Rutanya Alda

Actress / Author / Producer

Rutanya Alda has been a distinguished actress in film, television, and theater for over 40 years. She is also the only Latvian-born actress who has been voted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Rutanya has appeared in over 100 movies and television shows. She began her illustrious career with two early films by Brian De Palma, “Greetings” and “Hi, Mom!”, in which she starred with Robert De Niro. Following these, she appeared in such highly acclaimed films as “Panic in Needle Park”, “Scarecrow”, “The Long Goodbye”, Sam Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid”, George Romero’s “The Dark Half”,”Last Exit To Brooklyn”, “Racing With The Moon”, the Christmas perennial “Prancer”, and the Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter”, where she reteamed with Robert De Niro.

At present, Rutanya has the distinction of being a cult icon in two categories: “Amityville II: The Possession”, in which she stars opposite Burt Young, and “Mommie Dearest”, about which she published her first book, the critically and reader-acclaimed “The Mommie Dearest Diary”.

Rutanya has appeared in dozens of theater plays, recently including Tennessee Williams’ “The Fat Man’s Wife”, “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s” at Theater Row, “The Portrait” at Theater 54, and John Guare’s new play “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven”.

She is presently writing a one woman show based on her childhood living in a displaced persons camp in Europe after World War II.