Joan Allen was born on August 20, 1956 in Rochelle, Illinois, the youngest of four children. She is the daughter of homemaker Dorothea Marie in 1990, and the two divorced in 2002; Allen's daughter Sadie was born in 1994.
Has won many Stage awards and won a Tony in 1989 for her debut Broadway performance in Burn This.
Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1986" in John Willis Screen World, Vol. 38.
Transferred to Northern Illinois University in 1976 whence she graduated.
Mother of Sadie Friedman (born 1994), with Peter Friedman.
Ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Has worked with two "Hannibal Lecters." She appeared in the first Lecter film, Manhunter , with Brian Cox. She later played Pat Nixon in the film Nixon , opposite Anthony Hopkins. Brian Cox later appeared with her again in The Bourne Supremacy .
Won the 1988 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for her Broadway debut in Lanford Wilson s "Burn This." She was again nominated the next year in the same category for Wendy Wasserstein s "The Heidi Chronicles.".
Her Boston terrier is called Nora.
Is the youngest of 4 children.
Mother was a homemaker and father was a garage attendant.
Chosen as Most Likely to Succeed by friends when graduating from high school.
Graduated from the same university as Dan Castellaneta , Justin Mentell , and Matt Ricci.
Joan has two sisters: Mary Allen (b. 1940), Lynn Allen (b. 1954) and a brother named David Allen.
Parents: Dorothy Allen, a housewife, and Jeff Allen, a gas-station owner. Her father died in 1995.
Studied acting at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston under Glendon Gabbard.
She was awarded the 1983 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for "And a Nightingale Sang", at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
She was awarded the 1986 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for "A Lesson from Aloes", at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
She was nominated for a 1990 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for "Reckless" at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
Her father was of English, German, and Scots-Irish (Northern Irish) ancestry. Her mothers family was German.
Is left-handed.
She was awarded the 1987 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Performance for "Burn This" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
I think I knew acting was what I wanted to do. But I was from this small,town and there was no place for an adult to recognize it. I think the,cheerleading thing was a way of performing. There was the boy element,but more important was the performance element. Once I got to high,school and auditioned for a play and got in, I thought this was really,what I was looking for. Once that had got cleared up, from 13 on, that,was it.
I was the good girl. The straight A student, on the honor roll, part of,the choir . . . I played the cello badly. I did plays.
Acting gave me the opportunity to do outrageous things. It allowed me to,be sad, happy, angry and lustful, even if it was just vicariously.
