Kristen Johnston
| Kristen Johnston | |
|---|---|
 Johnston during a PETA event honoring filmmaker Donny Moss, June 2008 | |
| Born |
September 20, 1967 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1] |
Kristen Johnston (born September 20, 1967)[2] is an American stage, film, and television actress. She is most famous for her role as Sally Solomon in the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun. She also starred as Wilma Flintstone in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas and as Holly Franklin in the sitcom The Exes.
Early life
Johnston was born in Washington, DC,[2] and was raised mostly in Fox Point, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, where she attended St. Eugene's Catholic Grade School and Whitefish Bay High School. She spent some of her teen years in Sweden and in South America. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama at New York University.
Career
Johnston made her professional stage debut with New York's Atlantic Theater Company, which was founded by playwright David Mamet. During her association with that company, she appeared in such productions as As You Like It, Girl's Talk, Stage Door, Author's Voice, Portrait of a Woman, and Rosemary for Remembrance.
She has performed with the Naked Angels Theater Company in The Stand-In and Hot Keys, and with New York Stage and Film in Kim's Sister, with David Strathairn and Jane Adams. For her performance in The Lights at Lincoln Center Theater, Johnston was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Best Supporting Actress. The show brought her to the attention of a Carsey-Werner television executive. After numerous auditions in 1996 for the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun, she won the role of Sally Solomon. She starred in the series from 1996 to 2001 along with John Lithgow, Jane Curtin, French Stewart, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the role earned her two Emmy Awards for best supporting actress in a comedy series.
Johnston made her feature film debut in The Debt, winner of Best Short at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 1995, she played Kate in Backfire! She played Esmeralda, a sea hag in "Thrill Ride", a family friendly film to be released in 2016. Other television credits include guest-starring roles on the series Chicago Hope, Hearts Afire, and The 5 Mrs. Buchanans. She was also the narrator in Microscopic Milton on the Disney Channel. Her significant roles in commercially successful movies included Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999, Ice Age and Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002, and Music and Lyrics in 2007.
In 1998, she was a spokesmodel for the Clairol company, as well as appearing on Bad Religion's No Substance album cover.[3]
Johnston appeared in the sixth and final season of Sex and the City. In the episode entitled "Splat!", her character, Lexi Featherston, an aging party girl, accidentally falls out of a window and dies (after saying, "I'm so bored I could die."), prompting Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) to re-examine her life. In 2005, Johnston was featured in six episodes of NBC's ER. She was cast as Patsy in a proposed American remake of the British TV show Absolutely Fabulous, but the series was never picked up by a network. She appeared in a recurring role in the 2009 season of Ugly Betty and had a single-episode appearance as a dominatrix in the second season opener of Bored to Death.
She starred in the TV Land sitcom The Exes, which ran for four seasons between November 30, 2011 and September 16, 2015.
Personal life
Her father is former Wisconsin Republican state senator Rod Johnston.
