Cynthia Nixon biography
Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an United States Tony Award- and two-time Emmy Award-winning actor who is known for her portrayal of lawyer Miranda Hobbes in the popular Home Box Office comedy-drama, and movie
Sex and the City (1998-2004, 2008).
Biography
Early life and career
Nixon was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of Anne Knoll, an actress, and Walter Nixon, a radio journalist. Her first onscreen appearance was as an imposter on
To Tell the Truth, where her mother worked. She began acting at age 12 as the object of a wealthy schoolmate's crush in The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid, a 1979 American Broadcasting Company Afterschool Special. She made her feature debut co-starring with Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal in
Little Darlings (1980). She made her Broadway theatre debut as the bratty Dinah Lord in a 1980 revival of
The Philadelphia Story. Alternating between film, TV and stage she did projects like the 1982 ABC-movie
My Body, My Child, the features
Prince of the City (1981) and
I Am the Cheese (1983) and the 1982 off-Broadway productions of John Guare's
Lydie Breeze. In 1985 she appeared alongside Jeff Daniels in Lanford Wilson's
Lemon Sky at Second Stage Theatre.
Nixon graduated from Hunter College High School, and made theatrical history while a freshman at Barnard College in 1984, simultaneously appearing in two hit Broadway plays directed by Mike Nichols. These were
The Real Thing (play), where Nixon played the daughter of Jeremy Irons and Christine Baranski; and
Hurlyburly, where she played a young woman who encounters sleazy Hollywood types. The two theaters were just two blocks apart and Nixon's roles were both short, so she could run from one to the other. That year's Academy award-winning Best Picture
Amadeus (film), directed by Milos Forman, also featured her in a brief role as Mozart's young servant-girl.
She landed her first major supporting part in a movie as an intelligent teenager who aids her boyfriend (Christopher Collet) in building a nuclear bomb in Marshall Brickman's
Manhattan Project (film) (1986). Nixon was part of the cast of the NBC miniseries
The Murder of Mary Phagan (NBC, 1988) starring Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey and portrayed the daughter of a presidential candidate (Michael Murphy) in
Tanner '88 (also 1988), Robert Altman's sharply-observed, episodic political satire for HBO--she would later reprise the role for the 2004 follow-up - Tanner on Tanner.
1990s
On stage, Nixon portrayed Juliet in a 1988 New York Shakespeare Festival production of
Romeo and Juliet and acted in the workshop production of Wendy Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning
The Heidi Chronicles, playing several characters after it came to Broadway in 1989. She replaced Marcia Gay Harden as a pill-popping Mormon wife whose husband reveals his homosexuality in Tony Kushner's landmark two-part
Angels in America (1994), received a Tony awards nomination for her performance as the headstrong young woman who falls for a mama's boy in
Indiscretions (Les Parents Terribles) (1996, her sixth Broadway show) and, though she originally lost the part to another actress, eventually took over the role of Lala Levy, the aspiring Scarlett O'Hara in the Tony Award-winning
The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997).
Nixon was a founding member of the theatrical troupe The Drama Dept, which included Sarah Jessica Parker, Dylan Baker, John Cameron Mitchell and Billy Crudup among its actors, appearing in the group's productions of
Kingdom on Earth (1996),
June Moon and
As Bees in Honey Drown (both 1997),
Hope is the Thing with Feathers (1998), and
The Country Club (play) (1999).
Nixon has contributed supporting performances to
Addams Family Values (1993),
Marvin's Room (1996)
The Out-of-Towners (1999) and Baby's Day Out"
Stardom
She raised her profile significantly as one of the four regulars of HBO's successful comedy
Sex and the City (1998-2004), as the no-nonsense lawyer Miranda Hobbes in support of series star Sarah Jessica Parker. After Emmy nominations as Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series in 2002 and 2003, Nixon took home the trophy in 2004 for the series' final season.
The immense popularity of the series led Nixon to enjoy her first leading role in a feature, playing a video artist who falls in love, despite her best efforts to avoid commitment, with a bisexual actor who just happens to be dating a gay man (her best friend) in
Advice From a Caterpillar (2000), as well as starring opposite Scott Bakula in the holiday telepic
Papa's Angels (2000). In 2002 she also landed a stint as Mrs. Piggee in the independent film comedy
Igby Goes Down, and her turn in the theatrical production of Clare Booth Luce's play
The Women was captured for PBS's Stage On Screen series.
Post-Sex, Nixon did a guest stint on
ER (TV series) in 2005 as a mother who undergoes a tricky procedure to lessen the effects of a debilitating stroke. She followed up with a turn as Eleanor Roosevelt for HBO's
Warm Springs (film) (2005), which chronicled Franklin Delano Roosevelt's quest for a miracle cure for his paralytic illness. Nixon earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance. She then had a 2005 stint on the Fox hit series
House (TV series) as a patient who suffers a seizure and matches wits with Dr. House (Hugh Laurie).
In 2006, Nixon won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Play) for David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama
Rabbit Hole. In 2008, she revived her role as Miranda Hobbes in
Sex and the City (film) feature film, directed by HBO executive producer Michael Patrick King and co-starring the cast of the original series.
