LEVEL 1 - 2 OF 19 BIOS Copyright 1995 BASELINE II, Inc. Celebrity Bios LENGTH: 160 words NAME: Lahti, Christine OCCUPATION: actor BORN: Birmingham, MI April 4, 1950 EDUCATION: University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI language, then speech and drama BA 1968-72 Florida State University FL fine arts MA left school 1973 studied under Uta Hagen and William Esper MILESTONES: Worked as a singing waitress one summer during college; performed in "The Tempest" with classmates one summer in London and Edinburgh, Scotland 1973: Moved to New York; worked as waitress by day and performed off-off Broadway by night Appeared in commercials first for rug shampoo Spray 'n Vac, then for eight other products including Sominex and Joy dishwashing liquid 1977: Won female lead opposite Chris Sarandon in first off-Broadway production, David Mamet's "The Woods" at the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater 1978: TV debut in ABC-TV sitcom, "The Harvey Korman Show" 1978: Starred in TV movie/series pilot, "Dr. Scorpion".np 1979: Feature film acting debut in "...And Justice For All" 1979: Succeeded Roxane Hart opposite Kevin Kline in Michael Weller's off-Broadway play, "Loose Ends" 1980: Broadway debut in Steve Tesich's "Division Street" AWARDS: Theatre World Award "The Woods" 1978 New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Supporting Actress "Swing Shift" 1984 Motion Picture Bookers Club Female Star of Tomorrow 1985 Los Angeles Film Critics Circle Best Actress "Running on Empty" 1988 Golden Globe Best Actress in a Television Movie "No Place Like Home" 1989 Obie "Little Murders" 1987 Second Stage revival of the Jules Feiffer black comedy Motion Picture Bookers Club Female Star of the Year 1989 ACE Best Actress in a Miniseries "Crazy from the Heart" 1991 directed by her husband Thomas Schlamme FAMILY: father Lahti, Paul Theodore surgeon of Finnish ancestry (Lahti means "bay of water" and is also the name of a town north of Helsinki) mother Lahti (nee Tabor), Elizabeth former nurse, painter six children by Paul Lahti; of Finnish ancestry son Schlamme, Wilson born July 5, 1988 in Jackson MI son born August 3, 1993; twin of daughter; father Thomas Schlamme daughter born August 3, 1993; twin of son; father Thomas Schlamme COMPANIONS: husband Schlamme, Thomas director married September 4, 1983; father of three children NOTES: "I love to play these crazy, neurotic and vulnerable women."-- Christine Lahti ("New York Post", 1980) "I think the way my career has gone has been absolutely right. It's been slow and steady. Because I'm not a big star, I've been able to take risks."-- Christine Lahti (quoted in the "The Baby Boomers" by James Robert Parish and Don Stanke, 1992) BIO: Tall, radiant stage-trained performer who brings a comforting warmth and intelligence to her extensive work in film, theater and television. Lahti has been especially impressive as best pals (to Goldie Hawn in "Swing Shift" 1984) and off-beat characters which have ranged from a highly eccentric, spacey drifter forced to raise her parentless nieces in the underrated "Housekeeping" (1987) to a music student turned 1960s radical on the run with her family in Sidney Lumet's "Running on Empty" (1988). Married to director Thomas Schlamme who directed her in the cable movie, "Crazy From the Heart" (1991). LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LAST-UPDATE: August 1, 1995 LOAD-DATE: August 22, 1995 NAME: Schlamme, Thomas OCCUPATION: director; also producer BORN: Houston, TX FORM/ALT-OCCUP: editor; messenger for an animation company EDUCATION: Bellaire High School; boasted a strong drama program headed by Cecil Pickett; produced Randy Quaid, Brent Spiner, and Trey Wilson University of Texas Drama School attended on scholarship won by placing second on a state-wide drama competition MILESTONES: 1973: Moved from native Houston Texas to NYC Worked as a messenger for Perpetual Motion, an animation company Established himself as a live-action film editor for Perpetual Motion Became a director of TV commercials Directed short films for NBC Sports, NBC "Weekend", and ABC's "That Thing" 1980: Formed Schlamme Productions, a commercial production company Produced commercials for the theatrical productions "Cats", "You Can't Take It With You", "Little Shop of Horrors", and "Greater