Biography
Lois Arlene Smith (née Humbert; born November 3, 1930) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film East of Eden, and later played supporting roles in a number of movies, including Five Easy Pieces (1970), Resurrection (1980), Fatal Attraction (1987), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Dead Man Walking, Twister (1996), Minority Report (2002), The Nice Guys (2016) and Lady Bird (2017). In 2017, Smith received critical acclaim for her lead...
Known For
Complete Filmography

The Gettysburg Address
2025
as Elizabeth Crawford (voice)
In the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln went to Gettysburg. "The Gettysburg Address" investigates the five extant copies of Lincoln's famous ...

The Uninvited
2025
as Helen
Rose and Sammy enjoy an idyllic life with love, a Hollywood Hills home, and a curious son. During a party, Sammy assigns unusual significance to it, w...

Mack & Rita
2022
as Betty
A 30-year-old spends a wild weekend in Palm Springs and wakes up to find she has magically transformed into her 70-year-old self.

The French Dispatch
2021
as Upshur 'Maw' Clampette
The staff of an American magazine based in France puts out its last issue, with stories featuring an artist sentenced to life imprisonment, student ri...

Uncle Frank
2020
as Aunt Butch
In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch's fu...

The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America
2020
as Harper Pitt
An all-star livestream benefit performance of scenes from Angels in America in support of amfAR’s Fund to Fight COVID-19.

Tesla
2020
as The Grande Dame
The story of the Promethean struggles of Nikola Tesla, as he attempts to transcend entrenched technology—including his own previous work—by pioneering...

Lady Bird
2017
as Sister Sarah Joan
Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her up...

Marjorie Prime
2017
as Marjorie
A service which creates holographic projections of late family members allows an elderly woman to spend time with a younger version of her deceased hu...

The Comedian
2016
as Miriam
An aging comic icon, Jackie Burke, has seen better days. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know...

The Nice Guys
2016
as Mrs. Glenn
A private eye investigates the apparent suicide of a fading porn star in 1970s Los Angeles and uncovers a conspiracy.

Run All Night
2015
as Margaret Conlon
Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon has seen better days. Longtime best friend of a mob boss, Jimmy is haunted by the sins of his past—...

Showing Up
2014
as Self
An unprecedented look at the audition, compiled from more than 50 interviews with notable artists including Kristin Chenoweth, Richard Griffiths, Zoe ...

The Man Who Came Out Only at Night
2013
as The Youngest Daughter (later)
In this retelling of an Italian folktale, a man marries the youngest of three sisters and shares a very strange secret with her on their wedding night...

The Odd Life of Timothy Green
2012
as Aunt Mel
A childless couple bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, a child is born, though Timothy Green is not all ...

Roadie
2012
as Mom
After 20 years on the road with Blue Oyster Cult, Jimmy Testagros returns to his hometown to life with his ailing mother. Complications arise when he ...

Please Give
2010
as Mrs. Portman
In New York City, a husband and wife butt heads with the granddaughters of the elderly woman who lives in the apartment the couple owns.

A Dog Year
2009
as Lois Blair
Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answer...

Diminished Capacity
2008
as Belle
A Chicago journalist suffering from memory loss takes leaves from his job and returns to his rural hometown, where he bonds with his Alzheimer's impai...

Turn the River
2008
as Abby
A pool shark takes the ultimate gamble when she kidnaps her own son and flees her ex-husband.

Griffin & Phoenix
2006
as Dr. Imberman
A terminally ill man falls in love with a woman who has a secret that threatens their time spent together.

Hollywoodland
2006
as Helen Bessolo
When Hollywood superstar George Reeves dies in his home, private detective Louis Simo is hired to investigate his death and gets caught in a web of li...
Little Fugitive
2006
as Elizabeth
Set in present day Brooklyn, this film is a remake of the 1953 classic, "Little Fugitive." With his father in jail and his mother working long hours a...
Little Fugitive
2006
as Social Worker
Set in present day Brooklyn, this film is a remake of the 1953 classic, "Little Fugitive." With his father in jail and his mother working long hours a...

Sweet Land
2005
as Inge (as an older woman)
Set in 1920, Inge travels from Germany to rural Minnesota in order to meet the man destined to be her husband.

James Dean: Sense Memories
2005
as Self
Documentary exploring the last 18 months of James Dean's acting career.