In her autobiography, Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster, Johnston discusses an addiction to alcohol and pills that began when she was in high school. She stated in the 2012 book that she had been sober for five years. Through her charity SLAM, NYC (Sobriety, Learning and Motivation), she mentors high school girls from New York City with addiction and self-esteem issues[4] and has been crusading for the city to build a recovery high school.[5]
Johnston said she was diagnosed in November 2013 with lupus myelitis, which caused her to miss filming for some episodes of her series The Exes. A character played by Leah Remini was introduced in season three to cover Johnston's absence.[6][7]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | The Orkly Kid | Unknown | short film |
| 1992 | Amazonia | Unknown | short film |
| 1993 | The Debt | Alice Kosnick | short film |
| 1995 | Backfire! | Kate | |
| 1999 | Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me | Ivana Humpalot | |
| 2000 | The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas | Wilma Slaghoople | |
| 2002 | Ice Age | Sylvia | voice only |
| Austin Powers in Goldmember | Dancer | uncredited | |
| 2007 | Music and Lyrics | Rhonda | |
| 2009 | Bride Wars | Deb | |
| 2009 | Finding Bliss | Irene Fox | |
| 2011 | Life Happens | Francesca | |
| 2012 | Vamps | Mrs. Van Helsing | |
| 2012 | Bad Parents | Tracy | |
| 2014 | Lovesick | Katherine | |
| 2016 | Thrill Ride | Esmeralda | |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Chicago Hope | Dr. Wendy Smythe | Episode: "Genevieve and Fat Boy" |
| 1994 | The 5 Mrs. Buchanans | Zena | Episode: "Bad News Bert: There's Peanuts in the Peanut Butter" |
| 1995 | Hearts Afire | Margot | Episode: "John and Georgie's Not-So-Excellent Adventure" |
| 1996 | London Suite | Grace Chapman | TV movie |
| 1996—2001 | 3rd Rock from the Sun | Sally Solomon | 139 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1997, 1999) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or TV Film Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (1997—1999) |
| 1997 | Microscopic Milton | Narrator | TV movie |
| 2004 | Sex and the City | Lexi Featherston | Episode: "Splat!" |
| 2004 | ER | Head Nurse Eve Peyton | 6 episodes |
| 2005 | Strangers with Candy | Coach Divers | TV movie |
| 2007 | Kim Possible | Warmonga | 3 episodes |
| 2009 | The New Adventures of Old Christine | Francie | Episode: "Too Close for Christine" |
| 2009—2010 | Ugly Betty | Helen | 3 episodes |
| 2010 | Bored to Death | Mistress Florence | Episode: "Escape from the Dungeon!" |
| 2011—2015 | The Exes | Holly Franklin | 52 episodes |
| 2013 | RuPaul's Drag Race | Herself | 2 episodes |
| 2014 | Kirstie | Waitress Maddie | Episode: "Maddie vs. Maddie" |
| 2014 | Modern Family | Brenda | Episode: "Strangers in the Night" |
| 2015 | Getting On | Marla Pounder | Episode: "Please Partake of a Memorial Orange" |
Stage
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | The Lights | Rose | Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play |
| 2001—2002 | The Women | Sylvia | |
| 2004 | Aunt Dan and Lemon | Aunt Dan | |
| 2004 | The Baltimore Waltz | Anna | |
| 2004 | Much Ado About Nothing | Beatrice | |
| 2004 | The Skin of Our Teeth | Sabina | |
| 2007 | Scarcity | Martha | |
| 2006—2007 | Love Song | Unknown | |
| 2007—2009 | So Help Me God | Lily Darnley | Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play (2007, 2010) |
| 2008 | The Understudy | Theresea Rebeck | |
Autobiography
- 2012: Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster., Gallery Books, ISBN 978-1451635065[8]
References
- ↑ Triggs, Charlotte (January 19, 2009). "Bride Wars' Kristen Johnston: 'I Was Way Too Thin'". People. =71.
- 1 2 "Kristen Johnston: Biography". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2013-12-19.
- ↑ "Kristen Johnston IMDb biography, ibid". Us.imdb.com. 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ↑ Collins, Clark (March 10, 2012). "Kristen Johnston talks about her drug addiction, her life-threatening illness, her recovery, and her new memoir, 'Guts'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
- ↑ Johnston, Kristen (July 19, 2013). "Turning Addiction Into a Sideshow". New York Times. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
- ↑ Johnston, Kristen (December 17, 2013). "[Untitled]". Facebook. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
- ↑ Blumm, K. C. (December 18, 2013). "Kristen Johnston Diagnosed with Lupus Myelitis". People. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
- ↑ Hoffman, Bill (March 7, 2002). "'I'm a pill popping lush:' Emmy-winning actress Kristen Johnston confesses drug and alcohol addictions in tell-all memoir". Daily Mail. UK.
External links
- Kristen Johnston at the Internet Broadway Database
- Kristen Johnston at the Internet Movie Database
- Kristen Johnston official website
- 2006 Interview with Johnston on Theatre.com
- Kristen Johnston Downstage Center interview American Theatre Wing, October 2007