Tuna" 1984: Executive produced and directed first TV special, "Bette Midler: Art or Bust!", An HBO concert film 1984-92: Directed specials featuring various diverse entertainers including Whoopi Goldberg, Spaulding Gray, Robert Klein, Gilbert Gottfried, Rowan Atkinson, and John Leguizamo 1989-90: Directed episodes of "It's Gary Shandling's Show" 1989: Feature directing debut, "Miss Firecracker" 1986: Directed the ABC After School Special, "Can a Guy Say No?"; First collaboration with producer Fred Berner Formed Berner/Schlamme Productions with Fred Berner to produce TV specials FAMILY: son Schlamme, Wilson born July 15, 1988 in Jackson MI son born August 3, 1993; twin of daughter; mother Christine Lahti daughter born August 3, 1993; twin of son; mother Christine Lahti COMPANIONS: wife Lahti, Christine actor married September 4, 1983 BIO: Leading TV director of the 1980s and 90s who specialized in performance specials, hip sitcoms, after school specials, and busted pilots before seguing into feature filmmaking. A transplanted Texan based in NYC, Schlamme started out as a messenger for Perpetual Motion, an animation company. He eventually became an editor and later a director of live-action, working on TV commercials. Schlamme also directed short films for NBC Sports, NBC "Weekend", and ABC's "That Thing". In 1980, he formed his Schlamme Productions, a commercial production company which advertised the New York plays "Cats", "You Can't Take It With You", "Little Shop of Horrors", and "Greater Tuna". Schlamme began working in what would become his specialty with "Bette Midler: Art or Bust" (HBO, 1984). He went on to helm performance-centered specials featuring an impressive array of stars, among them being Whoopi Goldberg, Spalding Gray, Rowan Atkinson and Garrison Keillor. Schlamme also directed episodes of "The Wonder Years", "It's Gary Shandling's Show", "Sledge Hammer!", and "The Larry Sanders Show". Producing with Fred Berner, Schlamme directed three Emmy-nominated after school specials before breaking into features with "Miss Firecracker" (1989). An adaptation of the Beth Henley play, "The Miss Firecracker Contest", this sweet-natured comedy drama starred Holly Hunter and Tim Robbins. His followup feature, "So I Married an Axe Murderer" (1993), was a thriller/spoof starring Mike Myers. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LAST-UPDATE: December 21, 1993 LOAD-DATE: August 22, 1995 LENGTH: 603 words NAME: Christine Lahti PERSONAL: Born April 4, 1950, in Detroit, MI; daughter of Paul Theodore (a surgeon) and Elizabeth Margaret (a nurse, homemaker, and painter; maiden name, Tabar) Lahti; married Thomas Schlamme (a director), September 4, 1983; children: Wilson. EDUCATION: University of Michigan, B.A., speech, 1972; graduate study at Florida State University, 1972-73; trained for the stage at Herbert Berghof Studio and Neighborhood Playhouse, with William Esper and Uta Hagen. CAREER: Actress. Member of Ensemble Studio Theatre. Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, August, 1993 MEMBERSHIPS: Actors' Equity Association. AWARDS: Theatre World Award, 1979, for The Wood; Academy Award nomination, best supporting actress, Golden Globe Award nomination, and New York Film Critics Circle Award, all 1984, for Swing Shift; Female Star of Tomorrow Award, 1985, and Female Star of the Year Award, 1989, Motion Picture Bookers Club; Emmy Award nomination, outstanding lead actress in a mini-series or special, and Golden Globe Award, best actress in a mini-series or television movie, both 1990, for No Place Like Home. CREDITS: FILM APPEARANCES Gail Packer, And Justice for All, Columbia, 1979. Dr. Clare Scott, Whose Life Is It, Anyway?, United Artists, 1981. Aunt Linda, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, Films, Inc., 1982. Best Friends, Warner Bros., 1982. Hazel Zanussi, Swing Shift, Warner Bros., 1984. Sandy Dunlap, Just between Friends, Orion, 1986. Sylvie Fisher, Housekeeping, Columbia, 1987. Kathleen Morgan, Stacking, Spectrafilm, 1987. Annie Pope, Running on Empty, Warner Bros., 1988. Dr. Rachel Woodruff, Gross Anatomy, Buena Vista, 1989. Meg Lloyd, Funny about Love, Paramount, 1990. Anne, The Doctor, Buena Vista, 1991. Darly Peters, Leaving Normal, Universal, 1992..np Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, August, 1993 