Laura Esterman
Encyclopedia
Laura Esterman is an American actress known for portraying Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe
in contemporary radio dramas and for her Drama Desk Award
and Obie Award
winning performance in the 1992 original stage production of Scott McPherson
's Marvin's Room
.
debut in the 1969 revival of The Time of Your Life
. Her other Broadway credits include The Waltz of the Toreadors
, God's Favorite
, Teibele and Her Demon, The Suicide
, Metamorphosis
and The Show Off
.
Esterman has also worked in television and film. Her television credits include Remington Steele
, St. Elsewhere
, The Facts of Life
, L.A. Law
, Family Ties
, Law & Order
, Third Watch
and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
among others. Her movie credits include Alone in the Dark
, Ironweed
, Awakenings
, The Doors
, Addams Family Values
, The Confession
and Arranged
among others.
Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe
Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe is the titular character of a radio drama series by the ZBS Foundation, written by Thomas Lopez. The first series, Ruby: Adventures of A Galactic Gumshoe was created in 1982, and the eighth and most recent was copyrighted 2009...
in contemporary radio dramas and for her Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
and Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
winning performance in the 1992 original stage production of Scott McPherson
Scott McPherson
Scott McPherson was an American playwright.-Life:He graduated from Ohio University.In 1981, he moved to Chicago, where he acted in The Normal Heart, and The House of Blue Leaves...
's Marvin's Room
Marvin's Room (play)
Marvin's Room is a play by written by Scott McPherson that premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on 15 November 1991, and later adapted for a film of the same title in 1996 ....
.
Life and career
Esterman was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of Sophie (née Milgram) and Benjamin Esterman, a doctor. She made her BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in the 1969 revival of The Time of Your Life
The Time of Your Life
The Time of Your Life is a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened 25 October 1939 at the Booth Theatre in New York City...
. Her other Broadway credits include The Waltz of the Toreadors
The Waltz of the Toreadors
The Waltz of the Toreadors [La Valse des toréadors] is a play by Jean Anouilh.Written in 1951, this farce is set in 1910 France and focuses on General Léon Saint-Pé and his infatuation with Ghislaine, a woman with whom he danced at a garrison ball some 17 years earlier. Because of the General's...
, God's Favorite
God's Favorite
God's Favorite is a play by Neil Simon, loosely based on the Biblical Book of Job. It was produced on Broadway by Emanuel Azenberg in 1974....
, Teibele and Her Demon, The Suicide
The Suicide (play)
The Suicide is a 1928 play by the Russian playwright Nikolai Erdman. Its performance was proscribed during the Stalinist era and it was only produced in Russia several years after the death of its writer...
, Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world...
and The Show Off
The Show Off
The Show Off is a 1926 silent film comedy produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Mal St. Clair and starred Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson and Louise Brooks. It is based on a 1924 Broadway play that had Lee Tracy in the cast...
.
Esterman has also worked in television and film. Her television credits include Remington Steele
Remington Steele
Remington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...
, St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
, The Facts of Life
The Facts of Life (TV series)
The Facts of Life is an American sitcom that originally ran on the NBC television network from August 24, 1979 to May 7, 1988. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' premise focused on Edna Garrett as she becomes a housemother at the fictional Eastland School, a prestigious...
, L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
, Family Ties
Family Ties
Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young...
, Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, Third Watch
Third Watch
Third Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....
and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
among others. Her movie credits include Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark (1982 film)
Alone in the Dark is a 1982 slasher film directed by Jack Sholder. It was the director's debut film and was the first motion picture to be released by New Line Cinema. The film's tagline is: "They're out... for blood! Don't let them find you--"-Plot:...
, Ironweed
Ironweed (film)
Ironweed is a 1987 film directed by Argentine-born Brazilian Héctor Babenco.The picture is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by William Kennedy and concerns the relationship of a homeless couple: Francis, an alcoholic, and Helen, a terminally ill woman during the Great...
, Awakenings
Awakenings
Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir Awakenings. It tells the true story of British neurologist Oliver Sacks, fictionalized as American Malcolm Sayer and portrayed by Robin Williams who, in 1969, discovers beneficial effects of the then-new drug L-Dopa...
, The Doors
The Doors (film)
The Doors is a 1991 biopic about the 1960s-1970s rock band of the same name which emphasizes the life of its lead singer, Jim Morrison. It was directed by Oliver Stone, and stars Val Kilmer as Morrison, Meg Ryan as Pamela Courson , Kyle MacLachlan as Ray Manzarek, Frank Whaley as Robby Krieger,...
, Addams Family Values
Addams Family Values
Addams Family Values is a 1993 sequel to the 1991 comedy The Addams Family. The film was written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and many cast members from the original returned for the sequel, including Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci...
, The Confession
The Confession (1999 film)
The Confession is a 1999 drama film directed by David Jones, starring Ben Kingsley and Alec Baldwin. It is based on the novel by Sol Yurick.-Plot:...
and Arranged
Arranged (film)
Arranged is an independent feature film produced by Cicala Filmworks. The film was written by Stefan Schaefer and is based in part on the story of Yuta Silverman, an Orthodox Jewish woman from Borough Park, Brooklyn and her friendship with a young Muslim woman...
among others.
External links
- Amazon
- Internet Theatre Database
- Filmography by Starpulse
- Drama Desk Award and Obie Award for her performance in Marvin's Room, by Scott McPherson
- Television appearances
- Production notes for Suspended AnimationSuspended Animation (film)-Cast:*Alex McArthur ... Tom Kempton*Laura Esterman ... Vanessa Boulette*Sage Allen ... Ann Boulette*Rebecca Harrell ... Hilary Kempton*Fred Meyers ... Sandor Hansen*Maria Cina ... Clara Hansen*Jeff Puckett ... Cliff Modjeska...