Shirley Knight

'Shirley Knight' (qv) was an American actress from Kansas. She was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her roles as Reenie Flood in "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1960) and Heavenly Finley in "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1962). She won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in "Dutchman" (1966). She won the 1976 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in "Kennedy's Children". She also won three Primetime Emmy 'Awards' (qv) and was nominated for five more.Knight was born in Goessel, Kansas, a small settlement named in 1895 whose population was never more than a few hundred. Knight's father was oil company executive Noel Johnson Knight (1913-1985), and his wife, Virginia Webster (1916-1977), was her mother. Knight spend her childhood in Mitchell, Kansas, and her high school years in Lyons, Kansas.Knight aspired to be a singer and a writer. She started taking singing lessons in 1947 at the age of 11. In 1950, she had one of her short stories published by a magazine. She received her college education at Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma, and Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.Knight eventually decided on following an acting career. She studied first at the Pasadena Theatre School and then at the HB Studio (Herbert Berghof Studio) in Greenwich Village, New York City. Her teachers at the HB Studio included Erwin Piscator (1893-1966), Lee Strasberg (1901-1982), Jeff Corey (1914-2002), and Uta Hagen (1919-2004).Knight had a recurring role as Mrs. Newcomb in the western television series "Buckskin" (1958-1959), which depicted life in 1880s Montana. She eventually became a Warner Brothers Television contract star, working there when not appearing in feature films. She appeared in such series as "Bourbon Street Beat", "Cheyenne", "Maverick", "The Roaring 20's", and "Sugarfoot".Knight received her first credited film role in the adventure film "Five Gates to Hell" (1959), wherein she played a Catholic nun who is captured by a warlord in Indochina. She was 23 years old at the time of the film's release. She was a lifelong member of the Actors Studio and had a film career lasting from 1959 to 2018.In 1959, Knight married fellow actor Gene Persson (1934-2008). They had one child, the actress Kaitlin Persson Hopkins (b. 1964). The couple were divorced in 1969, after which Knight married her second and last husband, professional writer John Richard Hopkins (1931-1998). They raised Kaitlin together and had a child of their own, 'Sophie C. Hopkins' (qv). Sophie grew up to become an elementary school teacher.In 1998, Knight was widowed when 'John Hopkins' (qv) died. She was 62 years old at the time, and she never remarried. Knight died of natural causes in April 2020 at the residence of her daughter Kaitlin. She was 83 years old.::Dimos I