JoBeth Williams

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Birthday:

6 December 1948, Houston, Texas, USA

Birth Name:

Margaret JoBeth Williams

Height:

173 cm

The product of a musical family, Margaret JoBeth Williams was born in Houston, Texas, to Frances Faye (Adams), a dietitian, and Fredric Roger Williams, a wire/cable company manager and opera singer. Her father encouraged her early interest in theater during high school. She made her professional debut at age 18 in a Houston-based musical production, then studied at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with the intentions of becoming a child psychologist. The acting bug hit her again, however, and she decided to pursue theater after receiving her B.A. in English in 1970. Working intensely to lose her Texas twang, her early training came as a member of the Trinity Repertory Company, where she stayed for two-and-a-half years.In New York the lovely Jobeth became a daytime regular in the mid-1970s on both Somerset (1970) and in a vixenish role on The Guiding Light (1952) before making a brief but memorable impact in a highly popular film at the end of the decade. In the Dustin Hoffman starring film Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Jobeth plays Hoffman's gorgeous sleepover who gets caught stark naked by his young, precocious son (Justin Henry) the following morning. She also impressed on the stage with major roles in "Moonchildren" and "A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking."Her star maker would could in the form of the strong-willed mother of three who fights to save her brood from home-invading demons in Steven Spielberg's humongous critical and box-office hit Poltergeist (1982), which also made a major star out of movie husband Craig T. Nelson. Officially in the big leagues now, she joined the star ensemble cast of The Big Chill (1983), and appeared opposite Nick Nolte in Teachers (1984). Disappointing outcomes in the lackluster sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) and the intriguing but overlooked American Dreamer (1984) prodded her to search for more challenging work on TV.It is the small screen, in fact, that has particularly shown off the range of Jobeth's talent over the years, particularly in domestic drama. Cast in some of the finest TV-movies served up, Jobeth won deserved Emmy nominations for her real-life mother of an ill-fated missing child in Adam (1983) and real-life surrogate mother in Baby M (1988). Other monumental mini-movie efforts include her nurse in the apocalyptic drama The Day After (1983); her magnetic performance opposite Terry Kinney as an adulterous worshiper and minister who carry out plans to kill their respective spouses in the gripping suspense show Murder Ordained (1987); alcoholic James Woods' long-suffering wife in My Name Is Bill W. (1989); a social worker trying to reach a deaf girl in Breaking Through (1996); and the overbearing mother whose son turns to drugs in Trapped in a Purple Haze (2000). She continues to balance both film and TV projects into the millennium.Behind the scenes she was nominated for an Academy Award for her directorial debut of Showtime's On Hope (1994)and continues to seek out other directing projects. It doesn't hurt being married to a director for encouragement. She and John Pasquin, who directed her in the film Jungle 2 Jungle (1997) and on the short-lived TV series Payne (1999), have two children. More recent film roles include playing Drew Barrymore's mom in Fever Pitch (2005). Show less «

"I live in a town where if you're a woman over 40, you're really passé. In the movies, a Sean Connery can get Catherine Zeta-Jones as a lov...Show more »

"I live in a town where if you're a woman over 40, you're really passé. In the movies, a Sean Connery can get Catherine Zeta-Jones as a love interest. But Shirley MacLaine can't have Billy Crudup as a boyfriend". Show less «

Now that I'm directing is where I've felt how difficult it is. Out of 200 or so movies made last year, only seven were directed by women. Th...Show more »

Now that I'm directing is where I've felt how difficult it is. Out of 200 or so movies made last year, only seven were directed by women. There's been an enormous leap of women producers and heads of studios, but strangely enough, those women haven't given other women a boost. It's very frustrating. Show less «

I felt they had really moved the characters in a direction that was very interesting. The family had really felt the impact of what had happ...Show more »

I felt they had really moved the characters in a direction that was very interesting. The family had really felt the impact of what had happened to the. Show less «

I wanted to play the part that Mary Kay played, the lawyer who wanted to have baby and felt her clock ticking, because it was something I co...Show more »

I wanted to play the part that Mary Kay played, the lawyer who wanted to have baby and felt her clock ticking, because it was something I could relate to. Show less «

I think there's a danger of a being typecast as the all-American mom forever.

Larry Kasdan wanted us all there, all the time, even if we weren't filming.

I was concerned about doing a sequel and repeating myself. That was before I read the script.

I would like, certainly, to do different things.

I've seen my own kids go through their own ups and downs, and as a mother, you want to make it better.

It was my first scene in any movie and my only scene in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). I was petrified.

I think a lot of the time, we don't give our family connections the kind of credit they deserve, like how important they are to us and how m...Show more »

I think a lot of the time, we don't give our family connections the kind of credit they deserve, like how important they are to us and how much they mean to us. I think family makes all the difference. Show less «

I was raised in cities but I was raised in Texas, so there's a certain amount of connection to the earth.