Roberta Maxwell

Though best known for her award-winning performances on the stage, Canadian actress Roberta Maxwell made scores of film and television appearances in her career. Her TV debut came in 1955, when she served as host on "Junior Magazine," a variety program aimed at teenagers. She went on to become the youngest apprentice at the lauded Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. It was here that her theatrical career took off, with roles in a variety of Shakespeare productions. When not on stage, she was often acting in a television or film production. In 1983, these paths collided when the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's production of "As You Like It" was captured for Canadian television, and Maxwell's performance in the cross-dressing lead role of Rosalind was seen by the entire nation. This led to Maxwell fronting her own television show, "Air Waves," a dramedy in which she played a widowed radio host. The series lasted two seasons, after which Maxwell returned to the theater. In the 1990s, Maxwell drew notice stateside with supporting roles in two Oscar-winning dramas about social issues. First, she played a judge in Jonathan Demme's "Philadelphia," the 1993 film that tackled the subject of prejudice against AIDS patients. In 1995, Maxwell was cast as the mother of a death row inmate in Tim Robbins' "Dead Man Walking," a movie about capital punishment. Since then, Maxwell has continued to balance work in theater, film, and television, working in both Canada and the United States.