Donna Murphy
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
The petite, brunette Murphy garnered critical kudos and a handful of awards, including a 1994 Best Actress Tony, for her intense, dramatic portrayal of Fosca in the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine stage musical "Passion." Portraying an ugly woman wracked by an unnamed illness who falls in love with a handsome soldier, she mesmerized audiences with the raw power of her performance. Murphy had honed her craft in the Broadway and off-Broadway arena moving from the chorus ("They're Playing Our Song") to playing leading roles ("Drood," "Song of Singapore"). She made her feature debut as a tough cop investigating a murder in William Friedkin's "Jade" (1995). That same year, she brilliantly delineated an unhappily married woman whose ex-husband becomes embroiled in a murder investigation in the ABC series "Murder One." In 1996, she returned to the stage co-starring opposite Lou Diamond Phillips in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King & I" for which she earned a second Tony Award as Lead Actress in a Musical.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Film Production - Main (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Life Events
1979
Made Broadway debut in "They're Playing Our Song"
1986
First leading role on Broadway, replaced Betty Buckley in "Drood"
1987
Made her TV debut playing a singer in "A Table at Ciro's" (PBS)
1989
Appeared in the NBC daytime television drama "Another World" as District Attorney Morgan Graves
1992
Appeared off-Broadway in "Song of Singapore"
1994
Breakthrough Broadway role, playing Fosca in Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's "Passion"
1995
Made her feature film debut in "Jade"
1995
Appeared in the recurring role of Francesca Cross on "Murder One" (ABC)
1996
Recreated her stage role of Fosca in the TV production of "Passion" (PBS)
1996
Co-starred with Lou Diamond Phillips in the Broadway revival of "The King & I"
1997
Played a recurring character in "Liberty! The American Revolution" (PBS)
1998
Guest-starred as an accused murderer on the cross-over episodes of FOX's "Ally McBeal" and ABC's "The Practice"
1998
Played Mary Todd Lincoln in "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" (TNT)
2000
Co-starred with Peter Gallagher in "Center Stage"
2000
Headlined the Encores! concert staging of "Wonderful Town"
2001
Made her series debut on the ABC sitcom, "What About Joan?"
2002
Played the title in Tony Kushner's "Helen"; performed off-Broadway at the Public Theatre
2002
Played the recurring role of Heather Olshansky on "Hack" (CBS)
2003
Earned a Tony nomination for her performance in the Broadway musical, "Wonderful Town"
2004
Portrayed the wife of Alfred Molina's Dr. Otto Octavius in "Spider-Man 2"
2006
Co-starred in Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain"
2007
Earned a Tony nomination for playing Lotte Lenya in Kurt Weil's "LoveMusik"
2007
Played Scarlett Johansson's mother in "The Nanny Diaries"
2009
Had a recurring role on the short-lived series, "Trust Me" (TNT)
2010
Voiced Mother Gothel, the villainess in Disney's "Tangled"
2011
Cast in the Roundabout Theatre production of 'The People in the Picture"; earned a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Family
Companions
