Danner, Blythe (b. 1943), actress. The slim, agile leading lady with a pleasingly husky voice was born in Philadelphia and educated at Bard College before making her New York debut Off Broadway in 1966. After some noteworthy supporting roles, she was acclaimed for her kooky, lovable Jill Tanner in Butterflies Are Free (1969). The film actress often returned to the theatre, both in New York and at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Among her memorable performances were Viola in Twelfth Night (1972), Londoner Emma involved in a romantic triangle in Betrayal (1980), socialite Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story (1980), a frantic but moving Blanche Du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1988), the wife Kate whose marriage seems threatened by a dog in Sylvia (1995), and the cynical Phyllis Stone in Follies (2001).

Blythe Katherine Danner (born February 3, 1943) is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.

Danner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Katharine and Harry Earl Danner, a bank executive. She has a brother, a sister, and a half brother: opera singer/actor Harry Danner, former performer turned director Dorothy (Dottie) Danner, and violin maker William Moennig (half-brother). Danner, of part Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry, attended George School, a private Quaker secondary school in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and Bard College, where she graduated in 1965.[citation needed]

Danner first appeared on stage with the Theater Company of Boston and the Trinity Square Repertory Company (now Trinity Repertory Company) in Providence, Rhode Island. She first gained national attention at age 25 by winning the Theatre World Award for her performance in the Lincoln Center Rep's production of The Miser. In 1970, she appeared in her first film role, in a television production of Dr. Cook's Garden. She was the toast of Broadway when she created the adorable ingenue in Butterflies are Free for which she won a Tony Award in 1970 (a role Goldie Hawn played in the film).

In 1972, Danner portrayed Martha Jefferson in the movie version of 1776. Also that same year, she played a jilted wife opposite Peter Falk and John Cassavetes in the Columbo episode "Etude in Black".

Her earliest starring film role was opposite Alan Alda in To Kill a Clown (1972). Not by coincidence, Danner appeared in the episode of M*A*S*H entitled The More I See You, playing the love interest of Alda's character Hawkeye. She played the role of Zelda Fitzgerald in The Last of the Belles 1974.She was the eponymous heroine in the film Lovin' Molly (1974) (directed by Sidney Lumet). In the film version of Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical play Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986) she portrayed a middle-aged Jewish mother, and in the 1982 TV movie Inside the Third Reich, she played the wife of Albert Speer. She has appeared in two films based on the novels of Pat Conroy, The Great Santini (1979) and The Prince of Tides (1991), as well as two television movies adapted from books by Anne Tyler, Saint Maybe and Back When We Were Grownups, both for the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

Danner is more recently known for her roles opposite Robert De Niro in the 2000 comedy hit Meet the Parents and its 2004 sequel, Meet the Fockers (with Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman).

From 2001 to 2006, she regularly appeared on Will & Grace as Will Truman's mother Marilyn. From 2004 to 2006, she starred in the TV series Huff. In 2005, she was nominated for three Emmy Awards: for her work on Will & Grace, Huff and Back When We Were Grownups. Emmy host Ellen DeGeneres poked fun at Blythe Danner during the award ceremony, saying that Danner should not be nervous because she was almost certain to win at least one Emmy, which she did, for Huff. In July 2006, she won a second consecutive Emmy award for Huff. For 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she also serves on the Board of Directors.

In 2006, Danner was awarded an inaugural Katharine Hepburn Medal, alongside fellow honoree Lauren Bacall, which recognizes "women whose lives, work and contributions embody the intelligence, drive and independence of the four-time-Oscar-winning actress," by Bryn Mawr College's Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center.

In addition to her acting work, Blythe Danner has been involved in environmental issues such as recycling and conservation for over 30 years. She has been active with INFORM, Inc., is on the Board of Environmental Activists and the Board of Directors of the Environmental Media Association, and won the 2002 EMA Board of Directors Ongoing Commitment Award. She was instrumental in implementing curbside recycling in Santa Monica and in retaining the New York City recycling program despite threatened budget cuts in 1991[citation needed]. In 2002 Danner, her husband Bruce Paltrow, and her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow worked together on a series of public service announcements encouraging use of alternative energy sources and alternative fuel vehicles.