Actress and director Christine Lahti has won a number of prestigious film and TV awards. Twice she became a Golden Globe laureate and once an Emmy laureate. And in 1996, Christine Lahti won an Oscar for her short film Leiberman's Love.
Childhood, youth and first serious roles
Christine Lahti was born on April 4, 1950 in Birmingham (a small town in the US state of Michigan) into a large family of Elizabeth and Paul Lahti. In total, her parents had six children.
It is known that Christine's paternal ancestors were from Finland. The surname "Lahti" is translated from Finnish as "bay".
In her youth, she studied painting at the University of Florida and then dramatic art at the University of Michigan.
After receiving her education, Lahti went on tour across Europe with a troupe of mime artists. However, she soon returned to the United States and settled in New York. At first, she worked as a waitress here. And at the same time she took acting lessons at the HB Studio school from the famous actress and theater teacher Uta Hagen (1919-2002).
Christine Lahti first appeared on television in 1978 in The Harvey Corman Show.
And a year later, in 1979, Christine Lahti made her film debut - in the film "Justice for All" she played the beloved of the protagonist - lawyer Arthur Kirkland (played by Al Pacino).
Christine Lahti in the eighties and early nineties
In 1982, Christine Lahti starred in the TV movie "The Executioner's Song", which tells about the last nine months of the life of Gary Gilmore's killer. Lahti's filming partners here were Tommy Lee Jones and Rosanna Arquette.
Since the early eighties, the actress began performing on Broadway. Christine Lahti gained her first fame among theater audiences for her role in the 1982 production "Present Laughter". Another of her outstanding theatrical work of this period is her role in the musical "The Heidi Chronicles".
In 1985, Lahti was nominated for an Oscar as a supporting actress for her role in the film Extra Shift. This film is about young girls working at an aircraft factory during the Second World War. But the Oscar statuette that year went not to her, but to the actress Peggy Ashcroft.
In 1988, Lahti starred in Sidney Lumet's drama Idling, which tells the story of a married couple hiding from the authorities under assumed names. Here she played the main character - Anna Pope. For this work, Lahti was awarded the Golden Globe and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award
In 1992, she starred in the movie Escape from Normal. Here she played the waitress Darley, who experienced a terrible personal drama in the past. One day Darley meets a single woman named Marianne. They quickly become friends and decide to leave for Alaska to start a new life there …
Winning an Oscar
In 1995, Christine Lahti directed the short film Leiberman in Love for Showtime, making her directorial debut. The script for this film was based on a short story by writer William Patrick Kinsella.
One of the two main roles in "Leiberman in Love" - the role of the prostitute Shalin - was played directly by Lahti. As a result, for this picture she (but not as an actress, but as a director) was awarded an Oscar in the nomination for the best short feature film.
Further career
For four years, from 1995 to 1999, Christine Lahti starred in the medical series Chicago Hope. Here she played one of the regular heroes - cardiac surgeon Kate Austin. And this role ultimately earned her Emmy and Golden Globe awards.
In 2001, Lahti shot her first (and so far only) full-length film, My First Man. The main roles are played by Lily Sobieski and Albert Brooks. The film tells the strange story of a relationship between two single people - a goth girl who recently graduated from high school, and a 49-year-old manager of a clothing store. The film received good reviews from many American critics, including Roger Ebert himself.
In May 2005, Christine Lahti became a columnist for The Huffington Post. Her column was quite popular with readers - Christine vividly and interestingly expressed her opinion on various issues.
Since 2009, the actress began to appear in the TV series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sonya Paxton. Her character has appeared in seven episodes over the course of two years.
In 2012, Lahti joined the cast of Hawaii 5.0 and portrayed Doris McGarrett on screen.
From 2015 to 2017, she played the role of Laurel Hitchin on the TV series Blacklist.
However, in the last decade, Lahti has starred not only on television, but also in independent films. In particular, the actress took part in such films as "From Hate to Love" (2013), "Mania for Days" (2014), "Safe Lighting" (2015), "Steps" (2015).
It is also worth adding that in 2018 Harper Wave published a book of memoirs by Christine Lahti "True Stories From an Unreliable Eyewitness" ("True stories from an unreliable eyewitness").
Personal life
Since 1983, Christine Lahti has become the wife of director Thomas Schlamme. And today they are still married.
The couple have three children. The first child - a boy named Wilson (at the moment, by the way, he is also a professional actor) was born in 1988. Five years later, in 1993, Lahti gave birth to twins from Thomas - a girl Emma and a boy Joseph.
The actress lives with her husband in Los Angeles. In addition, it is known that Christina Lahti also owns an apartment in Greenwich Village, New York.
