Shirley Knight was an American film and stage actress. She won numerous awards including a Tony Award, three Emmys, two Golden Globes, Venice Film Festival Best Actress Award, Cannes Film Festival Critics Prize, a Joseph Jefferson Award, and an Evening Standard Award. She is best known for her work in As Good as It Gets, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 1/2, and Grandma's Boy. Other film credits include The Missing Girl, Mercy, Redwood Highway, Elevator, and Our Idiot Brother.

Broadway credits include her debut as Irina in The Three Sisters (Morosco Theatre); Lily Dale Kidder in The Young Man from Atlanta (Longacre Theatre); Janet in The Watering Place (Music Box Theatre); Constance in We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Ethel Barrymore Theatre); and her Tony Award-winning role as Clara in Kennedy's Children (John Golden Theatre).