Tony Winner and Two-Time Oscar-Nominated Actress Shirley Knight Dies at 83

Acclaimed actress Shirley Knight, known for her Oscar-nominated performances in adaptations of Tennessee Williams and William Inge plays on the big screen, died at the age of 83 on April 22. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she died of natural causes at the home of her daughter, actress Kaitlin Hopkins in San Marcos, Texas. In addition to two Oscar nominations, Knight won a Tony Award and three Emmy Awards during her career.

Knight was born on July 5, 1936 in Goessel, Kansas. She attended Phiillips University and Wichita State University and went on to an illustrious career in film, television, theater and radio. After studying at the Pasadena Theatre School, she began her big screen career in 1959. In the 1960s, she took on roles in The Couch, House of Women, The Group, The Counterfeit Killer, The Rain People and many more films. Knight received Oscar nominations for her performances in the 1960 film The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and the 1962 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth.

A longtime member of The Actors Studio, Knight won a Tony Award in 1976 for Kennedy's Children and was also nominated for The Young Man From Atlanta. Her Broadway credits also included The Three Sisters, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Watering Place. Her off-Broadway credits included Journey to the Day, Rooms, Happy End, Landscape of the Body, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Losing Time, Come Back, Little Sheba, The Vagina Monologues, Necessary Targets, Cycling Past the Matterhorn, Love, Loss, and What I Wore and In Masks Outrageous and Austere.

A three-time Emmy winner Knight was nominated eight times for Emmy Awards for her work on Playing for Time, The Equalizer, Law & Order and Desperate Housewives. She won an Emmy for Thirtysomething in 1988. In 1995, she received both a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for her performance on Indictment: The McMartin Trial as well as an additional Emmy Award for NYPD Blue.

She is survived by her two daughters, Kaitlin Hopkins and Sophie C. Hopkins. In her honor and memory, the Shirley Knight Memorial Fund was established to support the continued pursuit of excellence within the musical theater program at Texas State University.