Judith Ivey was born September 4, 1951 in El Paso, Texas, to Dorothy Lee (Lewis), a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college president. From 1965-1968, Judith spent time in Dowagiac, Michigan where she attended Union High School until tenth grade. She graduated from Marion High School in Marion, Illinois in 1970, followed by enrollment at John A. Logan College, and later, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Illinois State University.Ivey was awarded her first Tony Award for STEAMING while filming with Steve Martinplaying his love interest in Arthur Hiller's The Lonely Guy (1984).Her film debut was Harry and Son (1983)_ portraying a seductress of 'Paul Newman(l)' and 'Robby Benson (l)'. She then went on to star as Gene Wilder's wife in The Woman in Red (1983)_, Jennifer Jason Leigh's older sister in the Southern Gothic thriller Sister, Sister (1987), and Don Johnson's love interest in "The Long, Hot Summer"(1985)_ remake.She joined the cast of Designing Women (1992)_ in what would be one of her better remembered roles, Texan B.J. Poteet _. Other notable characters she has played in film include, Keanu Reeves devout-Baptist, yet humble mother in The Devil's Advocate (1997), the "Madam" in What Alice Found (2000)_, and the recurring role of Debra Messing's mother-in-law Eleanor Markus on Will & Grace (1998). Show less «