Mick LaSalle May 2, 2021Updated: May 2, 2021, 7:22 pm
Olympia Dukakis and Cher won Golden Globe Awards for “Moonstruck” Dukakis for best supporting actress in a musical or comedy, Cher for best actress. Photo: Reed Saxon, Associated Press 1988
Olympia Dukakis, the Academy Award-winning stage and screen actress who died Saturday, May 1, less than two months before her 90th birthday, projected warmth, sparkle and intellectual curiosity in everything she did. With her silver hair and fierce eyes, she was an embodiment of strength, authenticity and clarity.
Dukakis became famous at the age of 56, when she starred as Cher’s mother in “Moonstruck.” Like Gene Hackman, she had an aura of maturity and it took years for her to age into her natural terrain as a screen actress that of a matriarch. Once she reached that ideal age somewhere around 60 she seemed to magically stay there for at least three decades.