P.S.
2004
as Ellie Silverstein
Louise, an unfulfilled divorced woman with regrets, gets the chance to relive her past when she meets a young man who bears an uncanny resemblance, in...

Iron Jawed Angels
2004
as Reverend Anna Howard Shaw
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.

The Best Thief in the World
2004
as Helen
Izzy, the youngest son of a troubled New York family, takes a shine to breaking into people's apartments as a way to get attention.

Red Betsy
2003
as Helen Rounds
A close-knit Midwestern farm family deals with loss, change, and social progress during the 1940's.

Minority Report
2002
as Dr. Iris Hineman
John Anderton is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the ...

The Laramie Project
2002
as Lucy Thompson
"The Laramie Project" is set in and around Laramie, Wyoming, in the aftermath of the murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard. To create the stage versio...

Powder Keg
2001
as Mother
The Driver is drafted by the UN to rescue a wounded war photographer named Harvey Jacobs from out of hostile territory. While they are leaving Jacobs ...

The Pledge
2001
as Helen Jackson
A police chief about to retire pledges to help a woman find her daughter's killer.

Tumbleweeds
1999
as Ginger
Whenever trouble strikes in one of her relationships, single mother Mary Jo Walker and her daughter, Ava, pack up and move to another city, a routine ...

The Eternal
1998
as Mrs. Ferriter
An alcoholic American couple travel to Ireland with their son so he can meet his grandmother but they walk in on their crazed uncle who is in the mids...

Hudson River Blues
1997
Hoping to help their marriage, a Manhattan lawyer (Rya Kihlstedt) brings her burned-out husband (Robert Stanton) to her mother's home upstate.

Eye of God
1997
Thanks
A small Oklahoma town is stripped of its innocence when one of its boys turns up mute and bloodied by the lakeside. Unable to tell his story, the loca...

Larger Than Life
1996
as Luluna
Motivational Speaker Jack Corcoran is determined to get his career off the ground, but the biggest gigs he can get are the ones nobody wants. One day,...

Twister
1996
as Aunt Meg
An unprecedented series of violent tornadoes is sweeping across Oklahoma. Tornado chasers, headed by Dr. Jo Harding, attempt to release a groundbreaki...

Dead Man Walking
1995
as Helen's Mother
A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.

How to Make an American Quilt
1995
as Sophia
Soon-to-be-wed graduate student Finn Dodd develops cold feet when she suspects her fiancé is cheating on her. In order to clear her head, Finn visits ...

Truman
1995
as Madge Wallace Gates
Biographical account of America's President for the latter part of WWII. Shows Truman's rise from small-town nobody to leader of the USA, his decision...

Holy Matrimony
1994
as Orna
A young Hutterite boy must marry his late brother's wife who comes from outside the community.

Falling Down
1993
as D-Fens' Mother
An ordinary man frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them.

Skylark
1993
as Lou Wheaton
Jacob's farm is in trouble from a severe drought. Jacob and Sarah begin to wonder if Sarah can stay, and what will happen to Jacob if she and the chil...

Deadly Matrimony
1992
Alan Masters is a despicable businessman with his hands in organized crime. He marries Diane, a kind and gentle woman, and abuses and batters her vici...

The Donner Party
1992
as voice
Doomed attempt to get to California in 1846. More than just a riveting tale of death, endurance and survival. The Donner Party's nightmarish journey p...

Keep the Change
1992
as Lureen
A struggling artist visits his family on their Montana ranch and finds that his former flame, daughter of a family foe, is now married to an old frien...

Hard Promises
1992
as Mrs. Bell
A man who doesn't like stable work environments has been away for too many years, and finds out his wife has divorced him and is planning to remarry. ...

Fried Green Tomatoes
1991
as Mama Threadgoode
Amidst her own personality crisis, a southern housewife meets an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two...

White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd
1991
as Alice Todd
When '30s film star Thelma Todd dies mysteriously, her relationship with New York mobster Lucky Luciano is investigated.

Switched at Birth
1991
as Margaret
This is the story of the two babies who were switched at birth. A few years later when one of the girls gets sick and tests revealed that she was not ...

The Grapes of Wrath
1991
as Ma Joad
A stage presentation of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath". The Steppenwolf Theater Company's production featuring the original Broadway cast. De...

