Julie Kavner

Julie Deborah Kavner (born September 7, 1950) is an American actress.

Known for her voice role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, Kavner first attracted notice for her role as Brenda Morgenstern, the younger sister of Valerie Harper's title character in the sitcom Rhoda, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

She also voices other characters for The Simpsons, including Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier, and half step great aunt Eunice Bouvier.

Kavner was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 7, 1950, the second daughter of Rose, a family counselor, and David Kavner, a furniture manufacturer, and grew up in Southern California.

She decided to pursue a career in acting because "There was nothing else I wanted to do, ever".

She attended Beverly Hills High School (which she later admitted she hated), where she was "something of a loner", and unsuccessfully tried out for several plays.

John Ingle, formerly the chairman of the Beverly Hills High School art department, later commented that Kavner was "excellent at improvisation, but she wasn't an ingenue and not that castable at that age".

After graduating from high school, Kavner attended San Diego State University and majored in drama, being cast in several productions including a role as Charlotte Corday in Marat/Sade, becoming known for her improvisation and ability to do both comedy and drama.

Woody Allen first saw Kavner one night while he was watching Rhoda in the 1970s.

After graduating in 1971, she got a day job as a typist at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.

In 1973, Kavner auditioned for a role as one of Rhoda Morgenstern's sisters in The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

David Davis, producer of the show, had convinced her to audition for the part, but decided to cast another actress instead.

A year later, Rhoda Morgenstern became the leading character in a spin-off called Rhoda.

Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern, sister of the eponymous character.

Known for her improvisation and distinctive "honeyed gravel voice", Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern in Rhoda in 1974.

Rhoda ran on CBS from September 9, 1974, to December 1978.

In 1975, she received Daytime Emmy Award nomination for her starring role in the daytime special The Girl Who Couldn't Lose.

She received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Brenda, winning in 1978.

She also received four Golden Globe Award nominations.

She also starred in several stage plays, including a play called It Had to Be You at a dinner theater in Canada, Particular Friendships in New York City in 1981, and Two for the Seesaw, directed by Burt Reynolds.

Following Rhoda, Kavner had a guest appearance on Taxi and appeared in the 1985 comedy Bad Medicine as well as the 1987 film Surrender, both of which were box office failures.

She appeared in the television movies Revenge of the Stepford Wives, No Other Love and A Fine Romance, and shot a television pilot.

He thought that she was remarkable and later offered her a role in his 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters.

Kavner agreed, and credits Allen and the film with rejuvenating her career.

Starting in 1987, Kavner appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show.

The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family.

Voices were needed for the shorts, and the producers asked Kavner to voice Marge.

The shorts were spun off into The Simpsons.

Kavner has been described as "nearly reclusive"; part of her contract says that she will never have to promote The Simpsons on video.

Kavner was then cast as a sidekick to Tracey Ullman in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted on Fox in 1987.

Kavner described the show as, "like being back in school, a chance to play a wide variety of characters, some really vicious people, to not rest on laurels, to not play it safe".

Kavner commented, "What I do is not mimicry or an impersonation, but more of an assimilation. [On The Tracey Ullman Show] we did a lot of looking at people to find out who to base our characters on. We did our homework on our lunch hour."

She received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Best Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.

Kavner became known for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television show The Simpsons, a show that continues to the present day.

The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about the dysfunctional Simpson family.

Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Kavner and fellow cast member Dan Castellaneta to voice Marge and Homer rather than hire more actors.

For her work as Marge, Kavner received another Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 and an Annie Award nomination for her performance as the character in The Simpsons Movie.

Typically cast as a "woman who is supportive, sympathetic or self-effacingly funny", Kavner grew to dislike playing such roles.

In 1992, she starred in This Is My Life, her first leading role in a feature film.

Kavner has also appeared in live-action roles in six films written by Woody Allen and in the Adam Sandler comedy Click.