The New Yorker has called Holland Taylor “the first vaudeville Gentile we ever saw.” Her New York stage performances include Bess in Breakfast With Les and Bess, the original productions of Butley, opposite Alan Bates, and A.R. Gurney’s The Cocktail Hour.
In Los Angeles, she has performed in Kindertransport and in Yasmina Reza’s The Unexpected Man at the Geffen. She has worked extensively in film, appearing in Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, To Die For, Next Stop Wonderland, One Fine Day, George of the Jungle, The Truman Show, Happy Accidents, Spy Kids (2 and 3), Keeping the Faith, Legally Blonde and Baby Mama, with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
Nominated for an Emmy seven times, she won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for the sexy judge Judge Roberta Kittleson on “The Practice.” Among her series starring roles: “The Powers That Be,” Norman Lear’s highly acclaimed political satire; “Bosom Buddies,” with Tom Hanks; and, currently, “Two and a Half Men,” with Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher.
She has performed narrations for the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Esa-Pekka Salonen and John Adams and narrated for John Williams at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Holland was a dedicated student of Stella Adler, and has given talks about this great teacher. A Philadelphia native, she went to Westtown Friends School, and took a BA at Bennington College. In 2005 she became a student again, earning an MA from the University of Santa Monica, and in ’07, began work on this play.
She will always be grateful to the Galveston Grand Opera’s Maureen Patton, who took an enormous “Ann Richards-sized” risk in launching its first run; to Kevin Bailey, our shepherd from the start; to Benjamin Endsley Klein for his promise to “make the vision flesh;” and to Bob Boyett, who read the play as a friend, and looked up from the page as its producer. Visit Holland’s website. www.hollandtaylor.com
