Christine Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and film director.

Early life

Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret, a painter, homemaker and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon. Lahti has Finnish ancestry. Her surname means "a gulf", "a bay" or "a cove" in Finnish and Lahti is also a city in Finland. Lahti studied fine arts at Florida State University and received her bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Michigan, where she joined Delta Gamma sorority. She then toured Europe as part of a pantomime acting troupe.

Career

After college, Lahti headed to New York City, where she worked as a waitress and did commercials. Her breakthrough movie was …And Justice for All (1979) with Al Pacino. After starring in a few hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, Lahti chose to be primarily in films in which she wants to act, rather than take roles in bigger films, and she is adamant about spending time with her three children. She has also focused on television, beginning with her role in the 1979 made-for-TV adaptation of The Executioner's Song. She appeared on Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein's seriocomic play, The Heidi Chronicles.

Lahti received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Swing Shift in 1984 and won an Academy Award for Best Short Film, Live Action for Lieberman in Love (1995), in which she starred and directed.

She won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role in Chicago Hope. When she won her Golden Globe in 1998, she was in the bathroom, which was highly publicized in the press. She later made it a point to be good-humored about the incident, usually poking fun at herself at other awards shows.

In 2001, her first directorial film, My First Mister, was released. Starring Leelee Sobieski and Albert Brooks, the movie debuted with good reviews. In DVD commentary she applauds the work of her cast and crew, remarking " was very lucky to have such a wonderful crew..." She did feel regret that the film was rated R, for language, despairing that the movie might not be viewed by teenagers who would like and relate with the characters. Also, Lahti mentioned several times that she would have liked to have more time to shoot different perspectives in order to facilitate story arch.

Lahti will appear in the USA Network drama series Operating Instructions, directed by Hitch director Andy Tennant.

Lahti starred in the ADA role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sonya Paxton, while the character Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) was on leave. She will be in the first four episodes and returned for the show's ninth episode, where she clashed with Alex Cabot.

She returned to Broadway upon joining the cast of the Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage on November 17, 2009, replacing actress Marcia Gay Harden.

Personal life

Lahti has been married to TV director Thomas Schlamme, a native of Texas, since September 4, 1983. They have three children: Wilson and twins Joe Tabor and Emma Kate (born 1993). She is active in political causes.

Since May 2005, Lahti has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

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