Ivey won two Tony Awards as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Steaming in 1983 and Hurlyburly in 1985. She was also nominated for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard in 1992 and a revival of The Heiress in 2013. Other Broadway theatre credits include Piaf, Bedroom Farce, Blithe Spirit, Voices in the Dark, and Follies. She portrayed Amanda in The Glass Menagerie at the Long Wharf Theatre and reprised the role in March 2010 at the Roundabout Theatre in New York, as well as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She received the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress for that portrayal. Ivey portrayed Ann Landers in the solo play The Lady With All the Answers at the Cherry Lane Theatre in October 2009. She was nominated for Best Solo Performance for the Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award. In 2016, she returned to the Cherry Lane Theatre in Israel Horovitz's play Out Of The Mouths Of Babes with Estelle Parsons, directed by Barnet Kellman. Ivey has appeared in numerous films, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Miles from Home, Compromising Positions, Harry & Son, The Woman in Red, Sister, Sister, In Country, Hello Again, The Lonely Guy, There Goes the Neighborhood, The Devil's Advocate, What Alice Found, and Flags of Our Fathers. Despite a long history of theater and film performances, Ivey is often associated with the role of B.J. Poteet in the final season of Designing Women. She appeared on Will & Grace as the mother of Dr. Leo Markus, and also appeared on Grey's Anatomy, Person of Interest, White Collar, Nurse Jackie, Big Love, and . Other television roles include starring roles as Kate McCrorey in the 1990–91 series Down Home, set in a Texas coastal town, Alexandra Buchanan in the short-lived series The 5 Mrs. Buchanans, and "Buddies" with Dave Chappelle. Ivey was also in the 1985 TV remake of The Long Hot Summer, in the role of Noel Varner. The miniseries also starred Jason Robards and Don Johnson. Ivey was nominated for an Emmy for her performance in What the Deaf Man Heard, a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. She also provided the voice of Eleanor Sherman in the animated seriesThe Critic. Ivey appeared in the television miniseries Rose Red as Cathy, one of the psychics investigating a haunted house.
Personal life
Ivey was married to actor Ricardo Gutierrez. They divorced before her move to New York. She is now married to Tim Braine and the couple have two children. Ms. Ivey has a sister and a brother, Sara and James, respectively. Sara is a writer/producer/director who lives in Dallas, Texas, and James is a former professor of theater at the State University of New York at Fredonia.
