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Jennifer Ehle

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Jennifer Ehle
Ehle in 2016
Born
Jennifer Anne Ehle[1][2]

(1969-12-29) December 29, 1969 (age 54)
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.
Alma materCentral School of Speech and Drama
OccupationActress
Years active1991–present
Known forPride and Prejudice
Spouse
Michael Ryan
​
(m. 2001)​
Children2
Parents

Jennifer Anne Ehle (/ˈiːli/; born December 29, 1969)[3] is an American actress. She gained recognition and acclaim for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice (1995), for which she received the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Known for her roles on Broadway and the West End, she has won two Tony Awards as well as a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award.

Ehle started her career acting on stage with the Edinburgh Festival, Royal Shakespeare Company, and the National Theatre. She gained fame for her role in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, earning a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. She reunited with Stoppard acting in his play The Coast of Utopia (2007), earning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She returned to Broadway in the J. T. Rogers play Oslo, earning a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress.

Ehle is also known for her film performances, including The King's Speech (2010), Contagion (2011), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), A Little Chaos (2014), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), Little Men (2016), Fifty Shades Darker (2017), Fifty Shades Freed (2018) and She Said (2022). She has also appeared in various television programs, including NBC's The Blacklist (2014–2015), the Hulu limited series The Looming Tower (2016), the Showtime miniseries The Comey Rule (2020), and the CBS legal drama The Good Fight (2022).

Early life and education

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Ehle was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to English actress Rosemary Harris and American author John Ehle. Her ancestry includes Romanian (from a maternal great-grandmother) and, paternally, German and English.[4][5]

Ehle appeared as a toddler in a 1973 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which her mother played Blanche DuBois.[6] She spent her childhood in the UK and the US, attending several schools, including Interlochen Arts Academy. She was mainly raised in Asheville, North Carolina. Her drama training was split between the North Carolina School of the Arts[7] and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.[8]

Career

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1990s

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Ehle made her West End debut as Elmire in the 1991 Peter Hall Company production of Tartuffe, for which she won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards.[9][10] Hall then cast her as Calypso in The Camomile Lawn (1992), a television adaptation of Mary Wesley's book of the same name, in which she and her mother played the same character at different ages.[11]

One of Ehle's first notable roles was as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice co-starring Colin Firth, for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. The same year, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, and gained her first major feature film role in Paradise Road (1997).[12] She also appeared in supporting roles in Brian Gilbert's Wilde (1997) and István Szabó's Sunshine (1999).

2000s

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In 2000, Ehle made her Broadway debut to great critical acclaim as Annie in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, winning the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play. Her mother, Rosemary Harris, was also nominated for the same award that year for Waiting in the Wings.[13] That following year, Ehle appeared again on Broadway in the revival of Noël Coward's Design for Living co-starring with Dominic West and Alan Cumming.[14]

After a hiatus, Ehle returned to the London stage in 2005 in The Philadelphia Story at the Old Vic opposite Kevin Spacey. The following year, she played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth with Liev Schreiber, as part of the Shakespeare in the Park.[14]

Ehle returned to Broadway portraying three characters in Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia triptych, which ran from October 2006 until May 2007.[15] Ehle starred alongside Billy Crudup, Martha Plimpton, and Ethan Hawke. Theatre critic Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised her performance as "memorable".[16] For her performance she received her second Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

In August 2009, it was announced that Ehle would play the character of Catelyn Stark in the pilot of HBO's Game of Thrones, an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy book series. Ehle filmed the pilot episode, but decided it was too soon to return to work after the birth of her daughter. She was replaced by Northern Irish actress Michelle Fairley.[17][18]

2010s

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In 2010, Ehle starred alongside John Lithgow in the production of Mr. & Mrs. Fitch presented by Second Stage Theatre in New York City.[19] Since 2010, Ehle has appeared in the critically acclaimed films The King's Speech (where she reunited with her Pride and Prejudice co-star Colin Firth), Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011), George Clooney's The Ides of March (2011), Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Alan Rickman's A Little Chaos (2015), Terence Davies's A Quiet Passion (2016), and Ira Sachs's Little Men (2016). She also appeared in the television series A Gifted Man (2011–2012).

In 2017, Ehle appeared on stage in the critically acclaimed Oslo, which won the Tony Award for Best Play. She herself was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for her work.[20] In 2018, she appeared in the Hulu limited series, The Looming Tower as Ambassador Barbara Bodine. The series also starred Jeff Daniels, Bill Camp, Peter Sarsgaard, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

2020s

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In 2020, Ehle reunited with Jeff Daniels in the limited series The Comey Rule which premiered on Showtime. Daniels and Ehle portrayed Former FBI Director James Comey and his wife Patrice, respectively. In 2022 she also appeared in a variety of television projects including the Apple TV+ series Suspicion as Amy, the Showtime legal drama The Good Fight as Judge Ashley Burnett and the Paramount+ western series 1923 as Sister Mary..

