Early life
Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to English actress Rosemary Harris and American author John Ehle, Ehle made her stage debut as a toddler in a 1973 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which her mother played Blanche Dubois.[citation needed] She spent her childhood between the UK and US, attending 18 different schools including the Interlochen Arts Academy. Her drama training was split between the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Career
In 1992, Peter Hall cast her as Calypso in a television adaptation of Mary Wesley's novel The Camomile Lawn, in which she and her mother played the same character at different ages. This story, produced by UK's Channel 4, was a five part miniseries about the lives and loves of a family of cousins from 1939 to the present. The two would later reprise this different age portrayal of a character as Valerie in István Szabó's 1999 movie Sunshine.
Her performance as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC/A&E Network 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice gained her a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. After a stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company, she gained her first major feature film role in Paradise Road. She continued pursuing a career both on stage and screen. In 2000, she earned further critical acclaim for her Broadway debut as Annie in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing; winning both a Theatre World Award and the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play. Her mother was also nominated for the same award that year for Waiting in the Wings. After a hiatus, she returned to the stage in 2005 in The Philadelphia Story at the Old Vic opposite Kevin Spacey. The following year, she played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth as part of the Shakespeare in the Park. She won her second Tony award for portraying three characters in Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia triptych, which ran from October 2006 until May 2007.
Her more recent film work includes Before the Rains, an Indian-US co-production directed by Santosh Sivan, and Pride and Glory with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. In 2008, she was featured in a CBS telefilm, The Russell Girl.
In 2010, Ehle starred alongside John Lithgow in the production of Mr. & Mrs. Fitch presented by Second Stage Theatre.[6] She played Myrtle Logue, wife of King George VI's speech therapist Lionel Logue, in The King's Speech. George VI was played by her Pride and Prejudice co-star, Colin Firth.
Personal life
During the filming of Pride and Prejudice, Ehle began a brief relationship with co-star Colin Firth. She married writer Michael Ryan in December 2001 and they have two children, a son, George, and a daughter, Talulah.
Awards and nominations
Awards
2000: Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play – The Real Thing (play)
2000: Variety Club Award – The Real Thing (play)
2001: Golden Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Drama – Sunshine
2007: Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play – The Coast of Utopia (play)
2010: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture – The King's Speech
Nominations
1997: BAFTA Film Award – Wilde
2000: Outer Critics Circle Award – The Real Thing (play)
2000: Genie Award nomination – Sunshine
2000: Laurence Olivier Theatre Award – The Real Thing (play)
2007: Outer Critics Circle – The Coast of Utopia (play)
Work
Filmography
The Ides of March (2011)
Contagion (2011) as Ally Hextall
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) as Brooklyn Ice House Bartender
The King's Speech (2010) as Myrtle Logue
Pride and Glory (2008) as Abby Tierney
The Russell Girl (2008) as Lorraine Morrissey
This Year's Love (1999) as Sophie
Bedrooms and Hallways (1998) as Sally
Paradise Road (1997) as Rosemary Leighton-Jones
Wilde (1997) as Constance Lloyd Wilde
Backbeat (1994) as Cynthia Powell
[edit]Television
A Gifted Man (2011) as Anna Lindberg
Melissa (1997) as Melissa
Pride and Prejudice (1995) as Elizabeth Bennet
The Camomile Lawn (1992) as Young Calypso
Theatre
Mr. and Mrs. Fitch (January 2010-April 2010) Second Stage Theatre
The Coast of Utopia (November 2006-May 2007) Vivian Beaumont Theater
Voyage- Liubov Bakunin (opened November 2006)
Shipwrecked- Natalie Herzen (opened December 2006)
Salvage- Malwida von Meysenbug (opened February 2007)
Macbeth (June 2006) Delacorte Theater,Shakespeare in the Park- Lady Macbeth
The Philadelphia Story (May 3-July 23, 2005) Old Vic - Tracy Lord
Design for Livin (February 2001) American Airlines Theatre/Roundabout Theatre Company - Gilda
Richard III (1995–96) Royal Shakespeare Company - Lady Anne
Painter of Dishonour (1995–96) Royal Shakespeare Company - Serafina
The Relapse (1995–96) Royal Shakespeare Company - Amanda
Breaking the Code (1992) Triumph Productions tour - Pat Green
Tartuffe (1991) Peter Hall Company - Elmire
1959 Pink Thunderbird Edinburgh Festival
Laundry and Bourbon Edinburgh Festival
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