From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dinah Beth Manoff (born January 25, 1958) is an American stage and film actress and television director.

Career

In 1975, Dinah Manoff got accepted into the actors studio in her hometown New York at the age of 17. About a year later, Dinah would make her first television appearance on the PBS production of The Stronger. That would be followed up with a guest appearance on Welcome Back, Kotter with John Travolta. In '77 Dinah got a minor role in her first TV movie, Raid on Entebbe]]. In 1978, Manoff got the role of Elaine Lefkowitz Dallas on the TV sitcom Soap. That same year, Dinah made it to the big screen for the first time in what is one of her most recognized roles as Marty Maraschino, one of the Pink Ladies (along with Stockard Channing as Betty Rizzo, Didi Conn as Frenchy and Jamie Donnelly as Jan) in the movie Grease. In 1980, Manoff won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play, and the Theatre World Award for her performance in the Broadway play, I Ought to Be in Pictures. In 1982 she reprised her role for the film version, starring with Walter Matthau and Ann-Margret. She played Karen in Ordinary People and got a little more than five minutes of camera time. That movie would win many academy awards. In 1985, she portrayed songwriter Ellie Greenwich in the Broadway jukebox musical Leader of the Pack. In 1988 she played Maggie Peterson in Child's Play. Dinah would also start a seven year stint as Carol Weston on Empty Nest. Other film appearances include Staying Together in which she reunited with Stockard Channing, and Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael in 1990.

After that, Manoff would appear in only three movies within the next 20 years: 2000's The Amati Girls, the only movie she and her mother Lee Grant would appear in together, 2001's Zigs, and Bart Got a Room in 2009.

She also co-starred in the cable television series State of Grace.

Personal life

Manoff was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of actress/director/writer Lee Grant (née Lyova Rosenthal) and screenwriter Arnold Manoff.^[1] She is of Russian Jewish descent. Manoff is married to Arthur Mortell since 1997. Dinah has three boys, Dashiell Manoff, (born in 1997), and twin boys Oliver and Desi (born January 18, 2002, exactly one week before Dinah's 44th birthday). As of 2009, the family lives on Bainbridge Island in Washington. Manoff is currently working at Bainbridge Performing Arts.

Filmography

As actress

References

External links

• Dinah Manoff at the Internet Broadway Database
• Dinah Manoff at the Internet Movie Database
• Dinah Manoff at TV.com