Julie Kavner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Julie Deborah Kavner (born September 7, 1950) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress, best known for her role as Brenda Morgenstern on Rhoda in the 1970s and for providing the voice of Marge Simpson on the animated television show The Simpsons.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Kavner was born in Los Angeles, California of Jewish heritage,[1] and grew up entirely in Southern California, a fact that comes as a surprise to many people who identify her with her role as New Yorker Brenda Morgenstern and who peg her creaky, somewhat nasally voice as sounding "East Coast." Kavner went to Beverly Hills High School, and studied Theatre Arts and graduated with honors from San Diego State University in 1971.
[edit] Career
After Rhoda ended, Kavner moved into film. She has appeared in several Woody Allen films including Radio Days (along with Michael Tucker, Mia Farrow, and Diane Wiest); New York Stories (opposite Allen himself); Awakenings (opposite Robin Williams and Robert De Niro); Alice (opposite Farrow again); Hannah and Her Sisters (opposite Michael Caine), as well as Deconstructing Harry (opposite Richard Benjamin and Julia Louis-Dreyfus). She appeared in the 1992 Nora Ephron comedy drama This Is My Life (this particular role was intended as her breakout role, but it got middling reviews and did not do well at the box office, and after that Kavner largely limited herself to supporting roles and voice over work). Most recently, she appeared as Adam Sandler's mother in Click. She has also done other TV work with Tracey Ullman in Tracey's primetime comedy show as well as Tracey Takes On.
In The Simpsons, Kavner provides the voices for Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, Selma Bouvier, Jacqueline Bouvier and Gladys Bouvier. She has been known to refuse to perform Marge's voice in public, to maintain the mystique of the character. To perform Marge's voice, Kavner raises her voice by about an octave, and roughens it up a bit. To do Patty and Selma, she lowers her voice an octave, and roughens it up a lot.[2]
In Disney's The Lion King 1½ (a.k.a. The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata), Kavner played Timon's mother.
