Stephanie Zimbalist

Stephanie Zimbalist was born in New York City, the daughter of Loranda Stephanie (née Spalding) and actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. The family soon moved to Los Angeles, where Stephanie grew up. She was educated at the Marlborough School (Los Angeles) and graduated from the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia. She attended the Juilliard School before commencing her acting career.[http://www.stephaniezimbalist.net/ Stephanie Zimbalist official web site]

Zimbalist's early television and film appearances include The Gathering (1977, with Edward Asner), In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan (1977), Forever (1978), The Magic of Lassie (1978), Long Journey Back (TV, 1978), The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979), The Awakening (1980, with Charlton Heston), The Golden Moment (1980), in which she played a Soviet Olympic gymnast, The Babysitter (1980) and Tomorrow's Child (TV, 1982). She co-starred with her father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., in the tragic 1979 television film The Best Place to Be.

Another early role for Zimbalist was that of Elly Zendt in the mini-series Centennial, based on James Michener's epic novel of the same name, which was first televised on NBC between October 1978 and February 1979. She also guest-starred as Josephine "Josie" Collins in the television series Family episode "Ballerina" (1979).

In her TV work, Zimbalist is best known for her TV role of sleuth Laura Holt in the NBC series Remington Steele (1982–87) opposite Pierce Brosnan and Doris Roberts, on which her father also guest-starred.

Since then, Zimbalist has taken leading roles in several television films, such as The Man in the Brown Suit (1988), the Emmy Award winning Caroline? (1990), The Great Elephant Escape (1995), and some guest roles in television series such as Touched by an Angel and Diagnosis Murder.{{Citation needed |date=January 2021}}

In 1979, she appeared as Miranda in John Hirsch's production of The Tempest with Anthony Hopkins (as Prospero), Brent Carver, and Michael Bond at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Zimbalist played opposite Tommy Tune in the touring musical My One and Only, taking the featured role of "Edith Herbert". She has made several appearances with the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, California, winning the local critics' "Robby Award" for Best Actress in a Drama in The Rainmaker, at the Rubicon community theatre in 2001. Throughout the 2000s, Zimbalist took roles in plays concerning nineteenth-century artists including Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Van Gogh.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

She also played Christa McAuliffe in the play Defying Gravity in 2003, written by Jane Anderson.Brandes, Phillip. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-nov-24-et-brandes24-story.html "Theater Review. On keeping dreams aloft"] Los Angeles Times, November 24, 2003

In 2009 she portrayed actress Katharine Hepburn in Tea at Five.{{cite news|last=Donelan|first=Charles|title=Tea at Five Tells Hepburn Story|url=http://www.independent.com/news/2009/dec/02/tea-five-tells-hepburn-story/|access-date=November 28, 2011|newspaper=The Santa Barbara Independent|date=December 2, 2009}}

Other work

Zimbalist has also released audiobooks, including The Girls, which won a Listen-Up award in 2006,{{Cite web|last=Howell|first=Kevin|last2=Maughan|first2=Shannon|date=2007-01-01|title=The 2006 Listen-Up Awards|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20070101/17069-the-2006-listen-up-awards.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304104530/https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20070101/17069-the-2006-listen-up-awards.html|archive-date=2016-03-04|access-date=2021-08-05|website=PublishersWeekly|language=en}} and Queen of the Underworld.{{Cite web|title=Stephanie Zimbalist audiobooks|url=https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/listing/?Narrator=Stephanie+Zimbalist|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805045407/https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/listing/?Narrator=Stephanie+Zimbalist|archive-date=2021-08-05|access-date=2021-08-05|website=AudioFile Magazine|language=en}}

She appeared in the 2006 documentary Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars.{{Cite web|title=Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars|url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/christa-mcauliffe-reach-for-the-stars/cast/2000095625/|access-date=2021-08-05|website=TVGuide.com|language=en}}

Zimbalist's paternal grandfather, Efrem Zimbalist, born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, was a symphony conductor, concert violinist and music teacher at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and composer. Her paternal grandmother, Alma Gluck, born in Romania, was a leading soprano of her day.Efrem Zimbalist Jr., My Dinner of Herbs, Limelight Editions, 2004.

Zimbalist's aunt, Marcia Davenport, was a prominent author, music journalist and historian.Marcia Davenport, Too Strong for Fantasy, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1966.

In a 2016 interview, she described attending a Billy Graham crusade over 15 years prior with Dean Butler, and both going down to "accept the Lord." She expressed, "I have a personal connection with my Savior... I feel very beholden to Him--for me it's a him--I feel He's there for me in my darkest moments." In the same interview, she mentioned moving out of an "inappropriate relationship" with a married man years ago, though still remaining friends.{{Citation |title=Credo in Hollywood {{!}} Stephanie Zimbalist |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGN5VzNrqn4 |access-date=2023-08-15 |language=en}}

