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Christine Lahti
Lahti at the 2016 Miami Film Festival
Born	Christine Ann Lahti (1950-04-04) April 4, 1950 (age 74) Birmingham, Michigan, United States
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1973–present
Spouse	Thomas Schlamme ​(m. 1983)​
Children	3

Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film Swing Shift. Her other film roles include ...And Justice for All (1979), Housekeeping (1987), Running on Empty (1988), and Leaving Normal (1992). For her directorial debut with the 1995 short film Lieberman in Love, she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Lahti made her Broadway debut in 1980 as a replacement in Loose Ends, and went on to star in the Broadway productions of Present Laughter (1982) and The Heidi Chronicles (1989). An eight-time Golden Globe nominee and six-time Emmy Award nominee, she won a Golden Globe for the 1989 TV movie No Place Like Home, and won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1998 for her role as Kate Austin in the CBS series Chicago Hope (1995–99). She returned to Broadway in 2009 to star in God of Carnage. She also had a recurring role as Sonya Paxton in the NBC series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2009–11), as Doris McGarrett in the CBS series Hawaii Five-0 (2012–13), and Laurel Hitchin in NBC's The Blacklist (2015–16).

Early life

Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret (née Tabar; 1920—1995), a painter, homemaker, and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti (1919—2001), a surgeon. She has three sisters, Carol, Catherine, and Linda, and two brothers, Paul Jr. and James Lahti. Her paternal grandparents were Finnish immigrants and her maternal grandparents were from Austria-Hungary. Lahti was raised in the Lutheran Church.

Lahti studied Fine Arts at Florida State University and received her bachelor's degree in Drama from the University of Michigan, where she joined Delta Gamma sorority.

Career

After college, Lahti headed to New York City in 1973, where she worked as a waitress and did commercials. Her breakthrough movie was ...And Justice for All (1979) with Al Pacino. After featuring in a few films and TV shows in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lahti chose roles that allowed her to spend time with her three children. An important role was in Running on Empty, a 1988 movie in which she and Judd Hirsch played the parents of a musically promising son; the family went underground to avoid the FBI after the parents had damaged a napalm factory, and they all must periodically move on short notice and assume new identities. She has also focused on television, beginning with her role in the made-for-TV adaptation of The Executioner's Song (1982). She appeared on Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein's seriocomic play, The Heidi Chronicles. Lahti received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Swing Shift (1984), and won an Academy Award for Best Short Film, Live Action for Lieberman in Love (1995), in which she starred and directed. It was adapted from Lieberman in Love, a short story by W. P. Kinsella. Lahti won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award in 1998 for her role in Chicago Hope.

In 2001, her first directorial film, My First Mister, was released. Starring Leelee Sobieski and Albert Brooks, the movie debuted with good reviews. In DVD commentary she applauds the work of her cast and crew, remarking " was very lucky to have such a wonderful crew..." She said she felt regret that the film was rated R, for language, despairing that the movie might not be viewed by teenagers who would like and relate with the characters. Also, Lahti mentioned that she would have liked to have had more time to shoot different perspectives in order to facilitate story arc. Lahti starred in the Executive ADA role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sonya Paxton, while the character Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) was in appeals. She was in the first four episodes of the 11th season and returned for the show's eighth episode, where she clashed with Alexandra Cabot. Lahti later guest starred in the ninth and seventeenth episode of the 12th season where she reprised her role as Executive ADA Sonya Paxton. Her character was murdered in the seventeenth episode.

She returned to Broadway upon joining the cast of the Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage on November 17, 2009, replacing actress Marcia Gay Harden. Both actresses had a few special appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In September 2011, Lahti starred with Morgan Freeman in the Broadway debut of Dustin Lance Black's play, '8'—a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage—as Kris Perry. In March 2012, she was featured with Jamie Lee Curtis and Jansen Panettiere at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. The production was broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Personal life

Lahti has been married to television director Thomas Schlamme since September 4, 1983. They have three children. She is active in political causes.

Lahti and Schlamme live in Los Angeles with their children.

Since May 2005, Lahti has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theater

References

1. "Schools, colleges grant undergraduate honors". The Michigan Daily. March 28, 1969. Retrieved 30 September 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
2. Tucsoncitizen.com
3. Orlando Sentinel
4. "Christine Lahti Biography". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
5. "Funeral Notices — Tucson Citizen Morgue, Part 2 (1993–2009)". Tucsoncitizen.com. 1995-12-27. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
6. "LAHTI LOOKS BEYOND MAINSTREAM FOR HER ROLES AS REAL WOMEN". Los Angeles Daily News. May 31, 1992. Retrieved 30 September 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
7. "Intimate Portrait: Christine Lahti". fortunecity.com. March 16, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-03-16. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
8. Pfefferman, Naomi (2003-04-10). "Showtime Examines Shoah Diva Doctor | Arts". Jewish Journal. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
9. IMDb. "Biography for Christine Lahti". IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
10. "'SVU' scoop: Christine Lahti is the new ADA!". EW.com. June 29, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
11. Ross, Robyn. "Christine Lahti Back for More Law & Order: SVU". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
12. Piepenberg, Erik (August 18, 2011). "Lahti, Birney Join the Cast of Adam Rapp's New Play". nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
13. Kennedy, Mark (January 17, 2012). "'8,' Dustin Lance Black Gay Marriage Play, Goes National During 2012". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
14. ""8": A Play about the Fight for Marriage Equality". YouTube. March 3, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
15. Gray, Stephen (March 1, 2012). "YouTube to broadcast Proposition 8 play live". pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
16. "Celebrities Protest Killings in Mexico". LA Times/Reuters. February 15, 2004. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
17. Wightman, Catriona (February 21, 2011). "'Californication' star joins CBS pilot". Digital Spy. Retrieved 30 September 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

• Christine Lahti at IMDb
• Christine Lahti at the Internet Broadway Database
• Please use a more specific IOBDB template. See the template documentation for available templates.
• Christine Lahti biography by Finn Film Entertainment

• 1950 births
• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• Actresses from Michigan
• Actresses of Finnish descent
• American bloggers
• American film actresses
• American people of Finnish descent
• American stage actresses
• American television actresses
• Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (television) winners
• Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
• Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award winners
• Directors of Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners
• Florida State University alumni
• Living people
• People from Birmingham, Michigan
• University of Michigan alumni
• Women bloggers