Lois Smith

Lois Smith

Lois Smith (Gran Stackhouse) (born November 3, 1930) is an American actress whose career in theatre, film, and television has spanned five decades.

Smith was born Lois Arlene Humbert in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Carrie Davis (née Gottshalk) and William Oren Smith, a telephone company employee. She is a graduate of the University of Washington.

Smith made her film debut in East of Eden in 1955. Additional film credits include Five Easy Pieces, Up the Sandbox, Fatal Attraction, Fried Green Tomatoes, How to Make an American Quilt, Dead Man Walking, Twister, Minority Report, Tumbleweeds, Hollywoodland and Sweet Land. Much of Smith’s career has been spent in television, appearing in early anthology series (Studio One, Robert Montgomery Presents), soap operas (Another World, Somerset, The Edge of Night, All My Children), and numerous primetime dramas, including The Defenders, Dr. Kildare, Route 66, thirtysomething, The Practice, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Grey’s Anatomy.

Smith made her Broadway debut in the 1952 comedy Time Out for Ginger. has made much of her career in Chicago with the Steppenwolf Company, but her presence on Broadway goes back to Time Out for Ginger (1952). She won Tony nominations for The Grapes of Wrath and Buried Child and has played memorable roles in The Trip to Bountiful, The Iceman Cometh and Orpheus Descending.

Smith lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She is currently starring in “The Trip to Bountiful” at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.