Lee Grant (October 31, 1927 in New York, New York) is an American theater, film and television actress, and film director.
Born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal, Grant performed as a ballerina with the New York Metropolitan Opera at the age of four, and during her childhood studied dance and acting. She established herself as a dramatic actress on Broadway while a teenager and was praised for her role as a shoplifter in the play Detective Story. She made her film debut in the movie version and received her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination, and won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify against her husband, the playwright Arnold Manoff, Grant refused to testify and was ultimately blacklisted. She continued to work in theater and resumed her film career in the early 1960s, and also appeared in the television series Peyton Place.
She received Academy Award nominations for The Landlord (1970), and Voyage of the Damned (1977). She won an Oscar for Shampoo (1975). She has also directed several documentary films, including Down and Out in America (1986) which won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. In recent years she has directed a series of Intimate Portrait episodes, that celebrate a diverse range of accomplished women.
Her other film roles include In the Heat of the Night (1967), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Plaza Suite (1971), Portnoy's Complaint (1972), Airport '77 (1977), Damien:Omen II (1978), When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979), Defending Your Life (1992) and Mulholland Drive (2001).
Grant is the mother of the actress Dinah Manoff.