By Eunice Charles
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Michelle Ingrid Williams (born September 9, 1980) is an American actress. Known primarily for starring in small-scale independent films with dark or tragic themes, she has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for five Academy Awards and a Tony Award.
Williams, daughter of politician and trader Larry R. Williams, began her career with television guest appearances and made her film debut in the family film Lassie in 1994. She gained emancipation from her parents at age 15, and soon achieved recognition for her leading role as Jen Lindley in the teen drama television series Dawson’s Creek (1998–2003). This was followed by low-profile films, before having her breakthrough with the drama film Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned Williams her first Academy Award nomination.
Williams received critical acclaim for playing emotionally troubled women coping with loss or loneliness in the independent dramas Wendy and Lucy (2008), Blue Valentine (2010), and Manchester by the Sea (2016). She won Golden Globes for portraying Marilyn Monroe in the drama My Week with Marilyn (2011) and Gwen Verdon in the miniseries Fosse/Verdon (2019), in addition to a Primetime Emmy Award for the latter. Her highest-grossing releases came with the thriller Shutter Island (2010), the fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), the musical The Greatest Showman (2017), and the superhero films Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021). Williams has also led major studio films, such as Ridley Scott‘s thriller All the Money in the World (2017) and Steven Spielberg‘s drama The Fabelmans (2022). In 2025, she starred as Molly Kochan in dramedy miniseries Dying for Sex (2025), earning her another nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.
On Broadway, Williams starred in revivals of the musical Cabaret in 2014 and the drama Blackbird in 2016, for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She is an advocate for equal pay in the workplace. Consistently private about her personal life, Williams has a daughter from her relationship with actor Heath Ledger and was briefly married to musician Phil Elverum. She has three children with her second husband, theater director Thomas Kail.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
“Ugli” fruit is a trademark for the tangelo, a tropical fruit that is a hybrid between a grapefruit and a tangerine or mandarin orange. Tangelos originated in Jamaica.
[The term “ugly fruit” may refer to other fruit, such as the osage orange (aka hedge apple), or generally to imperfect or blemished produce.]
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Died
- John Singleton Copley (artist) –
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (painter) –
- Bill Monroe (American musician) –
- Burgess Meredith (actor) –
- James Earl Jones (actor) –
Born
- Leo Tolstoy (author) –
- Harland Sanders (founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken) –
- Phyllis Whitney (writer) –
- Sylvia Miles (actress) –
- Otis Redding (singer & songwriter) –
- Tom Wopat (actor & singer) –
- Angela Cartwright (actress) –
- Hugh Grant (actor) –
- Adam Sandler (actor) –
- Eric Stonestreet (actor) –
- Michael Bublé (singer) –
- Michelle Williams (actress) –
Events
- Continental Congress declared “United States of America” would be the name of the new nation –
- John Herschel took the first glass plate photograph –
- California was admitted as the 31st state –
- Tom Fleming won the first national log rolling championship –
- Canadian swimmer, Marilyn Bell, became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario –
- Elvis Presley appeared for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was hosted by Charles Laughton because Sullivan was recovering from injuries received in a car accident –
- USS Long Beach, the first nuclear-powered surface warship, was commissioned –
- Arthur Ashe won the U.S. Open tennis title –
- The comic strip For Better or For Worse debuted –
- Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch in Britain’s history –
- Football game between Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans lasted about 7 hours 8 minutes due to 3 hours 59 minutes of weather (lightning) delays. This made it the longest game in NFL history since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. Dolphins beat the Titans 27-20. –
Weather
- Thrall, Texas, had 38.2 inches of rain within 24 hours –
COURTESY www.almanac.com
