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Allison Janney
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Four-time Emmy winner Allison Janney is the latest star to join the cast of the film version of Hairspray. According to Variety, Janney will play Prudy Pingleton, the strait-laced mother of Penny Pingleton. The role was originally played by Jackie Hoffman in the Broadway production of the musical.
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Tall orders: Allison Janney is C.J. Cregg, the White House press secretary in 'The West Wing.' Janney received an Emmy nomination for best supporting actress in a drama series, while the series received a total of 18 nominations.
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Once told by a casting agent that she was too tall to play anything but lesbians and aliens, Allison Janney has clearly had the last laugh. Combined with stage-honed talent, her regal stature has served her well in films like American Beauty and Primary Colors and in her role as C.J. Cregg on NBC's The West Wing, which has earned her four Emmys. This season, C.J. was promoted from press secretary to chief of staff, making her the most powerful woman in the White House.
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One of the most talented -- and often underappreciated -- character actresses of the late 1990s, Allison Janney first began courting critical attention with roles in such acclaimed films as Big Night (1996) and American Beauty (1998). Able to play characters ranging from a name-dropping Manhattan socialite to a withdrawn, abused wife, the 6'0" Janney infuses all of her portrayals with equal parts poignancy and unforced gusto. A product of Dayton, Ohio, where she was born November 19, 1959, Janney was raised as the daughter of a homemaker and the president of a real estate firm. She aspired to be a champion figure skater from a young age, but any hopes of pursuing a skating career were halted by a freak accident that badly damaged Janney's leg when she was in her mid-teens. As a student at Kenyon College, she became interested in acting, and got her first break when she successfully auditioned for a play being directed by Kenyon alum Paul Newman. After impressing Newman, a racing enthusiast, with both her acting skills and her love of fast cars, Janney went on to impress his wife, Joanne Woodward, who directed her in a number of off-off-Broadway plays during the early 1980s.
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Four-time Emmy award winner Allison Janney will sing her way into the silver-screen adaptation of Hairspray. According to Variety, The West Wing actress is set to play Prudy Pingleton for the movie version of the Tony Award–winning musical. Janney rounds out a high-profile celebrity cast that includes John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Amanda Bynes, and James Marsden. Production for the movie has already begun, and the film is scheduled for a Christmas 2007 release.
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Emmy Award-winning American actress Allison Janney was born on November 19, 1959 in Dayton, Ohio. The daughter of a real estate developer and a former actress, she ... has two older brothers named Hal and Jay. After attending the Miami Valley School and Kenyon College, she went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. She then began acting in soap operas like Guiding Light and As the World Turns, and other television series such as Law & Order and Frasier. She also worked on the films American Beauty, Finding Nemo, and Over the Hedge.
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Allison Janney