CLAYBURGH, JILL

CLAYBURGH, JILL (1944– ), U.S. actress. Known as a major feminist actress during the 1970s and 1980s, Clayburgh was born in New York to Albert Clayburgh, a manufacturing executive, and his wife, Julia, a former theatrical production secretary. Clayburgh became interested in acting while attending Sarah Lawrence College and later joined the Charles Playhouse in Boston, Massachusetts. She starred in several Broadway productions, including The Rothschilds (1970), Pippin (1972), and Design for Living (1984). Her first major film was Portnoy's Complaint (1972), followed by The Terminal Man (1974), Silver Streak (1976), Semi-Tough (1977), and An Unmarried Woman (1978), which earned her a 1978 Cannes Film Festival best actress award and 1979 best actress Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. She was nominated for a best actress Academy Award again in 1980 for Starting Over (1979). Clayburgh married playwright David Rabe in 1979. After I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982), written by Rabe, and Hanna K. (1983), which featured Clayburgh as a Jewish lawyer living in Tel Aviv, she scaled back her career to focus her attention on her family. Clayburgh then resurfaced in movies like Naked in New York (1994) and Fools Rush In (1997) and appearances on television shows such as Ally McBeal (1997), The Practice (1997), and Nip/Tuck (2003). (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)