Appeared in Season of Dreams, 1987. TELEVISION APPEARANCES; MOVIES Alethea, Amerika (also known as Topeka, Kansas ... U.S.S.R.), ABC, 1987. Zan Cooper, No Place Like Home, CBS, 1989. Charlotte Bain, Crazy from the Heart, TNT, 1991. Meredith Cole, The Fear Inside, Showtime, 1992. The Good Fight, Lifetime, 1992. Appeared as Tania Reston, Dr. Scorpion, 1978; Carol, The Last Tenant, 1978; Dr. Louise Casimir, The Henderson Monster, 1980; Brenda Nicol, The Executioner's Song, 1982; Elsie, Single Bars, Single Women, 1984; Marilyn Wallace, Love Lives On, 1985; also appeared in All Washed Up. TELEVISION APPEARANCES; EPISODIC Guest, At Rona's, NBC, 1989. OTHER TELEVISION APPEARANCES Maggie Kavanaugh, The Harvey Korman Show (series), ABC, 1978. The Forty-seventh Annual Golden Globe Awards (special), TBS, 1990. Presenter, The Forty-eighth Annual Golden Globe Awards (special), TBS, 1991. STAGE APPEARANCES Ruth, The Wood, Public Theatre, New York City, 1978, then Second Stage Theatre, New York City, 1982. Division Street, Ambassador Theatre, New York City, 1980. Loose Ends, Circle in the Square, New York City, 1981. 2 by A.M., Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, CT, 1982. Present Laughter, Circle in the Square, 1983. Betty, Landscape of the Body, Second Stage Theatre, 1984. Georgie Elgin, The Country Girl, Chelsea Playhouse, New York City, 1984. Maggie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Long Wharf Theatre, 1985. Patsy Newquist, Little Murders, Second Stage Theatre, 1987. Alma Winemiller, Summer and Smoke, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, 1987. Heidi Holland, The Heidi Chronicles, Plymouth Theatre, New York City, 1989-90. Stage debut in The Zinger; also appeared in Scenes and Revelations. Toured in Love Letters, U.S. cities, 1990. SOURCES: PERIODICALS New York, March 31, 1986, p. 52. New York Times, April 6, 1986. People, December 4, 1989, p. 85. Premiere, September, 1988.* LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: July 8, 1994 LENGTH: 3263 words NAME: Christine Lahti PERSONAL: Born April 4, 1950, in Detroit, Mich.; daughter of Paul Theodore (a surgeon) and Elizabeth Margaret (an artist; maiden name, Tabar) Lahti; married Thomas Schlamme (a director), September 4, 1983; children: Wilson. ADDRESSES: Agent--c/o Triad Artists, Inc., 10100 Santa Monica Blvd., 16th Floor, Los Angeles, Calif. 90067. EDUCATION: University of Michigan, B.A. (speech), 1972; attended Florida State University, 1972-73; trained for the stage at the Herbert Berghof Studios with William Esper and Uta Hagen. CAREER: Actress. Appeared in a number of theatrical productions, including "The Woods," 1978, "Division Street," 1980, "Loose Ends," 1981, "Present Laughter," 1983, "Landscape of the Body," 1984, and "Little Murders," 1987; appeared as regular cast member of television series "The Harvey Korman Show," 1978; made for television films include "The Last Tenant," 1978, "The Executioner's Song," 1982, "The Henderson Monster," 1980, "Amerika," 1987, "All Washed Up," "Love Lives On," and "Single Bars, Single Women"; feature films include "And Justice for All," 1979, "Whose Life Is It, Anyway," 1981, "Swing Shift," 1984, "Ladies and Gentlemen: The Fabulous Stains," 1985, "Just Between Friends," 1986, "Housekeeping," 1987, "Stacking," 1988, and "Season of Dream." AWARDS: Theatre World Award, 1979, for "The Woods"; New York Film Critics Circle Award for best supporting actress; and Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for best supporting actress, all 1985, all for "Swing Shift." SIDELITES: Christine Lahti has built an acting career on a hard-won, strong sense of self and has received critical praise for her ability to capture the essence of a role. On the stage, in television miniseries, and in Hollywood movies Lahti has shown a talent for transforming material by her powers of interpretation, which has inspired critics to respond insightfully to her performances. She has been able to make the most of her opportunities, which has sometimes resulted in critical praise at the expense of female leads, notably Goldie Hawn and Mary Tyler Moore--a situation that has angered Lahti. Lahti's career is similar to Ellen Barkin's in her ability to capitalize on minor roles through superb acting. Lahti and Barkin, along with Kim Basinger, Sigourney