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Jill Eikenberry

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Jill Eikenberry
Jill Eikenberry at the 41st Emmy Awards

Jill Eikenberry (born January 21, 1947) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as lawyer Ann Kelsey in L.A. Law (1986-1994), where she co-starred with her real-life husband Michael Tucker. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and was raised in Madison, Wisconsin and St. Joseph and Kansas City, Missouri. She currently resides in New York and Umbria.

Career

She began studies in anthropology at Barnard College but in her second year she auditioned for and was accepted into the Yale School of Drama.

She met Michael Tucker at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC where they appeared together in The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail (1970). She married Tucker in 1973 and they settled in New York City. She has a son, Max and a stepdaughter, actress Allison Tucker (by Michael's first marriage).

Her first role in film was a minor role in the television movie, They've Killed President Lincoln (1971). Among her early feature films was Between the Lines (1977), directed by Joan Micklin Silver. She and Michael Tucker had small roles in Lina Wertmuller's 1978 success A Night full of Rain and she also appeared in An Unmarried Woman starring Jill Clayburgh the same year.

Throughout the 1970s, Eikenberry's main focus was on theater. She made her Broadway debut in 1974 in All Over Town, and later appeared Off-Broadway in Uncommon Women and Others which was later filmed for American public television [1]. She also starred in the musical Onward Victoria (1980), which closed on opening night.

The 1980s saw a number of television films to her credit, and a major film success, Dudley Moore's star vehicle Arthur (1981). In 1986, she and Michael Tucker scored a major success by each securing major parts in the successful television series L.A. Law. They were given the roles by producer Steven Bochco, who had been impressed by the pair when he used them for two episodes on his earlier hit Hill Street Blues. Jill and Michael moved to Hollywood at this time, and it was in this period that Jill discovered she had breast cancer, which was successfully treated over the next two years.

The event was significant in her life. In 1989, she co-produced a documentary for NBC television called Destined to Live, which featured interviews with cancer survivors like herself, including Nancy Reagan. She remains an activist for breast cancer research and early detection.

Eikenberry continued to appear in television movies over the next decade, while continuing her role on L.A. Law. With the financial success accruing from their L.A. Law work, Jill and Michael produced a number of television movies as vehicles in which they appeared together. They include Assault and Matrimony (1987) , The Secret Life of Archie's Wife (1990), A Town Torn Apart (1992) and Gone in a Heartbeat (1996).

Since 1986, her film and television appearances have been sporadic. One of her most recent roles was in the comedy Manna from Heaven (2003), in which she appeared with Cloris Leachman and Shirley Jones.

She has sung on stage and in films, and in recent years, she and her husband have written a number of songs.

Awards

  • Won an Obie Award for roles "Lemon Sky" (1985) and Life Under Water (1986).
  • She was nominated five times for an Emmy for her role on L.A. Law although she did not win.
  • She was nominated four times for a Golden Globe for L.A. Law and she won in 1988 [2].
  • Humanitas Award for Destined to Live
  • Cancer Survivors Hall of Fame, New York City (1998) .

Select filmography

Broadway plays

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