Award-winning actress featured in breakfast talk
By Connie White
Shirley Knight, familiar on stage, screen and television, will share some of the highlights of her stellar career during a breakfast address 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 17, at the Olive Tree Banquet Hall, 2949 N. Rock Road.
Knight left Kansas and her studies in drama, journalism, English and music at the University of Wichita in 1957 for the glitter and glamour of Hollywood, beginning her film career in 1960 with an Oscar-nominated performance in "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs."
Knight, a veteran of the stage who also boasts a filmography that covers five decades and more than 100 movie and
TV appearances, has won both Emmy and Tony awards for her work, as well as garnering a second Academy-Award nomination for her performance in "Sweet Bird of Youth."
Knight says she was drawn to acting for two reasons. First, she loves untangling the knots of character, "figuring out the puzzle," as she puts it. The second reason she determined to take acting seriously is simpler. "Acting," she says with a laugh, "is so much easier than opera."
It had been her goal to become an opera singer when she first came to WU, but she changed her mind the night she took the stage in WU’s Commons Auditorium and delivered the prologue to Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet."
Since then, she has gone on to win Emmy Awards for her work on "NYPD Blue," "thirtysomething" and "Indictment: The McMartin Trial." Her extensive stage work includes a Tony Award-winning performance in "Kennedy’s Children" and a Tony-nominated appearance in Horton Foote’s "The Young Man from Atlanta." Perhaps an even greater compliment to her talent is the fact that both playwright Tennessee Williams and director Francis Ford Coppola have created works with her in mind: Williams’ "A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur" and Coppola’s "The Rain People."
She appeared in the 1997 movie "As Good As It Gets" with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt and in the 1998 television series "Maggie Winters" with Faith Ford. This past year, her talents have been spotlighted in "75 Degrees in July," "Angel Eyes" and "Till the End of Time."
For reservations to this last presentation of the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Speakers Breakfast Series, call 978-3834. The breakfast is $15 per person.
