# Betsy Aidem

Betsy Aidem is an American actress.
Her film work includes The Bleeding House, See You in the Morning, A Vigilante, and Aeris. Her television work includes The High Life and The Americans, appearing in the latter in the episodes "Safe House" and "Covert War".
Her stage work includes Steel Magnolias and Five Women Wearing the Same Dress. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Prayer for the French Republic. In 2007, she was given an Obie Award for "sustained excellence of performance" for her work Off-Broadway.

## Background

Aidem first became interested in acting while she was in high school. Her debut was as a fairy in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. She is also a stage play director and her first professional production was in 2018, A Doll's House, Part 2, which was a stage production of the Lucas Hnath comedy. She was the first wife of William Fichtner and had a child with him.

## Career
### Stage work

Midway through 2009, Aidem was in Nicki Bloom's Tender, a story about an act of violence that destroys a family. The play, directed by Daniela Topol, also starred Kerry Bishé, Michael Cullen, and Matt Dellapina. In October 2018, she appeared as the loony and flamboyant Professor Carroway in Love Course which was about two eccentric neurotics, Carroway and Professor Burgess, teaching a course in romantic literature and two students who attend the course and end up teaching it.

### Film work

Her earliest film work was in the 1982 film A Little Sex, where she played a passer-by. In 1985, she appeared in the television film Kojak: The Belarus File as Elissa Barak.
She appeared in Sarah Daggar-Nickson's 2018 film A Vigilante which starred Olivia Wilde, Morgan Spector and Kyle Catlett. Also that year she was in Aeris, a film about a couple adopting a sick kitten.

### Television shows

Her work on television shows includes reoccurring roles on The High Life as Irene, and as Dr. Sloane on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

## Stage appearances

| Title | Role | Playwright | Director | Year | Notes # |
| Balm in Gilead | Kay | Lanford Wilson | John Malkovich | 1984 | Off-Broadway |
| Crossing the Bar | Performer | Michael Zettler | Jerry Zaks | 1985 | Off-Broadway |
| A Lie of the Mind | Sally | Sam Shepard | Sam Shepard | 1985 | Off-Broadway |
| Steel Magnolias | Shelby | Robert Harling | Pamela Berlin | 1987 | Off-Broadway |
| Road | Carol | Jim Cartwright | Simon Curtis | 1987 | Off-Broadway |
| The Night Hank Williams Died | Nellie Bess Powers Clark | Larry L. King | Christopher Ashley | 1989 | Off-Broadway |
| Five Women Wearing the Same Dress | Georgeanne | Alan Ball | Melia Bensussen | 1993 | Off-Broadway |
| Teibele and Her Demon | Teibele | Isaac Bashevis Singer | Daniel Gerroll | 1994 | Off-Broadway |
| The Butterfly Collection | Performer | Theresa Rebeck | Bartlett Sher | 2000 | Off-Broadway |
| Good Thing | Nancy Roy | Jessica Goldberg | Jo Bonney | 2001 | Off-Broadway |
| Sea of Tranquility | Phyllis | Howard Korder | Neil Pepe | 2004 | Off-Broadway |
| Celebration and The Room | Julie | Harold Pinter | Neil Pepe | 2005 | Off-Broadway |
| Mary Rose | Mrs. Moreland | J. M. Barrie | Tina Landau | 2007 | Off-Broadway |
| Crooked | Elise | Catherine Trieschmann | Liz Diamond | 2008 | Off-Broadway |
| Tender | | Nicki Bloom | Daniela Topol | 2009 | Off-Broadway |
| The Metal Children | Lynne / Roberta Cupp | Adam Rapp | Adam Rapp | 2010 | Off-Broadway |
| Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling | Performer | Adam Rapp | Neil Pepe | 2011 | Off-Broadway |
| Nikolai and the Others | Lisa Sokoloff | Richard Nelson | David Cromer | 2013 | Off-Broadway |
| All the Way | Lady Bird Johnson / various | Robert Schenkkan | Bill Rauch | 2014 | Broadway |
| Mama's Boy | Marguerite Oswald | Rob Urbinati | Brian P. Allen | 2015 | Regional |
| Final Follies | Wilma Trumbo/Professor Carroway | A. R. Gurney | David Saint | 2018 | Off-Broadway |
| Prayer for the French Republic | Marcelle Salomon Benhamou | Joshua Harmon | David Cromer | 2022 | Off-Broadway |
| Leopoldstadt | Grandma Emilia | Tom Stoppard | Patrick Marber | 2022 | Original Broadway Production |
| Prayer for the French Republic | Marcelle Salomon Benhamou | Joshua Harmon | David Cromer | 2023 | Original Broadway Production |
| Liberation | Margie | Rajiv Joseph | Whitney White | 2025 | Off-Broadway World Premiere |

## Partial filmography

| Title | Role | Director | Year |
| A Little Sex | Passerby | Bruce Paltrow | 1982 |
| Kojak: The Belarus File | Elissa Barak | Robert Markowitz | 1985 |
| See You in the Morning | Larry's Sister-in-Law | Alan J. Pakula | 1989 |
| Fool's Fire | Lady Angela | Julie Taymor | 1992 |
| Nine Months | Gail's Nurse | Chris Columbus | 1995 |
| Music of the Heart | Mrs Lamb | Wes Craven | 1999 |
| You Can Count on Me | Minister | Kenneth Lonergan | 2000 |
| Maze | Lydia | Rob Morrow | 2000 |
| Far from Heaven | Pool Mother | Todd Haynes | 2002 |
| People I Know | Talia Greene | Dan Algrant | 2002 |
| Winter Passing | Nurse | Adam Rapp | 2005 |
| Confess | Julie Bradford | Stefan Schaefer | 2005 |
| The Attic | Ms. Kettering | Mary Lambert | 2007 |
| Motherhood | Jordan's Mom | Katherine Dieckmann | 2009 |
| The Bleeding | Marilyn | Philip Gelatt | 2011 |
| Mr. Popper's Penguins | Tavern Hostess | Mark Waters | 2011 |
| The Oranges | Anne Allen | Julian Farino | 2011 |
| Margaret | Abigail | Kenneth Lonergan | 2011 |
| Arbitrage | Vogler's Secretary | Nicholas Jarecki | 2012 |
| The Greatest Showman | Mrs. Carlyle | Michael Gracey | 2017 |
| A Vigilante | Andrea Shaund | Sarah Daggar-Nickson | 2018 |