Biography
American actress Jill Clayburgh was fortunate enough to find work in her field of endeavor directly after graduation from Sarah Lawrence University. She acted with the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Charles Playhouse in Boston, and, with such future film luminaries as
Al Pacino she appeared in several off-Broadway productions A tentative stab at film acting in
The Wedding Party, filmed at Sarah Lawrence in 1963 but released in 1969, might have been forgotten save for its roster of celebrities-to-be: Jill Clayburgh, Robert DeNiro and director
Brian De Palma. Otherwise, Clayburgh's "official" stepping stones into stardom would include her continuing role on the TV daytime drama
Search for Tomorrow and her Broadway appearances in such successes as The Rothschilds and
Pippin. The actress' earliest mainstream films--
Portnoy's Complaint (1972) and
The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1974)--were not exactly vehicles for her talent. It would take her vivid performance as a battered prostitute on the 1974 TV-movie
Hustling to make audiences aware of her extraordinary talents. Unfortunately, her turn as
Carole Lombard in the unsuccessful 1976
Gable and Lombard set her back a few steps. It helped to be in the box-office winner
Silver Streak (1977), though the actress wasn't served well playing second fiddle to
Gene Wilder and
Richard Pryor; she was given a better chance to shine opposite
Burt Reynolds and
Kris Kristofferson in
Semi-Tough (1977). In 1978 came the turn-around:
An Unmarried Woman, in which Clayburgh's richly textured performance as a thirtyish divorcee trying to make sense of her disoriented life should have won her an Academy Award. It didn't, but Clayburgh was now firmly an "A"-list actress. Bucking the usual trend, she decided not to complacently go the "moneymaking vehicle" route but risked her success to stretch her talent in such films as director
Bernardo Bertolucci's
Luna (1979) and Costa-Gavras' Hannah K (1983). As expected, these non-blockbuster appearances put her career in the doldrums, compelling her to toil for her paycheck in such indifferent films as the 1986 thriller Where are the Children?. But Clayburgh is one of those rare American film stars to whom the work itself is more important than the fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide