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Ann Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer. She was described by The New York Times in 1990 as "An endearing theatrical chameleon who has as many characters at her fingertips as Lily Tomlin does".
A founding member of the 1980s band Bongwater, Magnuson starred in the ABC sitcom Anything but Love (1989–92). Her film appearances include The Hunger (1983), Making Mr. Right (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Panic Room (2002), and One More Time (2015).
In an interview for the 2002 WETA-TV PBS special Lance Loud! A Death in An American Family, Magnuson credited the idea of Lance Loud — a member of an all-American family filmed day-in/day-out for the landmark PBS documentary An American Family, who came out as gay during the course of that Documentary film miniseries — with inspiring her to leave West Virginia for New York:
Magnuson made her film debut in the 1981 film Vortex.
In the late '70s and early '80s, Magnuson ran Club 57, located in the basement of the Polish National church. It became a center of a world that included Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and many others from New York's budding graffiti and downtown scenes. Club 57 was known for its theme nights such as Reggae Miniature Golf and Model World of Glue Night.
Concurrently, Magnuson developed an underground following as lead vocalist of the band Bongwater, formed in 1985 with producer-musician Mark Kramer. Bongwater released four avant garde albums and a debut Extended play before breaking up in 1992 with a legal battle between Magnuson and Kramer that lasted through at least 1996 Eye Weekly (Feb 22, 1996): "Dreaming Of Better Days: Ann Magnuson's Apocalyptic Cultural Cocktail", by Jason Anderson and ended with the bankruptcy of Kramer's independent-music label Shimmy-Disc.
Magnuson's 15-minute video performance piece "Made for Television", self-produced in 1981, ran on the WNET-PBS series Alive from Off-Center. Her satiric featurette found her playing close to 50 roles in a "channel-hopping" series of visual bites parodying television programming game shows to Television film to televangelists. As art critic Sarah Valdez described it, "a bewigged Ann Magnuson consecutively inhabits, at a rate faster than any channel surfer could keep up with, an outlandish, uproariously unfortunate range of female stereotypes". Art in America, (June-July 2005): "Tales of Bohemian Glory: The tumultuous, influential East Village art scene of the 1980s was the subject of a recent exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary " by Sarah Valdez It was later released by HBO Home Video, together with the Cinemax cable-TV special Vandemonium (1987), in which Magnuson starred in a mostly solo stage piece with appearances by actor-singer Meat Loaf, performance artist Joey Arias, and actor-monologist Eric Bogosian. Magnuson also co-hosted Alive from Off Center during its 1988 season, taking over from fellow performance artist Laurie Anderson, who had hosted the series the year before.
Her 1995 CD The Luv Show (Geffen Records/MCA), her major-label debut, was commercially unsuccessful, but musically adventurous; one critic described it "an MGM musical as directed by Russ Meyer (which means the mambo 'Sex With The Devil'" and 'Miss Pussy Pants' sit comfortably next to Ethel Merman references in the same work)".
As Salon writer John Paczowski described her in 1997:
Magnuson's film roles have included a snarly real estate agent in Panic Room, Alan's mother in Small Soldiers, a madam in Tank Girl, Mel Gibson's "money junkie" ex-wife in Tequila Sunrise, Tom Berenger's estranged but horny ex-girlfriend in Love at Large, a secretary in Clear and Present Danger, and a sexy victim of David Bowie's vampire in The Hunger.
Her TV guest appearances include an episode each of the Lifetime cable-network horror fiction-suspense anthology The Hidden Room; the cult-hit, comedy-drama The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Salute Your Shorts on Nickelodeon; the sitcoms The John Larroquette Show, The Drew Carey Show, Caroline in the City, and Frasier; and the police procedural drama . In the 1996 telefilm The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas She appeared in the 1990 Redd Kross music video for the song "Annie's Gone", written about her. As writer Jason Anderson summarized her work through 1996, "She's been appearing in various states of undress for artistic purposes since her performance art daze in late-'70s New York wherehe was indie rock's thinking vixen...."
Magnuson appeared in the 1998 music video for Jerry Cantrell's "My Song". In 1997 she provided guest vocals for the band Tindersticks on the song "Buried Bones" from their album "Curtains".
In 2003, Magnuson began touring a one-woman stage show, Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories, which she mounted through at least July 2006. ThisIsHappening.com (Pittsburgh, Penn. events guide) She played Sister Elizabeth Donderstock in the play The Book of Liz, written by Amy Sedaris and David Sedaris, in May 2005 at the 2nd Stage Theatre in Hollywood, California. Other theater work has included playwright John Patrick Shanley's Four Dogs and a Bone at the Lucille Lortel Theater in New York City, the one-woman shows You Could Be Home Now (which opened the 1990 Serious Fun festival at New York City's Lincoln Center), and Rave Mom (opened in New York City October 2001), and in a neo-burlesque show, The Velvet Hammer. Velvet Hammer Burlesque: Ann Magnuson
A Village Voice review described the autobiographical Rave Mom as Magnuson's "travels through 1999 — a year of MDMA-popping, bad romance-chasing and searching for escapism and meaning after her brother's death from AIDS. Magnuson has a thoroughly charming presence but her stories of celebrity-studded Oscar parties, kid-filled raves, a wealthy dotcom suitor, and so on, come off as utterly self-absorbed and trivial..."