Personal life
Nixon has two children, daughter Samantha (b. 1996) and son Charles Ezekiel (b. 2002), with Danny Mozes, an English literature professor, with whom she had a relationship from 1988 to 2003.
Nixon began dating education activist Christine Marinoni in January 2004; media reports of the relationship started surfacing in September of the same year. In February 2005, the
New York Post and other sources reported that Nixon had moved to Brooklyn to live with Marinoni. However, Nixon told the
The New York Times in January 2006 that she had not moved and that keeping her kids in their Manhattan public schools took priority. Discussing her relationship in an interview in
New York Magazine in 2006, Nixon stated that she never felt any struggle with her sexuality: "I never felt like there was an unconscious part of me around that woke up or that came out of the closet; there wasn't a struggle, there wasn't an attempt to suppress. I met this woman, I fell in love with her, and I'm a public figure." In an interview in May 2007, she said "In terms of sexual orientation I don’t really feel I’ve changed... I’d been with men all my life, and I’d never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn’t seem so strange. I’m just a woman in love with another woman." In April 2008, she received an award from the Point Foundation, which provides scholarships to gay students in the U.S., for being a role model for young gay people.
In an interview with
Good Morning America that aired on April 15, 2008, Cynthia Nixon announced for the first time that she battled breast cancer, after being diagnosed during a routine mammogram in October, 2006. Initially she did not go public because of the stigma involved, but since then, she not only has openly admitted that she had cancer, she has become a breast cancer activist and was able to convince the head of NBC to air her breast cancer special in primetime.
Cynthia Nixon in the news
Nixon and Tony Awards Among Winners of Creative Arts Emmys - Playbi...
Sydney Morning HeraldNixon and Tony Awards Among Winners of Creative Arts EmmysPlaybill.com, NY - Sep 14, 2008Tony Award winner Cynthia Nixon picked up another Emmy for her performance as Janis Donovan on NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. ..."John Adams" wins in a landslide at technical Emmys; Cynthia Nixon ... Orlando SentinelKathy Griffin & Cynthia Nixon Win Creative Arts Emmys Entertainment Tonight NewsHBO's 'John Adams' tops Creative Emmys Hollywood ReporterNew York Times - Hartford Courantall 321 news articles
read morePreview: Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon as you’ve never seen ....
Mirror.co.ukPreview: Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon as you’ve never seen ...Mirror.co.uk, UK - Oct 3, 2008It’s also what an Emmy award-winning role looks like for Cynthia Nixon, better known as feisty redhead Miranda Hobbs in Sex and the City. ...
read moreCynthia Nixon: Breast Cancer Survivor - OK! Magazine
Cynthia Nixon: Breast Cancer SurvivorOK! Magazine, NY - Oct 2, 2008Cynthia Nixon is opening up to OK! about her battle-- and victory over breast cancer two years ago. The Sex and the City star, who walked 3.1 miles with her ...
read moreHOST: BONNIE ERBE - Federal News Service (subscription)
HOST: BONNIE ERBEFederal News Service (subscription), DC - 13 hours agoBehind the headlines, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month actress Cynthia Nixon describes her battle with breast cancer. MS. ERBE: Hello, I'm Bonnie Erbe. ...
read moreNixon, Ziemba, Lewis, Blake, Racey and More Set for Kickin'...
Nixon, Ziemba, Lewis, Blake, Racey and More Set for Kickin' It BenefitPlaybill.com, NY - Oct 1, 2008The evening, which begins at 7 PM, will boast appearances and/or performances by Cynthia Nixon, Karen Ziemba, Norm Lewis, Richard Blake, Elizabeth Parkinson ...
read moreThe new activist - The New York Blade
The new activistThe New York Blade, NY - Oct 2, 2008By DAN RENZI, South Florida Blade | Oct 2, 3:03 PM “I've never done this before,” said Cynthia Nixon, to a standing-room only crowd in Wilton Manors. ...
read moreBlake, Nixon, Parkinson, Selya, Sikora, Ziemba, et al. Set for ... ...
TheaterMania.comBlake, Nixon, Parkinson, Selya, Sikora, Ziemba, et al. Set for ...TheaterMania.com, NY - Sep 29, 2008The show will feature appearances by Richard H. Blake, Jared Grimes, Norm Lewis, Cynthia Nixon, Elizabeth Parkinson, Noah Racey, John Selya, Megan Sikora, ...
read moreCynthia Nixon, Tim Conway among Emmy winners - The Associated Press
The Associated PressCynthia Nixon, Tim Conway among Emmy winnersThe Associated Press - Sep 13, 2008LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cynthia Nixon, who gained fame and an Emmy with "Sex and the City," added a second trophy Saturday for a guest role on "Law & Order: ...
read moreSouth Florida: Nixon, Koch plug Obama - Sun-Sentinel.com
South Florida: Nixon, Koch plug ObamaSun-Sentinel.com, FL - Sep 28, 2008Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon will be in South Florida today drumming up support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Nixon will host "Change We ...
read morePassionately Pink for the Cure - 9NEWS.com
Passionately Pink for the Cure9NEWS.com, CO - Oct 3, 2008Sex in the City actress Cynthia Nixon has already pledged to do just that. She’sa breast cancer survivor and says it’sa great way to get out the word about ...
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