Oscar-winning ‘Moonstroke’ actress Olympia Dukokis has died at the age of 89

Olympia Tocakis, A character most famous for her role in Norman Juvison’s Oscar-winning supporting twist.Moonstruck”And for her role as a rich widow”Steel Magnolias, ”Died. She is 89 years old.

Dukakis’ brother, Apollo Dukakis, confirmed his death Facebook post, Writing: “My dear sister Olympia Dukokis passed away this morning in New York City. After several months of ill health, he is finally at peace and with Louise.

Her talent agent Alison Levy also confirmed the actress’ death to NBC News.

Dukakis was 56 years old when he was nominated for an Oscar for his role in “Moonstroke,” in which he starred, with the film’s extraordinary comic racial interest, the mother of Serin’s character. The Washington Post isolated Dukokis for fame: Cher and Nicholas Cage “are backed by comedians on par with fantastic co-stars – especially Olympia Dukokis, who is expected to get Oscar attention as Loretta’s world-tired mother Rosa.”

He described his 1988 victory as “the year of Tokelau” because it was the Democratic presidential candidate Michael Massachusetts, his cousin. At the ceremony, he put his Oscar over his head and said, “Okay, Michael, let’s go!” Called.

Djokovic, who has done a lot of television work, has been nominated for three Oscars, first for the 1991 television film “Lucky Day”, second for the 1998 film “Armistice’s More Tales of the City” and the third for the 1999 series “Joan of Arc”. . “

Even before the Oscars changed his fortune, Mike Nicole’s “working woman” returned Dokokis to a role he had played on a regular basis for most of his career: 12th proud for his role as a director of personality.

By the following year, however, she was in her third role in the children’s comedy “Look Who’s Talking,” after John Travolta and Kirsty Alley, in which she starred in “Moonstroke” as a reminder of her work as pregnant Allie’s mother. He returned in the 1990s.

Herbert Rose’s 1989 hit “Steel Magnolias”, starring Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Sally Field, Dolly Barton, Shirley McLean and Dukokis, attracted women of all ages with its talented sense and still effective one liner, but Rowley said. “For real fun, make McLean Down Crank and Dokokis a wealthy widow, distracting; they ‘re priceless.”

Starring alongside Diane Lott and Ellen Burstin in the 1993 film “The Cemetery Club” directed by Bill Duke, all three Jewish women must find themselves widowed and rebuild their lives within a year, with Dokokis’ character being stupid and strong-willed.

Depending on who you ask in Woody Allen’s 1995 romantic comedy “Mighty Aphrodite”, Dukakis was part of the Greek chorus in which the chorus comments on the betrayal of the Allen character. That year he appeared in the Sentiment Richard Traffus vehicle in a suspicious, hard-nosed boss “Mr. Holland’s Opus, and the mother of a gay man in the AIDS drama “Jeffrey”.

The following year he played a minor role in the spiritual period period “Jerusalem” by Danish artist Bille Augustine. The actress also had a small but powerful role in the 2005 father-son road movie “The Thing Out My Folk” starring Peter Polk and Paul Riser.

In 2006, a year after the 9/11 attacks, Dukokis was part of a series of vignettes about life in New York City, including The Great New Wonderful, and he played Julie Christie in Sarah Polly’s Alzheimer’s play “Away from She,” a hardcore character of Dukokis. Reveals an unshakable realistic view of the situation – even her husband is an Alzheimer’s patient.

She played an elderly grandmother in John Costen’s “In the Land of Woman” starring Adam Brady, Kristen Stewart and McRyan. But more interesting is the 2011 release of writer-director Thomas Fitzgerald’s “Cloudburst”, in which Dokakis plays a lesbian couple with Brenda Freiker. Variety said, “Dukakis has surpassed even his most memorable previous twists as Stella, the unruly old Dame decided to free her boyfriend.”

Her television career included playing HPO’s 1993 “Armised Mob’s Tales of the City” and the 1998 series “Armised Mob’s More Tales of the City”, where Anna Matrix, who was the head of an apartment building in San Francisco, played. Emmy appointment; And the third entry of 2001 “More Stories of the City.”

Many of the television films in which Dokakis appeared were co-starred with HBO and the BBC’s “The Last of the Blonde Bombsells” (2000), Judy Dench and Ian Holm, and focused on reuniting the group of women who formed a band in London during WWII. .

Dukakis is a regular on the 2004 CBS sitcom “Center of the Universe” starring John Goodman and Jean Smart. He has appeared as a guest on several television series, voicing in “Frasier” and “The Simpsons” and appearing in “Numbers”; “Law & Order: SVU,” as a Defense Attorney; And the HBO detective comedy “Tired of Death.”

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Dukakis graduated from Boston University and studied acting with Peter Cass in Boston.

Tobacco’s first experience on Broadway was brilliant in 1962 in the original play “The Osborne Papers” starring Maurice Evans and Wendy Hiller, based on a story by Henry James written by Michael Redgrave. In 1963, Dukokis won an OP for Bertolt Brecht’s “Man Equals Man” for Broadway. He hit the stage in 1964 on a knight named “Abraham Cochrane”. He returned to Broadway in 1974 on Peter Ustino’s “Who’s Who in Hell”, but its flow was briefly demonstrated. Andrew Bergman’s “Social Security”, directed by Mike Nichols, starred in 1986-87 and also starred Ron Silver, Marlowe Thomas and Jonah Gleason. In 2000 she starred in a female show on Broadway called “Rose” in which she plays an 80-year-old Jewish woman on a Miami beach who talks to viewers about her life, including her experiences on the Holocaust.

She made her television debut in the 1962 episode “Doctors and Nurses”, and the same year as “Dr. Gildare”. The actress made her big screen debut in the 1964 short film “Twice a Man”. Over the next 10 years, she appeared in several films, including “Death Wish”. She played minor, often underestimated roles in the 1969 film “John and Mary” by Peter Yates, starring Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow, as the mother of the character Dokkis Hoffman; in 1971 she had a supporting role in the film “Mad for One” with Rene Taylor and Joseph Bologna. Was.

Dukakis was one of the stars of the 1974 political film “The Rehearsal” by writer-director Jules Das, about the massacre of students against the ruling regime in Greece; Many celebrities were associated with the film, including Lawrence Oliver, Arthur Miller, Melina Mercury, Maximilian Shell and Arthur Millett, but by the time the film was completed the military junta had collapsed, which was not seen in public in this country for decades. In 1975, the actress appeared in a presentation on the “best performance” of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” production, which also starred Frank Langella, Fly Tanner and Lee Grant. He co-starred in Philip Kaufman’s “The Wanderers” in 1979 and Taylor Hackford’s “The Idolmaker” in 1980. But despite years of credits on film, television and stage, the actress did not break up until 1987’s “Moonstroke”.

Later, Dukakis taught master classes in acting in the United States and elsewhere. In July 2020, a documentary on his life entitled “Olympia” was released in the United States

Dukakis’ husband, actor Louis Zorich, died in 2018. Daughter Christina Zorich, an actress; And sons Peter and Stephen Zorich.