Amy Irving Bio
Amy Irving (born September 10, 1953) is an American actress and singer who has built a wide-ranging career across film, stage, and television. Born in Palo Alto, California, she is the daughter of stage and film director Jules Irving and actress Priscilla Pointer, which gave her an early and intimate connection to the performing arts. Over the decades she has appeared in major motion pictures, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and television projects, earning recognition including an Obie Award, an Academy Award nomination, and Golden Globe nominations. Irving remains active as a performer and recording artist.
Early Life and Background
Amy Irving was born on September 10, 1953, in Palo Alto, California. Her father, Jules Irving, was a film and stage director, and her mother, Priscilla Pointer, was an actress, so Amy grew up surrounded by theater productions and creative conversations. Her father co-founded the Actor’s Workshop, and as a child she appeared in local productions, including a stage appearance at nine months old in Rumplestiltskin.
She attended the Professional Children’s School in New York and trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco during the late 1960s and early 1970s, taking part in several of its productions. She later studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. As a teenager she moved with her family to Manhattan after her father was appointed director of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater, and she made her Off-Broadway debut at age 17 in And Chocolate on Her Chin.
Path to Acting
Irving’s earliest stage work came through her parents’ theater community. She had a walk-on role in the 1965–1966 Broadway production of The Country Wife at age 12, directed by family friend Robert Symonds, and she played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Theatre in 1975. After returning from London in the mid-1970s, she quickly moved into television guest spots on Police Woman and Happy Days, and she landed a lead role in the mini-series epic Once an Eagle alongside Sam Elliott, Glenn Ford, and Melanie Griffith.
She auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, which ultimately went to Carrie Fisher, but within months she was cast by director Brian De Palma in her feature film debut. That opportunity opened the door to a sustained screen career that balanced mainstream Hollywood work with continued stage commitments.
Amy Irving Career
Early Career (1965–1982)
Irving’s first notable screen work came with Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976), in which she played Sue Snell; her mother Priscilla Pointer also appeared in the film. She followed this with a lead role in De Palma’s supernatural thriller The Fury (1978) as Gillian Bellaver. In 1980 she co-starred with Richard Dreyfuss in The Competition and appeared in Honeysuckle Rose opposite Willie Nelson, which also marked her on-screen singing debut.
On stage, she joined the Broadway production of Amadeus at the Broadhurst Theatre, replacing Jane Seymour for nine months, and she returned to the role of Juliet at the Seattle Repertory Theatre during 1982–1983. These projects established her as a performer comfortable in both film and classical theater.
Breakthrough (1983–2000)
In 1983, Irving was cast in Barbra Streisand’s directorial debut Yentl, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She then co-starred with Dudley Moore in Micki + Maude (1984). In 1988, she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the romantic comedy Crossing Delancey, and she provided the singing voice for Jessica Rabbit in the live-action and animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit the same year.
She continued her stage work with a celebrated Off-Broadway performance in The Road to Mecca, for which she received an Obie Award. In film, she appeared in Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry (1997) and reprised her role as Sue Snell in The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999). She closed this period with a role opposite Michael Douglas in Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed crime drama Traffic (2000).
Notable Works and Milestones
Irving’s signature works include Carrie (1976), The Fury (1978), Yentl (1983), Crossing Delancey (1988), Deconstructing Harry (1997), and Traffic (2000). Her career has been defined by a balance of mainstream film, independent cinema, and serious stage work, with major recognition from the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Obie Awards.
Amy Irving Award Nominations
Amy Irving has received multiple nominations across her career from major awards bodies. In 1984, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Yentl. In 1989, she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Crossing Delancey.
Amy Irving Awards Won
In 1988, Amy Irving received an Obie Award for her Off-Broadway performance in the play The Road to Mecca. The Obie recognized her standout work in New York theater during that season.
Amy Irving Family
Amy Irving is the daughter of film and stage director Jules Irving and actress Priscilla Pointer. Her brother is writer and director David Irving, and her sister, Katie Irving, is a singer and teacher of deaf children. Irving was raised in her mother’s faith of Christian Science.
Personal Life
Irving dated director Steven Spielberg from 1976 to 1980 and had a brief relationship with Willie Nelson, her co-star in Honeysuckle Rose. She married Spielberg in 1985, and they divorced in 1989; she has one son with Spielberg, Max Samuel, born June 13, 1985. She later married Brazilian film director Bruno Barreto in 1996, and they divorced in 2005; she has a second son, Gabriel Davis, with Barreto, born May 4, 1990. She married documentary filmmaker Kenneth Bowser Jr. in 2007. The couple live in a barn converted into a home in rural Westchester County, New York.