Lois Arlene Smith (née Humbert; born November 3, 1930) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film East of Eden, and later played supporting roles in a number of movies, including Five Easy Pieces (1970), Resurrection (1980), Fatal Attraction (1987), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Dead Man Walking, Twister (1996), Minority Report (2002), The Nice Guys (2016) and Lady Bird (2017). In 2017, Smith received critical acclaim for her leading performance in the science-fiction drama film Marjorie Prime, for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards and Saturn Award, and well as won Satellite Award. Smith also has had many roles on television, both daytime and prime time. She was regular cast member in the HBO horror drama True Blood, and well as received Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series nomination for The Americans. Smith also is known for her extensive work in the theatre, receiving two Tony Award nominations for originating the role of Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1990) and for the role of Halie in a revival of Buried Child in 1996. She also starred in an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of The Trip to Bountiful in 2005 for which she received an Obie Award for Best Actress, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and a Drama Desk Award. Smith is an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lois Smith, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography

• 2025Lightning Bug — Lydia
• 2025On the End — Trudie Ferreira
• 2025The Gettysburg Address — Elizabeth Crawford (voice)
• 2025The Uninvited — Helen
• Elsbeth — Delores Feinn
• 2022Mack & Rita — Betty
• This Fool — Beverly
• Gossip Girl — Iris Lefferts
• Law & Order: Organized Crime — Doris 'Mama' Boone
• 2021The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun — Upshur 'Maw' Clampette
• 2020Tesla — The Grande Dame
• 2020The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America — Harper Pitt
• 2020Uncle Frank — Aunt Butch
• On Becoming a God in Central Florida — Mimi Waldenstock
• Impulse — Deirdre 'Dippy' Jones
• 9JKL — Wrong Nana
• 2017Lady Bird — Sister Sarah Joan
• 2017Marjorie Prime — Marjorie
• 2016The Comedian — Miriam
• 2016The Nice Guys — Mrs. Glenn
• Grace and Frankie — Mrs. Hanson
• 2015Run All Night — Margaret Conlon
• Sneaky Pete — Reverend Ethel Landry
• Younger — Belinda Lacroix
• The Affair — Mrs. Gunther
• Mom — Claire
• Ray Donovan — Dolores
• The Americans — Betty Turner
• The Blacklist — Lucy Game
• 2013The Man Who Came Out Only at Night — The Youngest Daughter (later)
• 2012Roadie — Mom
• Ruth & Erica — Ruth
• 2012The Odd Life of Timothy Green — Aunt Mel
• 2010Please Give — Mrs. Portman
• 2009A Dog Year — Lois Blair
• 2008Diminished Capacity — Belle
• 2008Killshot — Lenore
• True Blood — Adele Stackhouse
• 2008Turn the River — Abby
• Army Wives — Elsie
• 2006Griffin & Phoenix — Dr. Imberman
• 2006Hollywoodland — Helen Bessolo
• 2006Little Fugitive — Elizabeth, Social Worker
• Grey's Anatomy — Mrs. Dickerson
• 2005Sweet Land — Inge (as an older woman)
• Desperate Housewives — Allison Scavo
• 2004Iron Jawed Angels — Reverend Anna Howard Shaw
• LAX — Rose Sinclair
• 2004P.S. — Ellie Silverstein
• 2004The Best Thief in the World — Helen
• 2003A Foreign Affair — Ma Adams
• Cold Case — Fannie
• 2003Red Betsy — Helen Rounds
• 2002Minority Report — Dr. Iris Hineman
• 2002The Laramie Project — Lucy Thompson
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent — Betty Bennett
• 2001Powder Keg — Mother
• The Hire — Mother
• 2001The Pledge — Helen Jackson
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — Rebecca Tolliver
• 1999Tumbleweeds — Ginger
• A Will of their Own — Miss Maude
• 1998The Eternal — Mrs. Ferriter
• 1997Eye of God — Thanks
• 1997Hudson River Blues — Julia
• Just Shoot Me! — Libby
• The Practice — Mary Beth Berluti
• 1996Larger Than Life — Luluna
• 1996Twister — Aunt Meg
• 1995Dead Man Walking — Helen's Mother
• 1995How to Make an American Quilt — Sophia
• 1995Truman — Madge Wallace Gates
• ER — Gracie
• 1994Holy Matrimony — Orna
• Touched by an Angel — Mildred Mancini
• 1993Falling Down — D-Fens' Mother
• Frasier — Moira
• 1993Skylark — Lou Wheaton
• 1992Deadly Matrimony
• 1992Hard Promises — Mrs. Bell
• 1992Keep the Change — Lureen
• 1992The Donner Party — voice
• 1991Coney Island — (voice)
• 1991Fried Green Tomatoes — Mama Threadgoode
• Good Sports — Mrs. Tannen
• Switched at Birth — Margaret
• 1991The Grapes of Wrath — Ma Joad
• 1991White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd — Alice Todd
• 1990Green Card — Brontë's Mother
• Law & Order — Eunice Varick
• American Experience — (voice)
• 1988Midnight Run — Mrs. Nelson, Mardukas's Friend
• 1987Black Widow — Sara
• 1987Fatal Attraction — Martha
• thirtysomething
• 1985Doubletake — Sarah
• Spenser: For Hire
• The Equalizer — Marie Ganucci, Dorothy Hermes
• 1985The Execution of Raymond Graham — Mary Neal
• 1985Twisted — Helen Giles
• 1984Reckless — Mrs. Prescott
• Rage of Angels — Clara
• 1983Reuben, Reuben — Mare Spofford
• American Playhouse — Ma Joad
• 1981Four Friends — Mrs. Carnahan
• 1981The House of Mirth — Bertha Dorset
• 1980Foxes — Mrs. Axman
• 1980Resurrection — Kathy
• 1980The Jilting of Granny Weatherall — Cornelia
• Tales of the Unexpected — Sara
• 1976Next Stop, Greenwich Village — Anita Cunningham
• 1972Particular Men — Anne Starr
• 1972Up the Sandbox — Elinore
• 1970Dragon Country — Woman (segment "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen")
• 1970Five Easy Pieces — Partita Dupea
• 1970The Way We Live Now — Jane Aldridge
• 1967Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night — Evelyn
• CBS Playhouse — Evelyn
• Dr. Kildare — Libby Clayton
• The Defenders — Esther Terranova
• Route 66 — Dana, Lucy Brown
• 1960The Master Builder — Hilda
• Startime — Cindy
• Naked City — Dawn Garrison
• 1955East of Eden — Anne
• Matinee Theater
• 1955Strange Lady in Town — Spurs O'Brien
• Letter to Loretta — Jenny Musgrave
• The United States Steel Hour — Jeannie
• Robert Montgomery Presents
• Studio One — Lisa Molloy
• The Steel Harp — Hanna

Appearances as themselves (4)

• 2014Showing Up — Self
• 2005James Dean: Sense Memories — Self
• 1988Hello Actors Studio — Self
• Tony Awards — Self - Nominee / Performer