Also in 2022, Ehle received positive reviews for her supporting role in the MeToo investigative drama She Said portraying Laura Madden. TIME film critic Stephanie Zacharek described her as "superb" and Justin Chang writing for NPR declared her performance "quietly heartbreaking".[21][22] She also returned to the stage as Gertrude in the Park Avenue Armory production of Hamlet in New York. Ehle received positive reviews as a last minute replacement for Lia Williams.[23]

In 2024, Ehle appeared in four episodes of Law & Order:Organized Crime as Meredith Bonner, the Police Chief of Westbrook, Pa., who assists Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) with the search for a serial killer.

Personal life

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Ehle married writer Michael Ryan on November 29, 2001,[24] and they have two children.[25]

Acting credits

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1994 Backbeat Cynthia Powell
1997 Paradise Road Rosemary Leighton-Jones
1997 Wilde Constance Lloyd Wilde
1998 Bedrooms and Hallways Sally
1999 Sunshine Valerie Sonnenschein
1999 This Year's Love Sophie
2002 Possession Christabel LaMotte
2005 The River King Betsy Chase
2006 Alpha Male Alice Ferris
2008 Pride and Glory Abby Tierney
2008 Before the Rains Laura Moores Malayalam-language film
2009 The Greatest Joan
2010 The King's Speech Myrtle Logue
2011 The Ides of March Cindy Morris
2011 Contagion Ally Hextall
2011 The Adjustment Bureau Brooklyn Ice House Bartender
2012 Zero Dark Thirty Jessica Karley
2014 RoboCop Liz Kline
2014 Black or White Carol Anderson
2014 The Forger Kim Cutter
2014 A Little Chaos Madame De Montespan
2015 Advantageous Isa Cryer
2015 Fifty Shades of Grey Carla Wilks
2015 Spooks: The Greater Good Geraldine Maltby
2016 Little Men Kathy Jardine
2016 The Fundamentals of Caring Elsa
2016 A Quiet Passion Vinnie Dickinson
2017 Fifty Shades Darker Carla Wilks Unrated edition
2017 Detroit Morgue Doctor Uncredited
2017 I Kill Giants Mrs. Thorson
2017 Wetlands Kate Sheehan
2018 The Miseducation of Cameron Post Dr. Lydia Marsh
2018 Monster Maureen O'Brien
2018 Fifty Shades Freed Carla Wilks
2018 Vox Lux Josie the Publicist
2018 Take Point Agent Mackenzie Korean film
2019 The Wolf Hour Margot
2019 Run This Town Judith
2019 The Professor and the Madman Ada Murray
2019 Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies Tina
2019 Saint Maud Amanda Kohl
2021 John and the Hole Anna Shay
2022 She Said Laura Madden

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1992 The Camomile Lawn Calypso Miniseries, 5 episodes
1992 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Empress Zita of Austria Episode: "Austria, March 1917"
1993 The Maitlands Phyllis BBC TV production
1993 Self Catering 'Meryl' TV movie
1993 Rik Mayall Presents: Micky Love Tamsin Miniseries, 6 episodes
1995 Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet Miniseries, 6 episodes
1996 Beyond Reason Penny McAllister TV movie
1997 Melissa Melissa Miniseries, 5 episodes
2008 The Russell Girl Lorraine Morrissey TV movie
2011–12 A Gifted Man Anna Paul 16 episodes
2013 Low Winter Sun Susan Episode: "Ann Arbor"
2014–15 The Blacklist Madeline Pratt 2 episodes
2018 The Looming Tower Ambassador Barbara Bodine 3 episodes
2020 The Comey Rule Patrice Comey Miniseries
2022 Suspicion Amy Episode: "Be the Gray Man"
2022 The Good Fight Judge Ashley Burnett Episode: "The End of Ginni"
2022–23 1923 Sister Mary 4 episodes
2023 Dead Ringers Rebecca Parker 5 episodes
2023 Special Ops: Lioness Mason Episode: "The Lie Is the Truth"
2024 Law & Order: Organized Crime Chief Meredith Bonner Episode: "Missing Persons", "Beyond the Sea", "Original Sin" & "Sins of Our Fathers"

