Today would have been the 86th birthday of the great actress Shirley Knight. Alas, she passed away in 2020, at the age of 83.
She was one of those brilliant actors who always make the films they are in much better by making the other people in the cast look good. Tom Wilkinson was like that as well.
I had the great good fortune to meet her some years back, and we got to talking about movies. At one point I mentioned her role as Beverly in the 1997 film As Good as It Gets.
There is one scene in particular in that film where it looks as though Helen Hunt is giving a bravura performance, but if you watch carefully you realize that Shirley Knight is quietly doing all the heavy lifting. “You’re the person,” I told her “who won Helen Hunt an Academy Award.”
She seemed happy that I realized that.