Biography
Rita Wilson captured film-going audiences’ hearts with her now classic crying scene in the box-office hit Sleepless in Seattle. Her subsequent feature roles were a study in contrasts – she was seen as every man’s fantasy cocktail waitress in That Thing You Do, followed by her portrayal of the perfect suburban wife opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way. Wilson also had a recurring role as astronaut Frank Borman’s wife Susan in the Emmy-Award winning 12-part HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon.
In 1999, Wilson appeared in Runaway Bride as Richard Gere’s ex-wife and boss. The film also stared Julia Roberts and was directed by Garry Marshall. Following that, Wilson co-starred as Michelle Pfeiffer’s best friend in The Story of Us, opposite Bruce Willis, for director Rob Reiner.
Prior to that, Wilson was involved in several projects including a role as a secretary in the highly anticipated remake of Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter, Pat, played the role in the original film. She also appeared in Invisible Child, a Lifetime original movie directed by Joan Micklin Silver and written by Ron Bass and David Field. Wilson starred opposite Victor Garber as a woman with an imaginary child.
Wilson’s other feature credits include Now and Then, with Demi Moore, Rosie O’Donnell and Melanie Griffith; Nora Ephron’s Mixed Nuts, in which she proved the perfect foil opposite Steve Martin, it also co-starred Madeline Kahn, Juliette Lewis and Adam Sandler; If These Walls Could Talk, Bonfire of the Vanities and Volunteers (where she met husband Tom Hanks).
On television, Wilson starred in HBO’s Barbarians at the Gate, as well as several highly lauded guest roles on Frasier and HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Early in her career, Wilson accepted an invitation to work and train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. During her year in England, she appeared in numerous stage productions, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Oresteia, and Tis Pity She’s a Whore, all at the Macowan Theater in London. Her performance as Celia at the John Anson Ford Theater in Los Angeles in As You Like It earned her a Drama-Logue Award as best actress.
Sony Pictures Classics
Actress
Movies | |
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2023 |
Asteroid City |
2022 |
KIMI |
2021 |
Facing the Wind |
2020 |
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan |
Love Is Love Is Love |
|
2019 |
Emmett |
2018 |
A Simple Wedding |
Gloria Bell |
|
2016 |
Brother Nature |
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 |
|
2014 |
Kiss Me |
Stranded |
|
2012 |
Jewtopia |
2011 |
The Art of Getting By |
2009 |
It's Complicated |
Old Dogs |
|
2006 |
Beautiful Ohio |
2005 |
The Chumscrubber |
2004 |
Raise Your Voice |
2002 |
Auto Focus |
2001 |
Perfume |
The Glass House |
|
1999 |
Invisible Child (TV movie) |
Runaway Bride |
|
The Story of Us |
|
1998 |
Psycho |
1996 |
If These Walls Could Talk (TV movie) |
Jingle All the Way |
|
No Dogs Allowed |
|
The Wonders |
|
1995 |
Now and Then |
1994 |
Mixed Nuts |
1993 |
Barbarians at the Gate (TV movie) |
Sleepless in Seattle |
|
1990 |
Sisters (TV movie) |
The Bonfire of the Vanities |
|
1985 |
Volunteers |
1980 |
Cheech & Chong's Next Movie |
1978 |
Flying High (TV movie) |
1977 |
The Day It Came to Earth |
1966 |
Spinout |
Documentaries | |
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2022 |
Killing Me Softly with His Songs |
2018 |
Always at the Carlyle |
2015 |
Everything Is Copy |
2014 |
Bystander Revolution (series) |
2012 |
Who Do You Think You Are? (series) |
Rita Wilson (S03E07) |
|
2007 |
Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation (TV movie) |
2005 |
Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D |
1999 |
'Psycho' Path |
Famous Families (series) |
|
Saturday Night Live 25 (TV movie) |
|
Telling the Story of Us (TV movie) |
Music videos | |
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2015 |
Rita Wilson: Girls Night In |
Concerts | |
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2009 |
We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial |
Short | |
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2011 |
The Carrier |
Producer
Movies | |
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2023 |
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 |
2022 |
A Man Called Otto |
2019 |
Emmett |
2016 |
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 |
2002 |
My Big Fat Greek Wedding |
Performer
Director
Short | |
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2007 |
The Trap |