Weaver, Daryl Hannah, and Rosanna Arquette, were singled out by Newsweek in 1986 as "extremely talented, immensely attractive and rapidly grabbing our attention." [See index for Newsmakers 1988 entries on Arquette, Barkin, Basinger, and Hannah.] Lahti, like Barkin, has received critical comment of the highest kind. In a New York profile in 1986, writer David Edelstein voiced a typical opinion: "No actress captures so well the self-doubt of the post-liberated woman...no actress gives feminism this human a face." Edelstein, in a Village Voice review, added: "Her roles have tapped into a streak of earthy, self-deprecating humor that makes audiences recognize and respond to her." David Ansen, reviewing "Just Between Friends" in Newsweek, wrote that "the delightful Lahti with her sloppy charm and milky voice steals the show" and that the movie "only comes to life when Lahti sashays through." Actor Richard Dreyfuss, whom Lahti appeared with in "Whose Life Is It Anyway?," told Edelstein: "Most actors do a scene and that's that, but Christine has an incredible freedom of imagination." From both critics and her peers, Lahti enjoys a reputation that has come from a facility to create characters that are real and human in situations that are both familiar and unfamiliar. Lahti's first movie lead came in the 1987 release "Housekeeping," directed by Bill Forsyth (who wrote the screenplay based on the 1981 novel by Marilynne Robinson). In "Housekeeping" two young girls--Ruthie (Sara Walker) and Lucille (Andrea Burchill)--find themselves being raised by their grandmother in Fingerbone, Idaho, after their mother Helen commits suicide. When the grandmother dies, the other sister, Sylvie (Lahti), arrives and is convinced by the girls to stay. But Sylvie is unlike any adult the girls have ever known. She is a free spirit unencumbered by convention and unaware of socially acceptable behavior. Her nonconformity turns out to be a threat to the small, isolated community, but not before it first divides the two sisters who previously had depended upon each other for total mutual support. Vincent Canby, reviewing the film in the New York Times, described "Housekeeping" as "by far the most accomplished comedy yet made by Mr. Forsyth. Further, in Sylvie...the film has someone who's neither harmless nor in reality, merely eccentric. She's something quite mad. Miss Lahti...has the role of her film career to date, and she is spellbinding. Sylvie is a beauty even when she looks a mess. She enters the movie quietly, as if by a side entrance, so it takes some time to feel the strength of her presence, which, once established, dominates the film." Lahti first received prominent national attention for her role of Hazel Zanussi in the 1984 film "Swing Shift." She won the New York Film Critics Circle award for best supporting actress and received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. "Miss Lahti is so good that she turns a secondary role into a major one," wrote Canby in the New York Times. David Denby in New York described Lahti as "splendid," and Richard Corliss in Time called her a "delight." Set in Los Angeles during World War II, the film attempts to portray female bonding, the pleasures of women doing traditionally male work successfully, and the conflict of a woman loving two men at the same time when the social rules and her psyche do not allow for such emotions. But, unfortunately, all the temporary heartbreak and conflict are resolved to conform to conventional expectations, with women returning to the home and their men. "Swing Shift," however, found itself in the middle of a controversy when Jonathan Demme, the director, and Nancy Dowd, the screenwriter, disowned their involvement in the movie. "I finished the picture one way and then saw it in a new form that I didn't even recognize," Demme told Janet Maslin of the New York Times. "There was a portion of the footage that I didn't care for and didn't want to shoot, but I did it anyway," said Demme. Demme, the director of "Melvin and Howard" and "Stop Making Sense" had the phrase "A Jonathan Demme Film" removed while Dowd used the pseudonym Rob Morton and received sole screen credit from the Writers' Guild. "I'm not the kind of person who goes around saying 'They destroyed my work!'