Julliard-educated singer/actress Patti LuPone was visiting Europe and England with a student theatre troupe when she was tapped to make her formal stage debut with the Young Vic. LuPone's first professional American gig was with John Houseman's The Acting Company in 1972. She was nominated for a Tony award for her work in the 1975 Broadway musical The Robber Bridegroom, and four years later won the coveted prize for her starring performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. Her subsequent work included the London productions of Les Miserables and Sunset Boulevard; she was slated to star in the Broadway debut of the last-named property when, in a still-controversial move, Webber summarily replaced her with Glenn Close. She has since knocked 'em dead with her own New York-based one-woman show. LuPone has also made welcome film appearances since 1978's King of the Gypsies. On TV, Patti LuPone played Lady Bird Johnson in the 1987 biopic LBJ: The Early Years, starred as the mother of Christopher Burke in the weekly "dramedy" Life Goes On (1989-93), and was recently seen in the recurring role of a barracuda-like attorney on Law and Order.
by Hal Erickson
biography
