Lee Grant (born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal; October 31, during the mid-1920s)[a] is an American actress, documentarian, and director.

[a] Grant made her stage debut in L'Oracolo at the Metropolitan Opera in 1931[5][6] and later joined the American Ballet as an adolescent.

Grant established herself as a dramatic method actress on and off Broadway, earning praise for her first major role as a shoplifter in Detective Story in 1949.

In 1951, she gave an impassioned eulogy at the memorial service for actor J. Edward Bromberg, whose early death, she implied, was caused by the stress of being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

Kirk Douglas, who acted with her in Detective Story, recalled that director Edward Dmytryk, a blacklistee, had first named her husband at the HUAC:Lee was only a kid, a beautiful young girl with extraordinary talent and a big future.

But because Eddie Dmytryk named her husband, Lee Grant was blacklisted before her film career even had a chance to begin.

[16]Grant appeared in a number of plays, two feature films, and in a few small television roles during her blacklisted years.

In 1953, she played Rose Peabody in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow, had featured supporting roles in the film dramas Storm Fear in 1955, and Middle of the Night in 1959.

Dinah and my need to support her financially, morally, viscerally, and my rage at those who had taken twelve working, acting years from my life, were what motivated me.

[19] Grant's first major achievement, after HUAC officially cleared her, was in the 1960s television series Peyton Place as Stella Chernak,[20] for which she won an Emmy in 1966.

In Plaza Suite (1971), a successful comedy directed by Arthur Hiller and written by Neil Simon; she played the harried mother of a bride, with Walter Matthau as the father.

Grant reunited with Peter Falk on Broadway in the original production of The Prisoner of Second Avenue, written by Neil Simon; the playwright said that his "first and only choice" for the part was Grant, who he said was equally at home with dramatists such as Chekhov or Sidney Kingsley, yet could also be "hilariously funny" when the script called for it, for she was able to portray essential honesty in her acting.

[22] Grant won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress playing Warren Beatty's older lover in Shampoo (1975).

Critic Pauline Kael, comparing her in both films, noted Grant "is such a cool-style comedienne that she's in danger of having people say that she's good, as usual.

She writes: I was becoming my own worst enemy as an actor, traumatized onstage and fixated on staying young so I could keep working in film.

In the late 1970s, Grant was asked by the American Film Institute to participate in the first AFI Directing Workshop for Women.

[26] During the workshop, Grant successfully moved into directing when she adapted the play The Stronger in 1976, written by August Strindberg.

[27][28] Actor Bruce Dern, who acted with her in The Big Town (1987), recalls working with her: "Lee Grant is a fabulous actress.

In 2001, Lee Grant portrayed Louise Bonner in David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive.

[32] In the early 2000s, Grant directed a series of Intimate Portrait episodes for Lifetime Television, that celebrated a diverse range of accomplished women.

[33] Grant played Fonsia Dorsey opposite Frank Buxton as Weller Martin; her daughter Dinah Manoff directed the production.

[33] After a fourteen-year hiatus, Lee Grant played a small part in the film Killian & the Comeback Kids (2020), directed by Taylor A.