...And I'm not telling you that the original version was better--I'm just saying that I liked it, and that it's the version I would have liked to stand behind," Demme told Maslin. "I know there are a lot of stories about how in postproduction Goldie [Hawn] was really wielding her power. I don't know about that. But what I do know is, honest to God, she was far from being a prima donna or star. She was completely generous," Lahti told People. Lahti made her movie debut in the 1979 release of "And Justice for All," which starred Al Pacino as Arthur Kirkland, a Baltimore lawyer with high ideals of fair play who confronts a corrupt and illogical legal system and whose sense of justice leads him to commit an act that violates his legal ethics. Critically assaulted, "And Justice for All," wrote Canby in the New York Times," is not a satire, but a demonstration of hysteria that, being hysterical, satirizes nothing, having no direction and no point of view." Lahti got the part after Norman Jewison had seen her in the television movie "The Last Tenant" starring Lee Strasberg. In "And Justice for All," Lahti plays a lawyer on an ethics committee investigating Kirkland and others. She ends up as Arthur Kirkland's lover and engages in inventive bedroom repartee with him. In the 1981 production of "Whose Life Is It, Anyway?" Lahti was cast as Dr. Clare Scott, the sympathetic doctor to Ken Harrison (Richard Dreyfuss), a young sculptor who wants to die after becoming a quadriplegic. Directed by John Badham of "Saturday Night Fever" fame with a screenplay by Brian Clark and Reginald Rose, "Whose Life" "makes a thoughtful, warm, touching film. But it isn't a deeply moving or exciting one," opined Maslin in the New York Times. Lahti received critical raves for her role in "Just Between Friends," a 1986 movie tailor-made for Mary Tyler Moore by Allan Burns, co-creator and co-producer of the critically acclaimed "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." The movie, wrote the New York Times's Canby, is "an entire season's worth of sitcom episodes wrapped up in one joyless theatrical film." He added that that the movie "apparently means to display liberal credentials, but because the film is so mini-minded, the endorsement looks like ridicule." Richard Corliss of Time concluded, "the picture remains immune even to another silk-purse performance by Lahti, the American cinema's best hope for a smart, mature, vulnerable funny woman of the '80s." Lahti first distinguished herself on the New York stage prior to her Hollywood career, and she is one of the few actors--Willem Dafoe [see index for Newsmakers entry] with his affiliation with the Wooster Group is another--who works in both stage and screen environments. She appeared in fifteen Off-Off-Broadway show prior to her break in David Mamet's two-character play, "The Woods," for which she won a Theater World Award in 1979. She has appeared in Second Stage Theater productions, which specialize in revivals of recent plays. In 1987 she portrayed Patsy Newquist in a new production of Jules Feiffer's "Little Murders." The play, which first flopped on Broadway and then was a hit Off-Broadway, suffers from dated material and shallow satire. Critic John Simon of New York praised Lahti for her portrayal of Patsy. In a 1984 revival of John Guare's "Landscape of the Body" Lahti played the demanding lead role of Betty. "She relishes the hell she went through," Edelstein reported in "a rehearsal period fraught with crisis and self-examination. She had to dig deep into herself to bring up her most terrifying fears of not being loved. What she found, she thinks, made her stronger." " Christine Lahti, in the lead, is sincere and true as usual," wrote Simon. Mel Gussow in the New York Times described this difficult role: "She is, by turn, innocent, knowing and bitterly reflective, a tourist from the provinces transmorgrified into an urban combatant." She also appeared as Maggie in the Long Wharf Theatre production of Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and opposite George C. Scott in the Broadway production of Noel Coward's "Present Laughter." Her role in Steve Tesich's "Division Street" called for her to speak in pop-song lyrics. Lahti has also appeared in a number of television miniseries. In the controversial 1987 fourteen and one-half hour ABC production of "Amerika," Lahti