Background
Ivey was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Lee (née Lewis), a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean.
(Jacob Brackish, the toughest, meanest teacher ever to set...)
Jacob Brackish, the toughest, meanest teacher ever to set foot in Gloucester High School is dying at home. His advertisement for a housekeeper to look after him during his final years is answered by a mousy 40-year-old named Kathleen, a woman Jacob has forgotten he flunked years before. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Judith Ivey, Jason Robards
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Ivey was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Lee (née Lewis), a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean.
She spent 1965–68 in Dowagiac, Michigan, where she attended Union High School through tenth grade. She graduated from Marion High School in Marion, Illinois in 1970, and is an alumna of John A. Logan College, Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), and Illinois State University (Normal, Illinois).
Despite a long history of theater and film performances, Ivey is often associated with her one-year run as B.J. Poteet on Designing Women (1992–93), replacing Julia Duffy, who had replaced Delta Burke in 1991. She appeared on Will & Grace as the mother of Dr. Leo Markus. She has also appeared on Grey's Anatomy, Person of Interest, White Collar, Nurse Jackie, Big Love, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
She was also nominated for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard in 1992 and a revival of The Heiress in 2013. Other Broadway theatre credits include Piaf, Bedroom Farce, Blithe Spirit, Voices in the Dark, and Follies. She portrayed Amanda in The Glass Menagerie at the Long Wharf Theatre and reprised the role in March 2010 at the Roundabout Theatre in New York, as well as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
Ivey has appeared in numerous films, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Miles from Home, Compromising Positions, Harry & Son, The Woman in Red, Sister, Sister, In Country, Hello Again, The Lonely Guy, There Goes the Neighborhood, The Devil's Advocate, What Alice Found, and Flags of Our Fathers. Other television roles include starring roles as Kate McCrorey in the 1990–91 series Down Home, set in a Texas coastal town, Alexandra Buchanan in the short-lived series The 5 Mrs. Buchanans, and "Buddies" with Dave Chappelle.
Ivey was also in the 1985 TV remake of The Long Hot Summer, in the role of Noel Varner (Joanne Woodward's role in the 1958 film version). The miniseries also starred Jason Robards and Don Johnson. Ivey was nominated for an Emmy for her performance in What the Deaf Man Heard, a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation.
She also provided the voice of Eleanor Sherman in the animated series The Critic. Ivey appeared in the television miniseries Rose Red (based on a Stephen King novel) as Cathy, one of the psychics investigating a haunted house.
Ivey won two Tony Awards as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Steaming in 1983 and Hurlyburly in 1985. She received the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress for that portrayal. Ivey portrayed Ann Landers in the solo play The Lady With All the Answers at the Cherry Lane Theatre (off-Broadway) in October 2009.She was nominated for Best Solo Performance for the Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award.
(Jacob Brackish, the toughest, meanest teacher ever to set...)
Married Tim Braine, 1989. Children: Maggie, Thomas Carter.