Jennifer Jason Leigh Received Her Screen Actors Guild Membership For An Episode Of The
She changed her surname early in her acting career, taking the middle name “Jason” in honor of the actor Jason Robards, a family friend. The director Reza Badiyi was her mother’s second husband and was at the time her step-father. At 14, she attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in Loch Sheldrake, New York summer acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg and landed a role in the movie The Young Runaways (1978). She received her Screen Actors Guild membership for an episode of the TV series Baretta (1975) when she was 16. Her next film Single White Female (1992) was a surprise box office success, bringing Leigh to her largest yet mainstream audience.