played Alethea, the sister of the hero Devin (Kris Kristofferson). "Amerika" is set in the 1990s in Nebraska a decade after a Soviet occupation of the United States. John Leonard in New York Magazine labelled the plot "horse opera" but admired the "resonance" of the writing and the "strong and winning" actions of Lahti. Janet Maslin, writing in the New Republic, declared that Lahti "gives the only worthwhile performance here." Lahti won the part of Brenda in the 1982 television adaptation of Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Executioner's Song," the author's "true life novel" of Gary Gilmore, the murderer who grabbed the attention of the American public and the judicial system when he demanded to be executed. Producer and first-time director Lawrence Schiller packed the cast with the raw sexual power of Tommy Lee Jones as Gilmore and Rosanna Arquette as girlfriend Nicole. Walter Goodman in the New York Times characterized Lahti as "sexy in a wholesomely down-to-earth way." As Brenda, Gilmore's cousin, " Christine Lahti. ..does what she does best--digs her heels into the carpet and sexily, sturdily refuses to budge," observed James Wolcott in New York magazine. In the ABC television movie "Love Lives On" Lahti played the mother of Mary Stuart Masterson, a rebellious teenager and drug abuser who is eventually rehabilitated only to find out she has cancer. The story is based on true events, but John J. O'Connor in the New York Times saw the show as "some silly parody of TV movies....Miss Lahti, who could be Jane Alexander's younger sister, is indeed convincing and touching against the formidable odds." In another topical television show, "Single Bars, Single Women," the show's creators wanted the movie to be more than escapist entertainment. As Elsie, a single and lonely 35-year-old teacher, Lahti joined Shelly Hack, Mare Winningham, and Kathleen Wilhoite as women with different backgrounds who end up in the singles scene. Scriptwriter Michael Bortman treated the women "with a measure of sympathy and encouragement," wrote O'Connor in the New York Times. Lahti also played Harvey Korman's daughter Maggie on ABC's "The Harvey Korman Show," which premiered as a series in April 1978 and then died after five episodes. Lahti described the reviews of her performance in "Just Between Friends" as "dream reviews" but was highly critical of reviewers who see her in competition with her female leads. "I don't really see it that way," she explained to Constance Rosenblum in the New York Times in reference to "Just Between Friends." Lahti made a similar observation in Newsweek: "Especially when there are two women involved, people automatically make it a contest. It was never a contest in our minds. Acting isn't about winning a scene, it's about teamwork. So it makes me uncomfortable to hear all this about stealing a movie, as if it were something intentional. I also have to add that it's flattering, but I wonder why, when I worked opposite men, I didn't hear this as often." Born in 1950 in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in the affluent suburb of Birmingham, Lahti--the family's ancestry is Finnish--is the third of six children. Her father is a prominent surgeon and her mother gave up her career as a nurse to manage the large family. As a child, Lahti used humor to gain attention and was labelled "the funny one" in the family. She was big for her age--five feet ten inches in the sixth and seventh grades--and was called "the Jolly Green Giant." She described herself as an "approval junkie" who fought to be popular in high school to Edelstein: "I was in the cool group...but really on the edge--I had to work for it. I got in by being funny, by being the entertainer, because the other women were gorgeous--knockout, kill-yourself gorgeous--and I couldn't compete on that level." Lahti received her undergraduate education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She then entered graduate school at Florida State University but dropped out in 1973 and moved to New York City. There she studied acting with Uta Hagen and then William Esper of the Neighborhood Playhouse, where she learned to improvise. She has described herself during this period in her life as "a little weird." She wouldn't wear makeup, didn't shave her legs, and wore unflattering