Theatre

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Year Title Role Venue
1959 Pink Thunderbird Edinburgh Festival
Laundry and Bourbon
1991 Tartuffe Elmire Peter Hall Company
1992 Breaking the Code Pat Green Triumph Productions Tour
1995–96 Richard III Lady Anne Royal Shakespeare Company
1995–96 Painter of Dishonour Serafina
1995–96 The Relapse Amanda
1999 The Real Thing Annie Donmar Warehouse
1999 Summerfolk Varvara Mikhailovna National Theatre
2000 The Real Thing Annie Albery Theatre
Barrymore Theatre
2001 Design for Living Gilda Roundabout Theatre Company's
American Airlines Theater
2005 The Philadelphia Story Tracy Lord The Old Vic
2006 Macbeth Lady Macbeth Shakespeare in the Park's
Delacorte Theater
2006 The Coast of Utopia: Voyage Liubov Bakunin Vivian Beaumont Theater
2006 The Coast of Utopia: Shipwrecked Natalie Herzen Vivian Beaumont Theater
2007 The Coast of Utopia: Salvage Malwida von Meysenbug
2010 Mr. and Mrs. Fitch Mrs. Fitch Second Stage Theatre
2017 Oslo Mona Juul Vivian Beaumont Theater
2022 Hamlet Gertrude Park Avenue Armory

Awards and nominations

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Tony Awards

Year Category Nominated work Result
2000 Best Actress in a Play The Real Thing Won
2007 Best Featured Actress in a Play The Coast of Utopia Won
2017 Best Actress in a Play Oslo Nominated

BAFTA Awards

Year Category Nominated work Result
1996 Best Actress (TV) Pride & Prejudice Won
1998 Best Supporting Actress (Film) Wilde Nominated

Screen Actors Guild Award

Year Category Nominated work Result
2010 Best Cast in a Motion Picture The King's Speech Won

Laurence Olivier Award

Year Category Nominated work Result
2000 Best Actress The Real Thing Nominated

Outer Critics Circle Award

Year Category Nominated work Result
2000 Best Actress – Play The Real Thing Nominated
2007 Best Featured Actress – Play The Coast of Utopia Nominated

Other award wins:

Other award nominations:

References

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  1. ^ Colby, Vineta; Wilson, H. W. (1991). World Authors, 1980–1985. H.W. Wilson Company. ISBN 9780824207977. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2017 – via google.ca.
  2. ^ "Performing Arts". google.ca. 1970. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  3. ^ "Jennifer Ehle". The Guardian. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
  4. ^ "Ehle family". freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com. 2013. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  5. ^ Rosemary Harris and the Picture: Madonna of the Slaughtered Jews. Nmia.com. Retrieved on February 8, 2013. Archived July 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Jennifer Ehle". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  7. ^ "Drama – Home Page". uncsa.edu. Archived from the original on January 6, 2014. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  8. ^ "High Profile Alumni". cssd.ac.uk. Archived from the original on October 15, 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  9. ^ http://www.geocities.ws.dwan_y/tartuffe.html[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ a b Lees, Caroline. "Classic recipes for success". Sunday Times. 9 February 1992
  11. ^ Dave Kehr (June 16, 2000). "AT THE MOVIES; A Resemblance? It's Only Natural". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 9, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  12. ^ "What Lizzie did next". The Age. Melbourne. April 23, 2005. Archived from the original on March 4, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  13. ^ Doug Feiden (June 5, 2000). "'Kiss Me Kate' is big Tony winner 'Copenhagen' and 'Contact' also honored". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  14. ^ a b "Design for Living – Broadway Play – 2001 Revival | IBDB". Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  15. ^ "Coast of Utopia". Playbill. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  16. ^ Brantley, Ben (February 19, 2007). "Those Storm-Tossed Revolutionaries Reach Port". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  17. ^ "Fairley to replace Ehle in HBO's 'Thrones'". The Hollywood Reporter. October 14, 2010. Archived from the original on April 1, 2011. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
  18. ^ Jace Lacob (September 22, 2011). "A Gifted Man's Leading Lady". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on March 17, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2012.
  19. ^ "Tony Winners Lithgow and Ehle Are 'MR. & MRS. FITCH' For Second Stage Theatre" Archived February 8, 2021, at the Wayback Machine August 19, 2009, Broadway World
  20. ^ "Oslo, Starring Tony Winners Jefferson Mays and Jennifer Ehle, Begins Broadway Run". Archived from the original on March 8, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  21. ^ "She Said Is a Satisfying Journalism Movie About Tireless Reporters Who Are Also Tired Moms". Time Magazine. November 18, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  22. ^ "'She Said' follows the journalists who set the #MeToo movement in motion". NPR. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  23. ^ Isherwood, Charles (July 7, 2022). "'Hamlet' Review: 21st-Century Danish Modern Shakespeare". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  24. ^ "Jennifer Ehle – Biography". Yahoo! Movies. January 15, 2014.[permanent dead link]
  25. ^ Moore, Suzanne (December 20, 2011). "Celebrities' Christmas memories". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
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