Jeanmarie Simpson

Jeanmarie Simpson
Jeanmarie Simpson headshot, 1977
Born	(1959-11-20) November 20, 1959 (age 57) Ray, Arizona, United States
Occupation	Actress, playwright, activist
Years active	1972–present
Spouse(s)	Daniel Joseph Bishop, married 1976

Jeanmarie Simpson (born November 20, 1959) is an American actress, playwright and peace activist best known for writing and starring in the play and film, A Single Woman, based on the life of first US Congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin.

Simpson was born in Ray, Arizona. Her parents are Maria Luisa Jugo, a Venezuelan immigrant, and Donald Leroy Simpson, an American mining engineer (deceased). She is a descendant of Carlos López Bustamante. She was raised in rural Arizona. Her family's move to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1970 led to her theatre training.

She was founding artistic director of the Nevada Shakespeare Company, from which she retired in 2008.

Simpson appeared in the American premier of the one-woman play, Shakespeare's Will, by Canadian playwright, Vern Thiessen. The production was presented by Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills, California, and was produced by Leonard Nimoy.

In one of his few American directing projects, Tony Award winner, Zakes Mokae cast Simpson as Elsa in Athol Fugard's The Road to Mecca in 2003. The production was a collaboration between the Nevada Shakespeare Company and the Nevada Conservatory Theatre, based at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

She starred in the film version of her play, A Single Woman, based on the life of Jeannette Rankin. The film was produced by Heroica Films and directed by Kamala Lopez, a cousin of Simpson's. Though the project includes the voices of many celebrities, including Martin Sheen, Peter Coyote, Judd Nelson and Patricia Arquette and includes in its soundtrack the iconic Joni Mitchell songs and Circle Game, the film has not been picked up by a distributor, nor has it had a theatrical release. Simpson was unhappy with the film, and in October 2011 she is quoted in the Huffington Post saying of it, "That's probably the biggest disappointment of my life."