Award-winning actress Joan Allen was born on August 20, 1956 in Rochelle, Illinois. She attended Rochelle Township High School and graduated from Northern Illinois University. Her career began as a stage actress, and she also began acting on television. In 1977, she joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble.
In 1989, Joan Allen won a Tony Award for her debut performance on the Broadway production Burn This. She has also appeared on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Heidi Chronicles. Her film debut was playing May Alice Mahoney in the 1985 Compromising Positions. She was given roles on several television shows like the mini-series Evergreen and The Twilight Zone. To prepare for her role as a blind woman in the 1986 Manhunter, she went to a school for the blind and wore a blindfold for several days. Allen was also given roles in Zeisters and was in 1989’s In Country. She has also played Zenobia Frome in 1993’s drama Ethan Frome before landing the role of Pat Nixon in 1995’s Nixon. She received several Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, as well as for playing Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible in 1996. She has appeared on an episode of Frasier, and was also cast in Pleasantville and All the Rage. In 1997, she was given starring roles in the Ang Lee-directed The Ice Storm and in the action movie Face/Off.
Joan Allen was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for playing Senator Laine Hudson in The Contender in 2000. She was also in TV movie The Mists of Avalon in 2001as well as in The Notebook in 2004. That year, she starred alongside Matt Damon and Brian Cox in The Bourne Supremacy. In 2005, she received applause for her portrayal of the lead character in The Upside of Anger.