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• Gypsy (1969)
• Stars & Stripes (1970)
• Little Mary Sunshine (1971)
• Peter Pan (1974)
• Kiss Me Kate (1976)
• Festival (1979)
• The Tempest (1979)
• The Babysitter (1980)
• American Mosaic (1982)
• The Cherry Orchard (1983)
• Barbarians (1986)
• Summer & Smoke (1986)
• My One & Only (1987)
• Carousel (1988)
• The Baby Dance (1990–1991)
• The Threepenny Opera (1992)
• The Philadelphia Story (1992–1993)
• The Crimson Thread (1994)
• AdWars (1995)
• Sylvia (1996–1997)
• Wonderful Town (1997)
• Mr. Bundy (1998)
• The Gregory Peck Reading Series (1998)
• Denial (1999)
• Far East (1999)
• 14th Annual Tennessee Williams / New Orleans Literary Festival (2000)
• Side Man (2000)
• Accomplice (2000)
• The Rainmaker (2000–2001)
• Walking Wounded (2000)
• A Cowardly Cavalcade (2000)
• The Gregory Peck Reading Series (2001)
• 15th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival (2001)
• 16th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival (2002)
• The Cherry Orchard (2002)
• Dancing At Lughnasa (2003)
• Tall Tales (2003)
• Romantique (2003)
• Defying Gravity (2003)
• Follies (2004)
• Vincent in Brixton (2004)
• The Night of the Iguana (2004)
• Confidentially Chaikovski (2005)
• Theater 150's 10-Minute Play Festival (2006)
• Mesmeric Mozart (2006)
• 20th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival (2006)
• Tea At Five (2006, 2009, 2010, 2012)
• The Memory of Water (2007)
• Hamlet (2007)
• A Little Night Music (2007), (2013)
• You Can't Take It With You (2007)
• 22nd Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival (2008)
• The Spin Cycle (2008)
• The Price (2009)
• Truth and Justice (2010)
• The Subject Was Roses (2011)
• Steel Magnolias (2011, 2013)
• The Lion in Winter (2011)
• Sex and Education (2014)
• Living on Love (2015)

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|Maryanne Callahan

|Television film

|-

|1980

|Hagen

|Linda

|Episode: "Hear No Evil"

|-

|1980

|{{sortname|The|Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story|nolink=1}}

|Anya Andreyev

|Television film

|-

|1980

|{{sortname|The|Babysitter|The Babysitter (1980 film)}}

|Joanna Redwine

|Television film

|-

|1981

|Elvis and the Beauty Queen

|Linda Thompson

|Television film

|-

|1982

|Tomorrow's Child

|Kay Spence

|Television film

|-

|1982–1987

|Remington Steele

|Laura Holt

|Main role

|-

|1985

|Love on the Run

|Diana Rockland

|Television film

|-

|1985

|The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible

|Eve (voice)

|Episode: "The Creation"{{cite web |title=Stephanie Zimbalist (visual voices guide) |url=http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Stephanie-Zimbalist/ |access-date=March 27, 2025 |publisher=Behind The Voice Actors}} A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.

|-

|1985

|{{sortname|A|Letter to Three Wives|A_Letter_to_Three_Wives#Adaptations}}

|Debra Bishop

|Television film

|-

|1987

|Celebration Family

|Janet Marston

|Television film

|-

|1989

|{{sortname|The|Man in the Brown Suit|The Man in the Brown Suit (1989 film)}}

|Anne Beddingfeld

|Television film

|-

|1989

|{{sortname|The|Hitchhiker|The Hitchhiker (TV series)}}

|Heather

|Episode: "Hootch"

|-

|1990

|Personals

|Sarah Martin

|Television film

|-

|1990

|Caroline?

|Caroline

|Television film

|-

|1991

|The Killing Mind

|Isobel Neiman

|Television film

|-

|1991

|{{sortname|The|Story Lady|nolink=1}}

|Julie Pollard

|Television film

|-

|1992

|Breaking the Silence

|Janey Kirkland

|Television film

|-

|1992

|Sexual Advances

|Paula Pratt

|Television film

|-

|1993

|The Hidden Room

|Della

|Episode: "While She Was Out"

|-

|1993

|Jericho Fever

|Bonnie Whitney

|Television film

|-

|1994

|Incident in a Small Town

|Lily Margaret Bell

|Television film

|-

|1994

|Batman: The Animated Series

|Janet Van Dorn (voice)

|Episode: "Trial"

|-

|1994

|Voices from Within

|Ann Parkhurst

|Television film

|-

|1995

|{{sortname|The|Great Elephant Escape|nolink=1}}

|Beverly Cunningham

|Television film

|-

|1995

|Whose Daughter Is She?

|Cathy

|Television film

|-

|1996

|Stop the World – I Want to Get Off

|Evie

|Television film

|-

|1996

|Dead Ahead

|Maura Loch

|Television film

|-

|1997

|Touched by an Angel

|Dr. Kate Calder

|Episode: "My Dinner with Andrew"

|-

|1997

|Prison of Secrets

|Lynn Schaffer

|Television film

|-

|1999

|Twice in a Lifetime

|Dana Hancock / Ann Rutherford

|Episode: "Ashes to Ashes"

|-

|1999

|Diagnosis: Murder

|Vanessa Sellars

|Episode: "The Seven Deadly Sins"

|-

|1999

|Chicken Soup for the Soul

|Mom

|Episode: "Simple Wooden Boxes"

|-

|2000

|Family Law

|Elizabeth Lane

|Episode: "Second Chance"

|-

|2001

|V.I.P.

|Bobbi Canary

|Episode: "Get Vallery"

|-

|2001

|Nash Bridges

|Joy Larson

|Episode: "Kill Joy"

|-

|2001

|Touched by an Angel

|Jessica Albright

|Episode: "Heaven's Portal"

|-

|2003

|Crossing Jordan

|Mrs. Sullivan

|Episode: "Cruel & Unusual"

|-

|2003

|Judging Amy

|Ms. Friedman

|Episode: "Marry, Marry Quite Contrary"

|}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|258|Stephanie Zimbalist}}

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Category:1956 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from Los Angeles

Category:Actresses from Manhattan

Category: American people of Russian-Jewish descent

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:American voice actresses

Category:Curtis family

Category:Foxcroft School alumni

Category:Juilliard School alumni

Stephanie