Background
IRVING, Amy was born on September 10, 1953 in Palo Alto, California, United States. She is the daughter of theatre director Jules Irving and actress Priscilla Pointer—and she has been heard to say that she had that to get over first.
IRVING, Amy was born on September 10, 1953 in Palo Alto, California, United States. She is the daughter of theatre director Jules Irving and actress Priscilla Pointer—and she has been heard to say that she had that to get over first.
Having been trained at ACT in San Francisco and HADA in London, she began early on as the witness in Carrie (76, Brian De Palma) and then the inane The Fury (78, De Palma), where she moved with exceptional grace.
She was hard to cast—for she had a virginal look that did not exactly fit her mind: as a deal woman in Voices (79, Robert Markovitz); Honeysuckle Rose (80. Jerrv Schatzberg); as a pianist in The Competition (80, Joel Oliansky); nominated as supporting actress in Yentl (83, Barbra Streisand); Micki + Maude (84. Blake Edwards).
The most notable sign of Spielbergs influence was that she sang for Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (88, Robert Zemeckis). And she did a voice for An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (91, Phil Nibbelink). But she was lovely and touching in Crossing Delancey (88, Joan Micklin Silver), albeit in another underlined Jewish role. And she played the reporter in A Show of Force (90, Bruno Barreto).
Then, alter Benefit of the Doubt (93, Jonathan Heape), she helped produce and acted in Barreto’s outstanding Carried Away (96)—she played the neglected fiancée, and has never been better. Alter that, she played in Fm Not Rappoport (96, Herb Gardner); Bossa Nova (99, Barreto); Traffic (00, Steven Soderbergh); 13 Conversations About One Thing (01, (ill Sprecher).
Amy Irving was Mrs. Steven Spielberg—and it wasn’t easy. Mutual friend Matthew Robbins is quoted as saving in Joseph McBride’s Spielberg biography, "It was no fun to go [to their home—or one of their four houses].
because there was an electric tension in the air. It was competitive as to whose dining table this is, whose career we’re gonna talk about, or whether he even approved of what she was interested in— her friends and her actor life. . . . The child in Spielberg believed so thoroughly in the possibility of perfect marriage. . . . And Amy was sort of a glittering prize, smart as hell, gifted, and beautiful, but definitely edgy and provocative and competitive. She would not provide him any ease.’
Has it worked out better, even with the $100 million (more or less) in divorce settlement? Or is there always going to be something smart and aggrieved in Amy Irving?
She had a son with Spielberg and, after the divorce, she had a child with Barreto, whom she later married.
From 1985 till 1989.
From 1996 till 2005.