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Cherry Jones
(November 21, 1956 - living) U.S.A.

Cherry Jones

Actress

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Born in Paris, Tennessee. When she made her professional debut in dinner theater at age 18 she realized that acting was the career for her, and headed to New York to try to make her fortune. She started with studying drama at Carnegie Mellon University.

She was out from the beginning, but with an ulterior motive: "I was out from my first Equity show, at 21. I was telling everyone because I was trying to get a date." Whether she got the date is unknown, but what she didn't get were very many jobs.

She scooped ice cream for over a year on 72nd street while looking for roles. She finally got steady work with the Broadway Musical Theater Academy Company, and then won a founding spot with the new American Reparatory Company in Cambridge, Mass.

For several years she trained with the Rep. in Cambridge, honing her craft and maturing as an actor, and commuted only intermittently to New York to look for other work. She emerged from her education in 1990 ready to take her place among America's top theater actors.

As it became clear that Jones stood out on stage, she gained roles in productions like Angels in America. In 1995, five years after her full-time commitment to New York, Jones was cast in the lead role of a revival of The Heiress. The role was a breakout one, as she was the first openly gay actress to win a Tony award for her role as Catherine Sloper in The Heiress.

In 2000 an acclaimed turn in A Moon for the Misbegotten gained her another Tony nomination, her third to go with one for Our Country's Good. Off-Broadway she has also been nominated for the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Obie Awards. Film and TV work have been added to her repertoire as she appeared in the TV movie What Makes a Family, which matched her standards of quality screenplay and social conscience, and the films Erin Brokovich and Cradle Will Rock, among others.

Recent stage work includes Major Barbara on Broadway and a return to the ART as Lysistrata. She lives in the West Village with her partner, architect Mary O'Connor, and can be seen riding around the city on her bike.

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