clothes. "I was kind of a hippie, a pretty defensive feminist. That combination wasn't really very mainstream," she confessed to Rosenblum in the New York Times. She refused to audition for commercials but after three tough years changed her mind. She finally landed a Joy dish soap commercial which opened the door to other offers and her standard of living changed dramatically while she continued with her Off-Off Broadway career. While trying to find an agent for commercials she had an encounter with a man who promised her commercials in exchange for sex with directors. "You are a fool, because if you think you're going to get anywhere in this business looking the way you do look from Birmingham, Michigan, with no connections in the business, without the casting couch....It was the day I think I really became a feminist," she told Edelstein. Lahti's career has been one with its share of pain and self-examination. She compares her own experience with the character Sandy Dunlap in "Just Between Friends," who says in the movie, "I was good at my career but not at my life," a phrase Lahti has used to describe herself. Lahti analyzed the Dunlap character for Rosenblum in the New York Times as not a "superwoman, one of those successful, independent career women who have no problems...There was a whole half of her that was missing, which was her personal life. On the outside it looked as if she were all together, but very close to the surface there were insecurities and vulnerabilities." Lahti was obsessed with her own career and success and did not have a personal life. She functioned as a workaholic who had to prove herself and be taken seriously. Her whole life was being an actress. Without an acting assignment, "I didn't know who I was--I was just an unemployed actress," she told the New York Times. Lahti redirected her life with her marriage to director Thomas Schlamme in 1983 and the couple reside in an apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. She believes she is not a "movie star" because she can play both glamourous and unglamourous roles, which gives her career flexibility and range. In lesser-known movie roles, she had the lead in Martin Rosen's "Stacking," a 1988 release about a woman's lonely life on a farm in Montana, and she played Diane Lane's aunt in "Ladies and Gentlemen: the Fabulous Stains," a movie about a punk rocker starring Lane at fifteen that was made in 1981 and was not released until 1985. She had worked hard at an acting style that gives her performances a real sense of a character's life by her technique of knowing the character on an unconscious level. "I think the way my career has gone has been absolutely right...I've had no big break. It's been slow and steady. Because I've not been a big star, I've been able to take risks. The fame and fortune were always seductive to me. Now I'm ready for it," Lahti told People magazine. SOURCES: American Film, April, 1986. Boxoffice, May, 1986, October, 1986. Christian Science Monitor, October 26, 1984. Cosmopolitan, April, 1986. Detroit Free Press, December 1, 1987. Detroit News, March 21, 1986. Films In Review, May, 1986. Maclean's March 24, 1986, December 14, 1987. Ms., July, 1984. National Review, June 15, 1984. New Republic, April 21, 1986, February 23, 1987. Newsweek, November 15, 1982, April 23, 1984, March 24, 1986, June 23, 1986, December 7, 1987. New York, December 21, 1981, May 31, 1982, November 8, 1982, November 22, 1982, November 29, 1982, April 30, 1984, May 14, 1984, May 21, 1984, October 29, 1984, March 31, 1986, September 8, 1986, February 16, 1987, May 18, 1987, May 25, 1987. New Yorker, May 21, 1984, September 8, 1986, May 18, 1987. New York Times, June 25, 1978, May 22, 1979, October 19, 1979, October 28, 1979, December 2, 1981, December 24, 1981, September 10, 1982, November 28, 1982, April 13, 1984, May 4, 1984, May 9, 1984, October 6, 1984, October 14, 1984, May 9, 1984, January 6, 1985, April 1, 1985, March 21, 1986, April 6, 1986, November 25, 1986, January 17, 1988. People, April 1, 1985, April 15, 1985, April 7, 1986, March 9, 1987. Time, December 14, 1982, April 23, 1984, April 14, 1986, November 23, 1987. US, May 5, 1986. Village Voice, December 1, 1987. Vogue, April, 1986, December, 1987. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: August 14, 1991