Claudette Nevins

Life and acting career

Claudette Nevins was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She is a daughter of merchant Joseph Weintraub and garment worker Anna Lander, both of whom emigrated to America from small towns in Austria. Nevins is a graduate of the School of Performing Arts and a 1957 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of New York University with a degree in English.

Nevins' first stage work in New York was on Broadway in The Wall (Millard Lampell's adaptation of John Hersey's novel about the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto) with George C. Scott. Subsequent NY stage appearances include Plaza Suite (Broadway) with George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton, Danton's Death (Lincoln Center), and In White America (off-Broadway) with Gloria Foster and Moses Gunn.

The National Company of The Great White Hope, in which she starred with Brock Peters, brought her to Los Angeles, after which she began working in television. For two and a half years she was seen in the long-running daytime soap opera Love of Life playing Laurie Krakauer. As a series regular, she was seen in Headmaster (opposite Andy Griffith), Husbands, Wives, and Lovers, and Married: the First Year (a David Jacobs project). Her guest star appearances include Beverly Hills 90210, Barnaby Jones, Melrose Place, JAG, Three's Company, Lou Grant, Without a Trace, M*A*S*H, and many others.

Her first film was the 1961 3D feature The Mask, which later became a cult classic. Other feature film appearances include Sleeping With the Enemy (Julia Roberts), All the Marbles (Peter Falk), and Tuff Turf (James Spader).

Her work in regional theaters includes the following: Arena Stage: Major Barbara, The Iceman Cometh, Ring Round the Moon, The Cherry Orchard; Atlanta Repertory: King Arther, The Hostage, The Little Foxes, Major Barbara, The Homecoming, You Can't Take It With You, Twelfth Night; LA Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors; La Mirada: Blithe Spirit.

Nevins is a member of the Matrix Theatre Company, where she appeared in Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus, J. B. Priestley's Dangerous Corner, Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, and The Water Children. Other stage appearances in Los Angeles include Passion Play (Taper), Isn't it Romantic? (Pasadena), P.S. Your Cat is Dead (Westwood) and Philadelphia Story (Court).

Currently, she is a member of the Antaeus Company and with them has done staged readings of Noël Coward's Hay Fever, O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, and Shakespeare's Richard III and King John.

In addition, she has extensive on-camera and voice-over commercial credits.

Present life and family

Formerly married to Elliot Nevins, Nevins is now married to real estate investor Benjamin L. Pick with whom she has two daughters, Jessica and Sabrina.