Faye Dunaway is an American star known for starring in many 1970s classics. Over a long career on stage, film, and television, she won awards ranging from an Academy Award to a BAFTA.
She started out on Broadway in the early 1960s after training in theatre, then broke through on screen in 1967 with early film roles and her star-making performance as Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde, which earned her an Oscar nomination. A run of landmark films followed, including The Thomas Crown Affair, Little Big Man, Chinatown (another Oscar nomination), The Towering Inferno, Three Days of the Condor, and Network, where her portrayal of ruthless TV executive Diana Christensen won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Unlike many of her contemporaries, she was a fiercely private individual, rarely stirring up controversy or speaking out publicly.
Late in her career, Dunaway took on more polarizing roles, like her portrayal of Joan Crawford for Mommie Dearest, based on the controversial biography that resulted in Crawford’s daughters becoming embroiled in a 1998 defamation lawsuit.
Other later films included Barfly, The Handmaid’s Tale, Arizona Dream, and The Rules of Attraction. The stage never stopped holding a place in her life. Her later theater work included Master Class, a role that earned her the Sarah Siddons Award for her portrayal of Maria Callas.
Her legacy has been revisited recently through public moments like the 2017 Oscars Best Picture envelope mix-up and the 2024 documentary Faye, where she discussed her bipolar disorder diagnosis and a history of alcoholism.
