Christine Lahti (Actor)

"I know there are things about her that people don't like, but I don't care. I just love her. I think she has a great heart; she just makes mistakes. You know, she's human."---Lahti on her "Chicago Hope" character to The New York Times, February 15, 1998.

"I love to play these crazy, neurotic and vulnerable women."---Christine Lahti to The New York Post, 1980.

"I think the way my career has gone has been absolutely right. It's been slow and steady. Because I'm not a big star, I've been able to take risks."---Christine Lahti quoted in the "The Baby Boomers" by James Robert Parish and Don Stanke, 1992.

For the 1989 CBS movie "No Place Like Home", directed by Lee Grant, Lahti earned Best Actress honors at the Third Annual FIPA (Festival International da Programmes Audiovisuels) in Cannes, France.

In a memorable, show-stopping absence that generated considerable publicity, Lahti ended up in the ladies' room at the exact instant she was to accept her 1997 Golden Globe Award as best actress in a drama series for her role as Dr Kathryn Austin on "Chicago Hope". Enjoying the moment when she eventually hit the stage wearing a black Herve Leger gown and wide-screen grin, she grabbed a dinner napkin from Robin Williams and used it nonchalantly to dry her hands.

Lahti once turned down a plum national TV commercial, rather than have sex . . . with two directors [the price for her big break]: "I should have done it. It would have saved me a lot of time. When I turned him [the casting agent] down he told me, 'You're not that special. You're not that gorgeous. You don't know anybody in the business. You'll never make it any other way. This is the way women have to do it.' It was such an eye-opener for me. So insulting. And it never occurred to me that I wouldn't be taken seriously for my talent. So that day I became a feminist. Since then my whole determination, my whole career has been to gain respect. It was never about fame. Never. I wanted to be respected as an actor, and now that I am, I could use a little fame and fortune."---Christine Lahti to TV Guide, August 19, 1995.

On taking a lackluster "earnest mom" role in "Hideaway" (1995): "At the time, I needed to get back to work. I had just had the twins. I needed to make some money, so I'm glad I did it. But I thought, 'I'm being wasted and I don't want to do that anymore.' I'm at my prime creatively, and suddenly I'm in an industry where I'm supposed to be invisible. Or less valuable. When I feel I'm at the peak. My peak."---Christine Lahti to The Los Angeles Times, November 20, 1995.