Olympia Dukakis—who won an Oscar for her supporting role in the 1987 hit Moonstruck and starred in Look Who’s Talking and Mr. Holland’s Opus as well as iterations of TV’s Tales of the City—died May 1 at her home in New York City after a lengthy illness, Deadline reported. She was 89.
For LGBTQ+ audiences, Dukakis (whose cousin is Michael Dukakis, who ran for president in 1988) was known for playing the role of transgender resident Anna Madrigal four times in Tales of the City—most recently in Netflix’s 2019 limited series. Dukakis, Laura Linney and Barbara Garrick were the only actors who appeared in all four iterations, according to Vanity Fair.
Dukakis was also part of the cast of the movie Steel Magnolias, a Southern drama/comedy involving a group of women that garnered a queer audience.
She was known for her roles in theater before finding success in television and movies. In 1963, she won an Obie Award for A Man’s a Man, and then a second two years later in The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Dukakis was also in such productions as Uncle Vanya and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
A lifelong activist and philanthropist, Dukakis earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013. Her husband, actor Louis Zorich, died in 2018.
Dukakis was the subject of the acclaimed 2018 documentary Olympia, directed by Harry Mavromichalis.