Betsy Aidem

Betsy Aidem
Aidem in 2024
Born	(1957-10-28) October 28, 1957 (age 67) East Meadow, Long Island, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actress, director
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	William Fichtner ​ ​ (m. 1987; div. 1996)​
Children	1

Betsy Aidem (born October 28, 1957) is an American actress.

Her film work includes The Bleeding House, See You in the Morning, A Vigilante, and Aeris. Her television work includes The High Life and The Americans, appearing in the latter in the episodes "Safe House" and "Covert War".

Her stage work includes Steel Magnolias and Five Women Wearing the Same Dress. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Prayer for the French Republic. In 2007, she was given an Obie Award for "sustained excellence of performance" for her work Off-Broadway.^[1]

Background

^[2] Aidem first became interested in acting while she was in high school. Her debut was as a fairy in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[3] She is also a stage play director and her first professional production was in 2018, A Doll's House, Part 2, which was a stage production of the Lucas Hnath comedy.^[4] She was the first wife of William Fichtner and had a child with him.^[5]

Career

Stage work

Midway through 2009, Aidem was in Nicki Bloom's Tender, a story about an act of violence that destroys a family. The play, directed by Daniela Topol, also starred Kerry Bishé, Michael Cullen, and Matt Dellapina.^[6] In October 2018, she appeared as the loony and flamboyant Professor Carroway in Love Course which was about two eccentric neurotics, Carroway and Professor Burgess, teaching a course in romantic literature and two students who attend the course and end up teaching it.^[7][8]

Film work

Her earliest film work was in the 1982 film A Little Sex, where she played a passer-by.^[9] In 1985, she appeared in the television film Kojak: The Belarus File as Elissa Barak.^[10]

She appeared in Sarah Daggar-Nickson's 2018 film A Vigilante which starred Olivia Wilde, Morgan Spector and Kyle Catlett.^[11] Also that year she was in Aeris, a film about a couple adopting a sick kitten.^[12]

Television shows

Her work on television shows includes reoccurring roles on The High Life as Irene,^[13][14] and as Dr. Sloane on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.^[15][16]

Stage appearances

Title	Role	Director	Year	Notes #
Balm in Gilead	Kay	John Malkovich	1984	Off-Broadway
Crossing the Bar	Performer	Jerry Zaks	1985	Off-Broadway
A Lie of the Mind	Sally	Sam Shepard	1985	Off-Broadway
Steel Magnolias	Shelby	Pamela Berlin	1987	Off-Broadway
Road	Carol	Simon Curtis	1987	Off-Broadway
The Night Hank Williams Died	Nellie Bess Powers Clark	Christopher Ashley	1989	Off-Broadway
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress	Georgeanne	Melia Bensussen	1993	Off-Broadway
Teible and Her Demon	Teible	Daniel Gerroll	1994	Off-Broadway
The Butterfly Collection	Performer	Bartlett Sher	2000	Off-Broadway
Good Thing	Nancy Roy	Jo Bonney	2001	Off-Broadway
Sea of Tranquility	Phyllis	Neil Pepe	2004	Off-Broadway
Celebration and The Room	Julie	Neil Pepe	2005	Off-Broadway
Mary Rose	Mrs. Moreland	Tina Landau	2007	Off-Broadway
Crooked	Elise	Liz Diamond	2008	Off-Broadway
Tender		Daniela Topol	2009	Off-Broadway
The Metal Children	Lynne / Roberta Cupp	Adam Rapp	2010	Off-Broadway
Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling	Performer	Neil Pepe	2011	Off-Broadway
Nikolai and the Others	Lisa Sokoloff	David Cromer	2013	Off-Broadway
All the Way	Lady Bird Johnson / various	Bill Rauch	2014	Broadway[17]
Mama's Boy	Marguerite Oswald	Brian P. Allen	2015	Regional[18]
Final Follies	Wilma Trumbo/Professor Carroway	David Saint	2018	Off-Broadway
Prayer for the French Republic	Marcelle Salomon Benhamou	David Cromer	2022	Off-Broadway
Leopoldstadt	Grandma Emilia	Patrick Marber	2022	Original Broadway Production
Prayer for the French Republic	Marcelle Salomon Benhamou	David Cromer	2023	Original Broadway Production

