Judith Ivey

Judith Ivey was born in 1951 in El Paso, Texas. She was not quite yet a Tony Award-winner, but already a prolific Broadway and stage actress when she made her film debut appearance as Steve Martin's love interest in Arthur Hiller's The Lnely Guy. She then went on to star as Jennifer Jason Leigh's older sister in the southern gothic thriller Sister, Sister. She came to star (despite her impressive resume) as what would be her better remembered role, Texan B. J. Poteet in the last season of Designing Women. Other notable characters she has played in film include Keanu Reeves' mother in Devil's Advocate, one of three intrepid psychics investigating a haunted house in Stephen King's three-part miniseries Rose Red, and the recurring role of Debra Messing's mother-in-law Eleanor Markus on Will & Grace. Her audiobook narrations have won her five AudioFile Earphones Awards.