27 Facts About Olympia Dukakis

Olympia Dukakis performed in more than 130 stage productions, in some 60 films, and in approximately 50 television series.

Olympia Dukakis later moved to film acting and won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, among other accolades, for her performance in Moonstruck.

Olympia Dukakis received another Golden Globe nomination for Sinatra and Emmy Award nominations for Lucky Day, More Tales of the City and Joan of Arc.

In 2018, a feature-length documentary about her life, titled Olympia Dukakis, was released theatrically in the United States.

Olympia Dukakis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on June 20,1931, the daughter of Alexandra "Alec" and Constantine "Costas" S Dukakis.

Olympia Dukakis's parents were Greek immigrants; her father a refugee from Anatolia, and her mother an immigrant from the Peloponnese.

Olympia Dukakis had a brother, Apollo, six years her junior.

Olympia Dukakis's cousin was former Massachusetts governor and 1988 US presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.

Olympia Dukakis was an alumna of Arlington High School, and was educated at Boston University where she majored in physical therapy, earning a BA, of which she made use when treating patients with polio during the height of the epidemic.

Olympia Dukakis later returned to BU and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in performing arts.

Olympia Dukakis started in productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Olympia Dukakis continued to perform there every few years, with her last appearance on that stage occurring in 2003, where she played multiple roles in The Chekov Cycle.

Olympia Dukakis's stage directing credits include many classics, such as Orpheus Descending, The House of Bernarda Alba, Uncle Vanya, and A Touch of the Poet, as well as more contemporary works, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Kennedy's Children.

Olympia Dukakis appeared in Martin Sherman's one-woman play, Rose, entirely a monologue about a woman who survived the Warsaw Ghetto, in London and then on Broadway.

Olympia Dukakis played the role of Anna Madrigal in the Tales of the City television mini-series, which garnered her an Emmy Award nomination, and appeared on Search for Tomorrow as Dr Barbara Moreno, who romanced Stu Bergman.

Olympia Dukakis appeared as Dolly Sinatra in the mini-series of Frank Sinatra's life.

Moonstruck was directed by Norman Jewison who predicted Olympia Dukakis would receive honors for the role.

Olympia Dukakis believed him after receiving the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Olympia Dukakis was nominated for the Canadian Academy Award for The Event and in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, her roles included 3 Needles, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, In the Land of Women, and Away From Her, the 2006 film which cast her alongside Gordon Pinsent as the spouses of two Alzheimer's patients.

Olympia Dukakis took on significant work on the small screen as well.

In 2008, Olympia Dukakis directed the world premiere production of Todd Logan's Botanic Garden at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

In 2018, Olympia Dukakis starred in Eleftheromania, which follows an Auschwitz survivor as she recites a true story about a group from the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

In 1962, Olympia Dukakis married fellow Manhattan stage actor Louis Zorich.

Olympia Dukakis taught acting for fifteen years at NYU and gave master classes for professional theatre universities, colleges, and companies across the country.

Olympia Dukakis received the National Arts Club Medal of Honor.

Olympia Dukakis became an adherent of Goddess worship, a feminist form of modern Paganism, during a production of The Trojan Women in 1982.

Olympia Dukakis was a figure on the lecture circuit discussing topics such as women living with chronic illness, life in the theater, the environment, and feminism.