Judith Ivey was born September 4, 1951 in El Paso, Texas, to Dorothy Lee (Lewis), a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean. From 1965-1968, Judith spent time in Dowagiac, Michigan where she attended Union High School until tenth grade. She graduated from Marion High School in Marion, Illinois in 1970, followed by enrollment at John A. Logan College, and later, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Illinois State University.
Ivey was not quite yet a Tony Award-winner, but already a prolific Broadway and stage actress when she made her film debut appearance as Steve Martin's love interest in Arthur Hiller's The Lonely Guy (1984). She then went on to star as Jennifer Jason Leigh's older sister in the Southern Gothic thriller Sister, Sister (1987). She came to star (despite her impressive resume) as what would be her better remembered role, Texan B.J. Poteet in the last season of Femmes d'affaires et dames de coeur (1986). Other notable characters she has played in film include, Keanu Reeves devout-Baptist, yet humble mother in L'associé du diable (1997), one-of-three intrepid psychics investigating a haunted house in Stephen King's three-part miniseries Rose Red (2002), and the recurring role of Debra Messing's mother-in-law Eleanor Markus on Will & Grace (1998).
