Shirley Knight

Shirley Knight Hopkins (born July 5, 1936) is an American stage, film, and television actress. She has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), eight times for Emmy Awards (winning three), and has also netted a Golden Globe and Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her role in the film Dutchman (1966).

Personal life

Knight was born in Goessel in Marion County, east central Kansas, the daughter of Virginia (née Webster) and Noel Johnson Knight, an oil company executive.

Knight was married twice, to actor and producer Gene Persson, from 1959 until they divorced in 1969, and to writer John Hopkins, from 1969 until his death in 1998. She has two daughters, actress Kaitlin Hopkins and elementary school teacher Sophie Hopkins.

Career

Knight's feature films include The Group (1966), The Dutchman (1966), Petulia (1968), The Rain People (1969), As Good as It Gets (1997), and Elevator (2011), in which she plays one of several people trapped in a Wall Street elevator with a bomber.