Stephanie Zimbalist

Background

Stephanie Zimbalist was born in New York City, the daughter of Loranda Stephanie (née Spalding, 1933–2007) and actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (1918–2014). The family soon moved to Los Angeles, where Stephanie grew up. She was educated at the Marlborough School (Los Angeles) and graduated from Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia. She attended the Juilliard School before commencing her acting career.

Zimbalist's paternal grandfather, Efrem Zimbalist, born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, was a world-famous concert violinist, music teacher at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and composer. Her paternal grandmother, Alma Gluck, born in Romania, was a leading soprano of her day. Zimbalist's aunt, Marcia Davenport, was a prominent author, music journalist and historian.

Television and film career

Stephanie Zimbalist's early television and movie appearances include The Gathering (1977, with Edward Asner), Forever (1978), The Magic of Lassie (1978), The Long Journey Back (TV, 1978), The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979), The Awakening (1980, with Charlton Heston), The Golden Moment (1980), in which she played a Soviet Olympic gymnast, and Tomorrow's Child (TV, 1982). She co-starred with her father, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., in the tragic 1979 TV movie The Best Place to Be.

Another early role for Zimbalist was that of Elly Zendt in the mini-series Centennial, based on James Michener's epic novel of the same name, which was first televised on NBC between October 1978 and February 1979. She also guest starred as Josephine "Josie" Collins in the television series Family episode "Ballerina" (1979).

In her TV work, Zimbalist is best known in the TV role of female sleuth Laura Holt in the NBC series Remington Steele (1982–87) opposite Pierce Brosnan and Doris Roberts, on which her father also guest-starred.

Since then, Zimbalist has taken leading roles in several television movies such as The Man in the Brown Suit (1988), the Emmy Award winning Caroline? (1990), The Great Elephant Escape (1995), and some guest roles in television series such as Touched by an Angel and Diagnosis Murder.

Theater

Onstage, Zimbalist played opposite Tommy Tune in the touring musical My One and Only, taking the featured role of "Edith Herbert". She has made several appearances with the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, California, winning the local critics' "Robby Award" for Best Actress in a Drama in The Rainmaker, at the Rubicon community theatre in 2001. Throughout the 2000s, Zimbalist took roles in plays concerning nineteenth-century artists including Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Van Gogh. In 2009 she portrayed actress Katharine Hepburn in Tea at Five.

Other work

Zimbalist has also released audiobooks, including The Girls, which won a Listen-Up award in 2006, and Queen of the Underworld.

She appeared in the 2006 documentary Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars. She also played Christa McAuliffe in the play Defying Gravity in 2003, written by Jane Anderson.