Editing Cynthia Nixon (section)

===1979–1997: Early roles and theatre work ===
Nixon's first onscreen appearance (at 8 years old) was as an imposter on ''To Tell the Truth'', where her mother worked, pretending to be a junior horse riding champion.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WKtpMos0w | title=To Tell the Truth (January 17, 1974 &#124; #73_1754) | website=[[YouTube]] }}</ref><ref name="nyt" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/cynthia-nixons-emily-thing |title=Cynthia Nixon's "Emily Thing" |last=Syme |first=Rachel |date=15 April 2017 |website=[[newyorker.com]] |access-date=18 April 2018 |archive-date=April 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419053223/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/cynthia-nixons-emily-thing |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="LifeAfterSex">{{cite news|last=Witchel|first=Alex|title=Life After 'Sex'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/cynthia-nixon-wit.html|access-date=March 13, 2014|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 19, 2012|archive-date=November 14, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114103930/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/cynthia-nixon-wit.html|url-status=live}}</ref> She began acting at 12 as the object of a wealthy schoolmate's crush in ''The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid'', a 1979 [[ABC Afterschool Special]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ambinder|first1=Evan|title=The Cynthia Chronicles: BC's very own Broadway star|journal=[[Columbia Daily Spectator]]|date=April 19, 1990|volume=CXIV|issue=116|page=5|url=http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19900419-01.1.5&srpos=&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-Cynthia+nixon-----#|access-date=June 10, 2014|archive-date=July 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714204155/http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19900419-01.1.5&srpos=&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-Cynthia+nixon-----|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> She made her feature debut co-starring with [[Kristy McNichol]] and [[Tatum O'Neal]] in ''[[Little Darlings]]'' (1980). She made her [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] debut as Dinah Lord in a 1980 revival of ''[[The Philadelphia Story (play)|The Philadelphia Story]]''.<ref name="LifeAfterSex"/> Alternating between film, TV, and stage, she did projects like the 1982 ABC movie ''My Body, My Child'', the features ''[[Prince of the City (film)|Prince of the City]]'' (1981) and ''[[I Am the Cheese]]'' (1983), and the 1982 [[Off-Broadway]] productions of [[John Guare]]'s ''Lydie Breeze''.

In 1984, while a freshman at Barnard College, Nixon made theatrical history by simultaneously appearing in two hit Broadway plays directed by [[Mike Nichols]].<ref name="CB Biography"/> They were ''[[The Real Thing (play)|The Real Thing]]'', where she played the daughter of [[Jeremy Irons]] and [[Christine Baranski]]; and ''[[Hurlyburly]]'', where she played a young woman who encounters sleazy [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] executives.<ref name="Galanes">{{cite news|last=Galanes|first=Philip|title=Allison Williams and Cynthia Nixon Talk About 'Girls' and 'Sex and the City'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/fashion/Allison-Williams-Cynthia-Nixon-Girls-Sex-and-the-City.html|access-date=March 13, 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 17, 2014|archive-date=January 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140128174411/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/fashion/Allison-Williams-Cynthia-Nixon-Girls-Sex-and-the-City.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The two theaters were just two blocks apart and Nixon's roles were both short, so she could run from one to the other.<ref name="Galanes"/> Onscreen, she played the role of Salieri's maid/spy, Lorl, in ''[[Amadeus (film)|Amadeus]]'' (1984). In 1985, she appeared alongside [[Jeff Daniels]] in [[Lanford Wilson]]'s ''Lemon Sky'' at [[Second Stage Theatre]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rich|first1=Frank|author-link1=Frank Rich|title=Theater – 'Lemon Sky' by Lanford Wilson|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/12/theater/theater-lemon-sky-by-lanford-wilson.html|access-date=June 10, 2014|work=The New York Times|date=December 12, 1985|archive-date=July 16, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716122638/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/12/theater/theater-lemon-sky-by-lanford-wilson.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

