elvira, alongside Dame Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati, in the 2009 Broadway revival of Blithe Spirit and would not be seen again on Broadway until the premiere of new musical War Paint, in which Ebersole starred as cosmetics titan Elizabeth Arden alongside fellow two-time Tony winner Patti LuPone as her professional rival Helena Rubinstein. Performances began on March 7, 2017, and both leading ladies earned Tony nominations for their respective portrayals.

Ebersole has also been no stranger to television and film over the course of her career, getting her start as part of the cast of Saturday Night Live during the 1981 to 1982 season and earning an Emmy Award nomination in 1984 for One Life to Live. Her most notable screen credits include the recurring role of Carol Walsh on Sullivan & Son and appearances in The Wolf of Wall Street, True Crime, My Favorite Martian, Ink, Ri¢hie Ri¢h, My Girl 2, Gypsy, Ghost Dad, The Cavanaughs, and Amadeus.