Born on February 3, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Blythe Danner is an actress, who has won Emmy and Tony awards. She is also the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Danner is the daughter of a housewife and a bank executive. She attended George School, a private Quaker secondary school then later on Bard College, where she graduated in 1965.
Blythe Danner’s foray into the entertainment industry was with the Theater Company of Boston and the Trinity Square Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. At 25, she won the Theater World Award for her performance in a production of The Miser. She landed her first film role in 1970 in Dr. Cook’s Garden. A close friend of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, the two appeared in several plays together. She had been typically cast in middle or upper class wife or matriarch roles. Her earlier screen credits include Brighton Beach Memoirs, Inside the Third Reich, To Kill a Clown, Lovin’ Molly, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and several television movies.
Relatively recent are Danner’s role in the comedy hit Meet the Parents in 2000 and the sequel Meet the Fockers in 2004. She played opposite Robert De Niro. Couch potatoes know her for starring in the series Huff, and Will Truman’s irrepressible mother Marilyn in the NBC comedy Will and Grace. She had received Emmy nominations for these shows and won one for Huff in 2005. The following year, she was awarded an inaugural Katharine Hepburn Medal for “embodying the intelligence, drive and independence of the four-time-Oscar-winning actress.”
Other than her acting, Danner is also actively involved in environmental issues for over 30 years, drawing from her experience growing up in a rural setting. It was said that her role had been pivotal in implementing curbside recycling in Santa Monica and the continued implementation of the New York City recycling program. She is the widow of producer Bruce Paltrow, who died of oral cancer in 2002.