She landed her first major supporting role in a movie as an intelligent teenager who aids her boyfriend ([[Christopher Collet]]) in building a nuclear bomb in [[Marshall Brickman]]'s ''[[Manhattan Project (film)|The Manhattan Project]]'' (1986).<ref>{{cite news|last=Considine|first=Bob|title='Sex' star Cynthia Nixon on her cancer, girlfriend|url=http://www.today.com/id/24878731|access-date=March 13, 2014|newspaper=[[Today.com]]|date=May 30, 2008|archive-date=March 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313071448/http://www.today.com/id/24878731|url-status=live}}</ref> Nixon was part of the cast of the [[NBC]] [[miniseries]] ''[[The Murder of Mary Phagan]]'' (NBC, 1988) starring [[Jack Lemmon]] and [[Kevin Spacey]], and portrayed the daughter of a presidential candidate ([[Michael Murphy (actor)|Michael Murphy]]) in ''[[Tanner '88]]'' (1988), [[Robert Altman]]'s [[political satire]] for [[HBO]]. She reprised the role for the 2004 sequel, ''[[Tanner on Tanner]]''.

On stage, Nixon portrayed [[Juliet Capulet|Juliet]] in a 1988 [[New York Shakespeare Festival]] production of ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'',<ref>{{cite news|last=Rich|first=Frank|title=Review/Theater; 'Romeo and Juliet' in the Shakespeare Marathon|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/25/theater/review-theater-romeo-and-juliet-in-the-shakespeare-marathon.html|access-date=March 13, 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 25, 1988|archive-date=March 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326212743/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/25/theater/review-theater-romeo-and-juliet-in-the-shakespeare-marathon.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and acted in the workshop production of [[Wendy Wasserstein]]'s [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning ''[[The Heidi Chronicles]]'',<ref>{{cite news|last=Prose|first=Francine|title=What Wendy Wasserstein Wrought|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/books/review/wendy-and-the-lost-boys-by-julie-salamon-book-review.html|access-date=March 13, 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 26, 2011|archive-date=April 21, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421074031/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/books/review/wendy-and-the-lost-boys-by-julie-salamon-book-review.html|url-status=live}}</ref> playing several characters after it came to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1989. She was the guest star in the [[Subterranean Homeboy Blues (Law & Order episode)|second episode]] of the long running [[NBC]] television series ''[[Law & Order]]''. She played the role of an [[agoraphobia|agoraphobic]] woman in a February 1993 episode of ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'', titled "Threshold of Fear".

Nixon succeeded [[Marcia Gay Harden]] as Harper Pitt in [[Tony Kushner]]'s ''[[Angels in America]]'' (1994),<ref>{{cite news|last=Weber|first=Bruce|title=On Stage, and Off|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/08/theater/on-stage-and-off.html|access-date=March 13, 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 8, 1994|archive-date=March 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326212820/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/08/theater/on-stage-and-off.html|url-status=live}}</ref> received a [[Tony awards|Tony]] nomination for her performance in [[Les Parents terribles|''Indiscretions'' (''Les Parents Terribles'')]] (1996), her sixth Broadway show,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/tony-winner-cynthia-nixon-marries-christine-marinoni-com-194047|title=Tony Winner Cynthia Nixon Marries Christine Marinoni|last=Gioia|first=Michael|date=May 29, 2012|newspaper=[[Playbill]]|access-date=March 13, 2014|archive-date=December 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227020557/http://www.playbill.com/article/tony-winner-cynthia-nixon-marries-christine-marinoni-com-194047|url-status=live}}</ref> and, although she originally lost the part to another actress, eventually took over the role of Lala Levy in the Tony-winning ''[[The Last Night of Ballyhoo]]'' (1997).

Nixon was a founding member of the Off-Broadway theatrical troupe Drama Dept.,<ref>{{cite web|title=Actress Cynthia Nixon|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1148746|website=[[NPR]]|access-date=June 10, 2014|date=August 22, 2002|archive-date=July 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714224327/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1148746|url-status=live}}</ref> which included [[Sarah Jessica Parker]], [[Dylan Baker]], [[John Cameron Mitchell]] and [[Billy Crudup]] among its actors, appearing in the group's productions of ''Kingdom on Earth'' (1996), ''[[June Moon]]'' and ''[[As Bees in Honey Drown]]'' (both 1997), ''Hope is the Thing with Feathers'' (1998), and ''[[The Country Club (play)|The Country Club]]'' (1999). She had supporting roles in ''[[Addams Family Values]]'' (1993), ''[[Baby's Day Out]]'' (1994), ''[[Marvin's Room (film)|Marvin's Room]]'' (1996), and ''[[The Out-of-Towners (1999 film)|The Out-of-Towners]]'' (1999).