She has performed at the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center benefit series What A Pair! in 2005, performing with Elaine Hendrix "Tips" from the musical Pump Boys & Dinettes, and 2006, performing with Samantha Shelton. She appeared in What's My Line? Live on Stage in Los Angeles on Sept 14, 2006. What's My Line? Live on Stage
For eight years, Magnuson wrote a monthly column, "LA Woman", in the magazine Paper, as well as an accompanying blog. Papermag.com: L.A. Woman (Ann Magnuson blog)
In late 2006, Magnuson released her second solo album, Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories. It was produced and co-written by long-time musical director and accompanist Kristian Hoffman, with whom Magnuson had had a creative relationship since meeting him while directing "The New Wave Vaudeville Show" in 1976.
In 2007 and 2008, Magnuson performed in a cabaret act, Dueling Harps, with Adam Dugas, Mia Theodoratus, and Alexander Rannie.
In 2009, Magnuson created a one-woman performance piece, Back Home Again (Dreaming Of Charleston), that was commissioned by Charleston, West Virginia's FestivAll.
In 2018, Magnuson joined the cast of The Man in the High Castle, for five episodes, as Caroline Abendsen, the wife of the title character Hawthorne Abendsen, played by Stephen Root.
Magnuson appeared in the first season of as Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy, the commander-in-chief of Starfleet.
Magnuson participated in a staged conversation about Keith Haring with Steven Reigns at The Broad for World AIDS Day 2022.
| 1981 | Vortex | Pamela Fleming | |
| 1983 | The Hunger | Young Woman from Disco | |
| 1984 | Perfect Strangers | Malda | |
| 1985 | Desperately Seeking Susan | Cigarette Girl | |
| 1986 | Sleepwalk | Isabelle | |
| 1987 | Making Mr. Right | Frankie Stone | |
| 1988 | Joyce Fickett | ||
| 1988 | Tequila Sunrise | Shaleen McKussic | |
| 1989 | Checking Out | Connie Hagen | |
| 1990 | Love at Large | Doris | |
| 1994 | Cabin Boy | Calli | |
| 1994 | Clear and Present Danger | Moira Wolfson | |
| 1995 | Tank Girl | The Madame | Uncredited role |
| 1996 | Before and After | Terry Taverner | |
| 1997 | Levitation | Sarah | |
| 1997 | Still Breathing | Elaine | |
| 1998 | Small Soldiers | Irene Abernathy | |
| 1999 | Friends & Lovers | Katherine | |
| 2000 | Love & Sex | Monique Steinbacher | |
| 2000 | Housebound | Brandy | |
| 2001 | Moira Leppenraub | ||
| 2001 | Glitter | Kelly | |
| 2001 | Night at the Golden Eagle | Sally | |
| 2002 | Panic Room | Lydia Lynch | |
| 2003 | Karen Pollard | ||
| 2003 | Ghostlight | Barbara Rosen | |
| 2004 | Open House | Sarah Jane Tibbett | |
| 2004 | The Nomi Song | Herself | Interviewee |
| 2007 | Chasing Tchaikovsky | Margarita Stone | |
| 2010 | Happiness Runs | Chad's Mom | |
| 2011 | Small Pond | Luann | |
| 2011 | Woman's Picture | Miriam | |
| 2011 | Rose | Miriam Masterson | Short film |
| 2012 | Jobriath A.D. | Herself | Interviewee |
| 2013 | Only Child | Miriam Masterson (voice) | |
| 2015 | One More Time | Lucille | |
| 2017 | Mansfield 66/67 | The Voice of Jayne Mansfield |
| 1987 | Tales from Hollywood Hills: A Table at Ciro's | Darlene | TV film |
| 1988 | Alive From Off Center | presenter | PBS arts anthology series |
| 1989–1992 | Anything but Love | Catherine Hughes | Main role (50 episodes) |
| 1993 | The Hidden Room | Nina | Episode: "No Word for Mercy" |
| 1996 | Eunice Puell | Episode: "Crisis in the Love Zone" | |
| 1996 | Amanda Cox | Episode: "Black and White and Red All Over" | |
| 1996 | Lily Munster | TV film | |
| 1997 | Caroline in the City | Gina Pennetti | Episode: "Caroline and the Kept Man" |
| 1997 | Kyra Sullivan | Episode: "Check Out Drew's Old Flame" | |
| 1997 | Damian Cromwell's Postcards from America | Paula | TV film |
| 1998 | From the Earth to the Moon | Dee O'Hara | TV miniseries |
| 2002 | Bird | TV film | |
| 2002 | The Groovenians | Dully (Glindy's Mom) / Zazzy / Lalasha | TV pilot |
| 2003 | Wanda at Large | Rita Bahlberg | Episode: "Wanda & Bradley" |
| 2003–2008 | All Grown Up! | Miss O'Keats (voice) | Recurring role |
| 2004 | Frasier | Harvest | Episode: "Match Game" |
| 2004 | Quintuplets | Yolanda | Episode: "Working It" |
| 2004 | Ms. Arena | Episode: "Crime Wave" | |
| 2006 | Our House | Geena | TV film |
| 2007 | American Dad! | Lisa Collins (voice) | Episode: "I Can't Stan You" |
| 2009 | Valentine | Circe | Episode: "Hound Dog" |
| 2013 | Modern Family | Shelley | Episode: "Goodnight Gracie" |
| 2013 | Madame Miranda | TV series | |
| 2014 | Looking | Stina | Episodes: "Looking for Now", "Looking at Your Browser History" |
| 2018 | Superior Donuts | Irene | Episode: "The Chicago Way" |
| 2018-2019 | The Man in the High Castle | Caroline Abendsen | Episodes: "Now More Than Ever, We Care About You", "History Ends", "Excess Animus", "Baku", "Jahr Null", "Happy Trails" |
| 2019 | Titans | Jillian | 2 episodes |
| 2020 | Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy | 2 episodes | |
| 2021 | Gossip Girl | Donna Calloway | Episode: "You Can't Take It with Jules" |
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