Amy Irving - Career

Career

Irving's first stage appearance was at age 2, portraying a bit-part character ("Princess Primrose") in a play which her father directed. She had a walk-on role in the 1965-66 Broadway show The Country Wife at age 12. Her character was to sell a hamster to Stacy Keach in a crowd scene. The play was directed by family friend Robert Symonds, the owner/operator of Lincoln Center, and who would become her stepfather after her father died and her mother remarried. Within six months of returning to Los Angeles from London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the mid-1970s, Irving was cast in a major motion picture and was working on various TV projects such as guest spots in Police Woman, Happy Days, and a lead role in the mini-series epic Once an Eagle opposite veterans Sam Elliott and Glenn Ford, and a young Melanie Griffith. She played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Theatre in 1975, and returned to the role at the Seattle Repertory Theatre (1982-1983).

Irving auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, which went to Carrie Fisher. She then starred in the Brian DePalma-directed films The Fury as Gillian Bellaver, and Carrie as Sue Snell (her mother was also in Carrie). In 1999 she reprised her role as Sue Snell in "The Rage: Carrie 2". She starred with Richard Dreyfuss in 1980 in The Competition. Also in 1980 she appeared in Honeysuckle Rose. In 1983 she was in Yentl (for which she received an Oscar nomination). In 1984 she co-starred in Micki + Maude, In 1988 she was in Susan Sandler's Crossing Delancey (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination). In 1997 she appeared in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry. She supplied the singing voice for Jessica Rabbit in the animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Irving also appeared in the TV show Alias as Emily Sloane, portrayed Princess Anjuli in the big-budget miniseries epic The Far Pavilions and headlined the lavish TV production Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna. More recently Irving appeared in the films Traffic (2000), Tuck Everlasting (2002), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2002) and an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2001.

Irving's stage work includes on-Broadway shows such as Amadeus (replacing Jane Seymour due to pregnancy) at the Broadhurst Theatre for nine months, Heartbreak House with Rex Harrison at the Circle in the Square Theatre, Broken Glass at the Booth Theatre and Three Sisters with Jeanne Tripplehorn and Lili Taylor at the Roundabout Theatre. Additional off-Broadway credits include: The Heidi Chronicles, The Road to Mecca, The Vagina Monologues in both London and New York, The Glass Menagerie with her mother, Celadine, a world premiere at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ and the 2006 one-woman play A Safe Harbor for Elizabeth Bishop, by Marta Góes, which was a Primary Stages production at the 59E59 Theaters. In 1994, Irving and Anthony Hopkins hosted the 48th Tony Awards at the Gershwin Theatre, New York.

Irving's last Broadway appearance was in the American premiere of Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia at New York's Lincoln Center during its 2006–07 season. In 2009 she played the title role in Saint Joan, in an audio version by the Hollywood Theater of the Ear.

In May 2010 Irving made her Opera Theatre of Saint Louis debut in the role of Desiree Armfeldt in Isaac Mizrahi's directorial debut of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music.

In October 2010 Irving guest-starred in the third episode of Fox's returning series, House M.D..

Irving currently resides in New York City.