Partial filmography

Title	Role	Director	Year	Notes
A Little Sex	Passerby	Bruce Paltrow	1982
Kojak: The Belarus File	Elissa Barak	Robert Markowitz	1985
See You in the Morning	Larry's Sister-in-Law	Alan J. Pakula	1989
Fool's Fire	Lady Angela	Julie Taymor	1992
Nine Months	Gail's Nurse	Chris Columbus	1995
Music of the Heart	Mrs Lamb	Wes Craven	1999
You Can Count on Me	Minister	Kenneth Lonergan	2000
Maze	Lydia	Rob Morrow	2000
Far from Heaven	Pool Mother	Todd Haynes	2002
People I Know	Talia Greene	Dan Algrant	2002
Winter Passing	Nurse	Adam Rapp	2005
Confess	Julie Bradford	Stefan Schaefer	2005
The Attic	Ms. Kettering	Mary Lambert	2007
Motherhood	Jordan's Mom	Katherine Dieckmann	2009
The Bleeding	Marilyn	Philip Gelatt	2011
Mr. Popper's Penguins	Tavern Hostess	Mark Waters	2011
The Oranges	Anne Allen	Julian Farino	2011
Margaret	Abigail	Kenneth Lonergan	2011
Arbitrage	Vogler's Secretary	Nicholas Jarecki	2012
The Greatest Showman	Mrs. Carlyle	Michael Gracey	2017
A Vigilante	Andrea Shaund	Sarah Daggar-Nickson	2018

References

1. Obie Awards 2007 List accessed 05-05-2024
2. Playbill, September 12, 2018 - Off-Broadway News, Final Follies, a Trio of One-Act Plays by A.R. Gurney, Begins Off-Broadway By Olivia Clement Archived 2019-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
3. Broadway World, Oct. 10, 2016 - BWW Interview: Betsy Aidem and MAMA'S BOY at George Street Playhouse 10/18 to 11/6 by Marina Kennedy Archived 2019-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
4. New Jersey Stage, 11/19/2018 - A Look At Betsy Aidem, Director of "A Doll's House, Part 2" at George Street Playhouse By Charles Paolino Archived 2019-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
5. The Globe and Mail, February 25, 2011 - There's more to William Fichtner than crazy roles Johanna Schneller Archived 2020-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
6. TheaterMainia, June 23, 2009 - THEATER NEWS, Ari Graynor, Doug Kreeger, Peter Scanavino, Ally Sheedy, et al. Set for 2009 Summer Play Festival - Brian Scott Lipton Archived 2019-03-27 at the Wayback Machine
7. The New York Observer, 10/04/18 - REVIEW, A.R. Gurney Listened to Critics, Wrote This Triptych of Stupidity By Rex Reed Archived 2019-03-27 at the Wayback Machine
8. New York Theatre Guide, October 8, 2018 - Review of Primary Stages' Final Follies at Cherry Lane Theatre - Review By: David Walters Archived 2019-03-27 at the Wayback Machine
9. Rotten Tomatoes - Betsy Aidem, Filmography, Movies Archived 2019-03-18 at the Wayback Machine
10. Unsold Television Pilots: 1955-1989, By Lee Goldberg - 2046. The Return of Kojak (aka Kojak: The Belarus File) Archived 2022-08-11 at the Wayback Machine
11. The Hollywood Reporter, 3/11/2018 - 'A Vigilante': Film Review | SXSW 2018 by John DeFore Archived 2019-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
12. Rotten Tomatoes - Aeris (2018) Archived 2020-07-31 at the Wayback Machine
13. Variety Magazine, November 4, 1996 - The High Life By Jeremy Gerard Archived 2019-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
14. Single Season Sitcoms of the 1990s: A Complete Guide, By Bob Leszczak - Page 84 Single Season Sitcoms of the 1990s Archived 2022-08-11 at the Wayback Machine
15. TV.com - Betsy Aidem, Credits, Guest Star Archived 2019-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
16. Who Was Who on TV, Volume 2, By Norman Chance - Page 282 Archived 2022-08-11 at the Wayback Machine
17. Broadway World - Betsy Aidem Broadway and Theatre Credits, Stage Performances Archived 2019-01-25 at the Wayback Machine
18. Boyle, April (Nov 3, 2015). "Theater Review: 'Mama's Boy' an intriguing play about Oswald family". Portland Press Herald. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved Dec 27, 2020.

External links

• Betsy Aidem at IMDb