Elizabeth Perkins — Movies, TV Shows & Roles

Producer · Actor

1960-11-18 · New York City, New York, USA · Female

24 series in the catalog

Elizabeth Perkins (born November 18, 1960) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in films including About Last Night (1986), From the Hip (1987), Big (1988), Enid Is Sleeping (1990), The Flintstones (1994), Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Moonlight and Valentino (1995), The Ring Two (2005) and Hop (2011). She is also well known for her role as Celia Hodes in the Showtime TV series Weeds, for which she received three Primetime Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations.
Early life
Perkins's paternal grandparents were Greek immigrants from Thessaloniki who anglicized their surname from "Pisperikos" to "Perkins" when they moved to the United States.
Perkins was raised in Colrain, Massachusetts; her parents divorced in 1963. She began working in theatre with Arena Civic Theatre, a non-profit community theatre group based in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Perkins attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, an elite preparatory school, and then spent 1978 to 1981 in Chicago attaining her Certificate in Acting from the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University. In 1984, she made her theatrical debut on Broadway in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and afterward worked in a number of ensemble companies, including The New York Shakespeare Festival and the Steppenwolf Theater.
Career
Perkins was listed as one of the 12 "Promising New Actors of 1986" in John Willis' Screen World. She made her film debut in 1986 in Edward Zwick's About Last Night... and had a career breakthrough co-starring with Tom Hanks in Big. She received critical acclaim for her performance in Barry Levinson's Avalon, and was a standout opposite William Hurt in The Doctor (1991), receiving critical acclaim for her performance as a terminal cancer patient. In 1993, Perkins appeared in the television project For Their Own Good. She later starred in the comedy series Battery Park and has appeared in television and films, including 1994's The Flintstones (starring as Wilma Flintstone) and Miracle on 34th Street (starring as Dorey Walker), and 2000's 28 Days (starring as Sandra Bullock's sister). Perkins also played a small voice role in 2003's Finding Nemo as Coral, a clownfish who is Marlin's wife and Nemo's mother who is killed and devoured by a barracuda at the beginning of the film. Perkins also appeared as a psychiatrist in 2005's The Ring Two, starring Naomi Watts.
From 2005 to 2009, Perkins played Celia Hodes, an alcoholic and image-obsessed parent–teacher association (PTA) mother, alongside Mary-Louise Parker and Justin Kirk on the Showtime series Weeds. For her work on Weeds, Perkins received two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Miniseries or Made for TV Motion Picture (in 2006 and 2007). She was also nominated three times for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Weeds. At a screening of the season 2 finale of Weeds, at the Museum of TV and Radio on October 25, 2006, Perkins said that she considers Celia Hodes her favorite role in her career. On May 6, 2010, she announced that the fifth season of Weeds was her last despite the cliffhanger her character had in the season finale.
She starred in the 2013 ABC comedy series How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life). She played Birdie in the Netflix original series GLOW and Jackie O'Neill in the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects.
Personal life
Perkins married Terry Kinney in 1984; they divorced in 1988. She has one daughter with Maurice Phillips. In 2000, she married Argentine-born cinematographer Julio Macat. In 2005, at the age of 44, she learned that she had latent autoimmune diabetes, a form of type 1 diabetes that is most often diagnosed in middle age.
In 2017, Perkins held a sign naming actor James Woods above the hashtag #MeToo during a rally against sexual harassment in Los Angeles.
Elizabeth Perkins at the TCM Movie Database (archived)
Elizabeth Perkins at the Internet Broadway Database
Elizabeth Perkins at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (archived)