Joan Allen

 ( 20th-century American Actresses ) 

The following year Allen played Elizabeth Proctor, a woman accused of witchcraft, in The Crucible (1996). Allen acted opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in the Nicholas Hytner directed film based on the Arthur Miller The Crucible. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly hailed Allen's performance writing, "It's Joan Allen who carries the weight of the film's sorrow, eyes glistening with woe as she delivers the heartbreaking confession to her husband". She received the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The following year she starred in the drama The Ice Storm directed by Ang Lee, playing an unsatisfied woman who discovers her husband is having an affair with a neighbor. Allen acted opposite Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci, and Tobey Maguire. The Hollywood Reporter named it her best film performance writing, "Allen is exquisitely contained, embodying the awkward grace and indefinable ache." She also had a supporting role in the science fiction action film Face/Off (1997).

In 1998 Allen starred in the Gary Ross-directed fantasy comedy-drama Pleasantville (1998). Allen acted alongside Jeff Daniels, Reese Witherspoon, and Tobey Maguire. For her performance she won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film was compared favorably to The Truman Show also released in 1998. Joe Leydon of Variety wrote, "Allen is equally effective in her subtle transformation from docile Stepford Wife to yearning free spirit". The following year she acted in It's the Rage (1999) based on the Keith Reddin play of the same name and When the Sky Falls (2000). Both film received negative reviews with some praise for Allen's performance.

She was also nominated for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her role in the political drama The Contender (2000). In the film she portrayed a politician who becomes the object of scandal. She starred opposite Jeff Bridges and Gary Oldman. In 2001, Allen starred in the mini-series The Mists of Avalon on TNT and earned a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nomination for the role. Joan Allen Emmy Nominated In 2003 she starred in Off the Map which premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2009, Allen starred as Georgia O'Keeffe in Lifetime Television's 2009 biopic chronicling the artist's life. Allen returned to Broadway after a twenty-year absence in March 2009, when she played the role of Katherine Keenan in Michael Jacobs' play Impressionism opposite Jeremy Irons at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. The play was met with mixed reviews from critics. The New Yorker wrote the play "is as awkward as it is sublime", noting its "brazen sweetness" and "openhearted humor". Allen voiced the character Delphine in Bethesda Softworks' 2011 video game . She also voiced Deborah in the Thomas Nelson audio Bible production known as The Word of Promise. The project also featured a large ensemble of well known Hollywood actors including Jim Caviezel, Lou Gossett Jr., John Rhys-Davies, Jon Voight, Gary Sinise, Christopher McDonald, Marisa Tomei and John Schneider. In 2015, Allen signed for the leading role in the ABC drama series The Family, playing the role of villainous and manipulative mayor and matriarch of her family.

After a nine-year absence from Broadway, Allen played Ellen Fine in the critically acclaimed Broadway premiere production of the Kenneth Lonergan play The Waverly Gallery in 2018, alongside Elaine May, Lucas Hedges, and Michael Cera at the John Golden Theatre. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised Allen's performance writing, "Allen in a standout performance of tremendous raw feeling and sorrow". After a five-year break from acting in movies and television, she co-starred with Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Lisey's Story, the 2021 Apple TV miniseries adapted by Stephen King from his own novel. It was Allen's second King adaptation after playing the lead role in the 2014 movie, A Good Marriage. She then appeared alongside Robert De Niro and Lizzy Caplan in Netflix's conspiracy thriller limited series Zero Day.

• Joan Allen at Steppenwolf Theatre Company