Olympia Dukakis, Anna Madrigal Dies at 89

[TotallyOz]

Olympia Dukakis, the self-assured, raspy-voiced actress who often played world-weary and worldly wise characters, and who won an Academy Award for her role as just such a woman in “Moonstruck,” died on Saturday at her home in Manhattan. She was 89.

Her death was announced by her brother, the actor Apollo Dukakis, who said she had been in hospice care.

Ms. Dukakis was 56 and an East Coast stage veteran of three decades when she starred in John Patrick Shanley’s “Moonstruck” (1987), a romantic comedy about a young Italian-American widow, Loretta Castorini (played by Cher), whose life is turned upside down when she falls in love with her fiancé’s brother (Nicolas Cage). Ms. Dukakis stole scene after scene as Rose, Loretta’s sardonic mother, who saw the world clearly and advised accordingly.

Do you love him, Loretta?” she asks her daughter, referring to the dull fiancé. When Loretta says no, Rose replies: “Good. When you love them, they drive you crazy, because they know they c

The role won Ms. Dukakis the Oscar for best supporting actress (Cher also won) and a host of other prizes in 1988 — the same year her cousin Michael Dukakis won the Democratic presidential nomination. The award led to more film roles.

She played a catty Southern widow in the mostly female ensemble cast of “Steel Magnolias” (1989); the mother of Kirstie Alley’s character in the three “Look Who’s Talking” movies (1989-93); the pot-growing transgender San Francisco landlord Anna Madrigal, from 1993 to 2019, in the four television mini-series made from Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” stories; and Frank Sinatra’s mother, Dolly, in the 1992 television movie “Sinatra.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/01/movies/olympia-dukakis-dead.html?action=click&module=In Other News&pgtype=Homepage

[RockHardNYC]

I am definitely in mourning over this one. Olympia and I go way back. She was an amazing talent, a delicious friend, a witty intellect, and I know very few in Hollywood with hearts and souls as big as hers. I loved her. This is a very sad time for those whose lives she touched.