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Rita Wilson extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Rita Wilson
Rita Wilson, September 2008
Born	Margarit Ibrahimoff October 26, 1956 (1956-10-26) (age 53) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress/Producer
Years active	1972–present
Spouse(s)	Tom Hanks (1988-present)

Rita Wilson (born October 26, 1956)¹ is an American actress and producer.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Wilson was born Margarita Ibrahimoff¹ in Los Angeles, California. Her father, a Muslim Bulgarian² who worked at a racetrack, was born in Greece; he later converted to Orthodoxy. Before immigrating to the U.S., he had lived in Bulgaria and Turkey;³ her mother, Dorothy, was born and raised in an ethnic Greek village (Sotira) on the Albanian side of the border.²⁴ Wilson's family changed their surname from "Ibrahimoff" to "Wilson," which was a name of a local street in Southern California.

Career

This section requires expansion.

Wilson's career began with a guest appearance on The Brady Bunch, in a 1972 episode entitled "Greg's Triangle," which was followed by appearances on several shows during the 1970s and 1980s.

She has appeared in several movies, including Volunteers, Teen Witch, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Barbarians at the Gate, Mixed Nuts, Sleepless in Seattle, Now and Then, That Thing You Do!, Jingle All the Way, Runaway Bride, Invisible Child, The Story of Us and Raise Your Voice. She played Susan Borman, wife of astronaut Frank Borman, in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

Wilson has performed on Broadway, where she performed the role of Roxie Hart from June-August 2006 in the revival of Chicago.

She is often credited with being the driving force behind Nia Vardalos' movie deal for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which became the highest-grossing independent film of all time,^{citation needed} and for which she served as a producer.

Personal life

She has been married to Tom Hanks since April 1988, with whom she has had two children. She contributed to the Moffitt Cancer Center by donating "True Hearts" jewelry made of sterling silver and 14k gold. The proceeds will benefit several charities. Wilson credits good friend Rosie O'Donnell as inspiration for her charitable work, particularly with cancer and children's charities.⁵ She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.⁶

In the director's cut of the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do!, her brief appearance as a cocktail waitress named Marguerite has another scene, in which main character Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) drunkenly calls her Margarita, a reference to Wilson's real-life first name.

Filmography

Actress
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1966	Spinout	Bit Girl (uncredited)
1979	The Day It Came to Earth	Debbie
1980	Cheech & Chong's Next Movie	Actress
1985	Volunteers	Beth Wexler
1989	Teen Witch	Dancer
1990	Sinners	Margaret
	The Bonfire of the Vanities	P.R. Woman
1993	Sleepless in Seattle	Suzy
1994	Mixed Nuts	Catherine O'Shaughnessy
1995	Now and Then	Chrissy DeWitt Williams
1996	No Dogs Allowed
	That Thing You Do!	Marguerite
	Jingle All the Way	Liz Langston
1998	Psycho	Caroline
1999	Runaway Bride	Ellie Graham
	Invisible Child	Annie Beeman
	The Story of Us	Rachel
2001	Perfume	Roberta	aka Dress to Kill
	The Glass House	Grace Avery-Baker	(uncredited)
2002	Auto Focus	Anne Crane
2004	Raise Your Voice	Francis Fletcher
2005	The Chumscrubber	Terri Bratley
	Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D	Beta Station Commander	(voice)
2006	Beautiful Ohio	Judith Messerman
2009	My Life in Ruins	Elinor
	Old Dogs	Jenna
	It's Complicated	Trisha

Producer
Year	Film	Role	Notes
2002	My Big Fat Greek Wedding	Producer	Producers Guild of America Visionary Award Nominated — Producers Guild of America Award for Motion Picture Producer of the Year
2003	My Big Fat Greek Life	Executive producer	TV series
2004	Connie and Carla	Executive producer
2008	Mamma Mia!	Executive producer
2009	My Life in Ruins	Executive producer

References

External links

• Rita Wilson at the Internet Movie Database
• Rita Wilson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Rita Wilson at the Internet Off-Broadway Database