Coney Island
1991
as (voice)
Before there was Disneyland, there was Coney Island. By the turn of the century, this tiny piece of New York real estate was internationally famous. ...

Green Card
1990
as Brontë's Mother
Urban horticulturalist Brontë Mitchell has her eye on a gorgeous apartment, but the building's board will rent it only to a married couple. Georges Fa...

Hello Actors Studio
1988
as Self
After Lee Strasberg’s death in 1982, the most prestigious talents from the Actors Studio assumed the leadership of this exceptional organization. For ...

Midnight Run
1988
as Mrs. Nelson, Mardukas's Friend
A bounty hunter pursues a former Mafia accountant who embezzled $15 million of mob money. He is also being chased by a rival bounty hunter, the F.B.I....

Fatal Attraction
1987
as Martha
A married man's one-night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.

Black Widow
1987
as Sara
Federal agent Alexandra Barnes believes that Catherine Petersen is a serial killer who marries rich men and then murders them for their money. But sin...

Doubletake
1985
as Sarah
Two corpses are found in different locations with their heads severed and exchanged. Frank Janek is called on to head the team of detectives investiga...

The Execution of Raymond Graham
1985
as Mary Neal
A young man, convicted of the murder of a clerk, who has been on death row for five years and now awaits his execution while his family desperately se...

Twisted
1985
as Helen Giles
One evening the Collins find their maid Mrs. Murdock at the end of their steps: dead, neck broken. Obviously she had an accident. Consequently they ne...

Reckless
1984
as Mrs. Prescott
Teenager Johnny Rourke is reckless. Born on the wrong side of the tracks, he breaks the law and girls' hearts with equal cool. Cheerleader Tracey Pres...

Reuben, Reuben
1983
as Mare Spofford
A drunken Scottish poet who has not written a word in years feels compelled to regain control of his life and work after meeting a beautiful young wom...

Four Friends
1981
as Mrs. Carnahan
A young immigrant comes to America in the 60s and is caught up in the counterculture movement which tests his bonds of friendship and love.
The House of Mirth
1981
as Bertha Dorset
Lily Bart, a well-born, but penniless woman of the high society of New York City, who was raised and educated to become wife to a rich man. As an unma...

Resurrection
1980
as Kathy
The story of a woman who survives the car accident which kills her husband, but discovers that she has the power to heal other people. She becomes an ...

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
1980
as Cornelia
Granny Weatherall (Geraldine Fitzgerald) is a spunky old lady of eighty who bosses around her doctor and her children. She seems so strong and in cont...

Foxes
1980
as Mrs. Axman
A group of friends come of age in the asphalt desert of the San Fernando Valley, as set to a blazing soundtrack and endless drinking, drugs and sex.

Next Stop, Greenwich Village
1976
as Anita Cunningham
An aspiring Jewish actor moves out of his parents' Brooklyn apartment to seek his fortune in the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in 1953.

Up the Sandbox
1972
as Elinore
Bored with day-to-day life in New York City and neglected by her husband, a young wife and mother slips into increasingly outrageous fantasies: her mo...

Particular Men
1972
A fictitious but powerful look at the dawn of the nuclear age, this stage performance follows several government scientists as they develop the atomic...

Five Easy Pieces
1970
as Partita Dupea
A drop-out from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil-rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and oth...

The Way We Live Now
1970
as Jane Aldridge
A mid-life crisis propels a disaffected advertising executive out of his marriage and into a series of disastrous love affairs with a series of women....

Dragon Country
1970
as Woman (segment "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen")
Producer-director Glenn Jordan brought together two Tennessee Williams plays, written twenty years apart, that examine the theme of isolation with sea...

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
1967
as Evelyn
Peter Schermann is angry at the world after his children move him into a nursing home. Still physically and mentally strong, he searches for a meaning...

The Master Builder
1960
as Hilda
Famed playwright Henrik Ibsen tells the tale of a master builder in the twilight of his career who reaches for love in response to his work's demise.

Strange Lady in Town
1955
as Spurs O'Brien
Julia Garth, a female doctor, plans to introduce modern techniques of medicine to old Santa Fe in 1880, but is opposed by an established doctor, Rourk...

East of Eden
1955
as Anne
In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their fath...
The Steel Harp
N/A