Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theater. After starting her professional career with The Acting Company in 1972 she soon gained acclaim for her leading performances on the Broadway and West End stage. She has won three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, and two Grammy Awards, and was a 2006 inductee to the American Theater Hall of Fame.[1][2]
Patti LuPone
April 21, 1949
Actress, singer
1971–present
1
Robert LuPone (brother)
Adelina Patti (great-great aunt)
She made her Broadway debut in Three Sisters in 1973. She went on to receive three Tony Awards: two for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles as Eva Perón in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita (1980), and Rose in Gypsy (2008) and one for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Joanne in the Stephen Sondheim revival Company (2022).[3] She was Tony-nominated for The Robber Bridegroom (1975), Anything Goes (1988), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2006), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010), and War Paint (2017).
For her performances on the West End stage she received three Laurence Olivier Awards, one for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances as Fantine in the original London cast of Les Misérables and Moll in The Cradle Will Rock in 1985, and the second for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Company in 2019. She was nominated for her role as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard in 1993. She has two Grammy Awards for the recording of the 2007 Los Angeles Opera production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
On television, she starred in the drama series Life Goes On (1989–1993) and received Emmy Award nominations for the TV movie The Song Spinner (1995) and her guest role in the sitcom Frasier (1998). She has also appeared in three Ryan Murphy series, American Horror Story (2013–2014, 2022), Pose (2019), and Hollywood (2020).[4] She also acted in Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2017). Her film roles include 1941 (1979), Witness (1985), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Summer of Sam (1999), State and Main (2000), and Beau Is Afraid (2023).
Early life and training[edit]
LuPone was born on April 21, 1949, in Northport, New York, on Long Island, the daughter of Italian-American parents Angela Louise (née Patti), a library administrator at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, and Orlando Joseph LuPone, a school administrator and English teacher at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington, NY. Her great-great aunt was 19th-century Spanish-born Italian opera singer Adelina Patti.[5] Her father's side came from Abruzzo, while her mother's side is Sicilian.[6] Her older brother Robert LuPone was a Tony-nominated actor, dancer, and director who originated the role of Zach, the director, in A Chorus Line.[7] She grew up Roman Catholic.[8]
LuPone was part of the first graduating class of Juilliard's Drama Division (1968–1972: Group 1),[9] which also included actors Kevin Kline and David Ogden Stiers.[10] She graduated from Juilliard in 1972 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.[11] LuPone has a mezzo-soprano vocal range,[12][13][14] and she is known for her strong/high "Broadway" belt singing voice. In a 2008 interview, she maintained that she was "an actor who sings", and thankful she "had a voice".[15]
Personal life[edit]
LuPone is married to Matthew Johnston. The couple's wedding ceremony was on the stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater at the Lincoln Center on December 12, 1988, after filming the TV movie LBJ; Johnston was a cameraman.[110] They have one child.[83] They reside in Edisto Beach, South Carolina,[111] and Kent, Connecticut.[112]
Selected recordings include:
Her live performance of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" at the Grammy Awards was released on the 1994 album Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume IV.[162]
In 2009, LuPone's 1985 recording of "I Dreamed a Dream" reached No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart[163] It also reached the Billboard magazine Hot Digital Songs and Hot Singles Recurrents charts in the US.
LuPone recorded a duet with Seth MacFarlane (who was in character as Glenn Quagmire) on the 2005 album Family Guy: Live In Vegas.
A live concert special film, An Evening with Patti LuPone, was filmed in July 2012 and released in November 2012 on SethTv.com with 104 minutes of Patti LuPone songs and stories with host Seth Rudetsky.[164]
A new CD of one of her shows, The Lady with the Torch, was released in 2006 on Sh-K-Boom Records. In December she released bonus tracks for that CD only available on iTunes and the Sh-K-Boom website.[165]
