Biography
The ever-fascinating Nancy Travis has in the past decade excelled in edgy, neurotic characterizations; she sounds like a chain-smoker or Valium-popper even when not playing one. Graduating with a BA degree from New York University, Travis apprenticed at Circle in the Square, acted in the touring company of
Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, and starred on Broadway with
Judd Hirsch in I'm Not Rappaport. As a means of continually recharging her creative batteries, she helped found the Naked Angels, an off-Broadway acting troupe. After laboring in virtual anonymity in such TV movies as
Malice in Wonderland (1985), Travis was afforded top billing in the 1986 two-parter
Harem, lending a little artistry and dignity to an otherwise trivial affair. Her movie breakthrough was in the role of the errant, unmarried British mother Sylvia in
Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its 1990 sequel
Three Men and a Little Lady. More complex roles came her way in
Internal Affairs (1992),
The Vanishing (1993) and
Chaplin (1993); in the latter film, she appeared as the real-life
Joan Barry, whose spiteful and unfounded paternity suit against
Charlie Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) was the beginning of the end of The Little Tramp's Hollywood career. Even when playing comedy in
So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Travis retained her ticking-bomb, "don't turn your back on me" aura. Nancy Travis' television credits of the 1990s include her gravelly voiceover work as Aunt Bernice on the animated weekly Duckman (1993- ) and her starring stint on the so-so 1995 sitcom
Almost Perfect. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide