Portrait of Ann Dowd

Birthday profile

Ann Dowd

Ann Dowd, American actress

Born
January 30, 1956
Age in 2026
70
Zodiac sign
Aquarius
Birth year
1956

About Ann Dowd

Ann Dowd (born January 30, 1956) is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous films, including Green Card (1990), Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Philadelphia (1993), Garden State (2004), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Marley & Me (2008), Compliance (2012), Side Effects (2013), St. Vincent (2014), Captain Fantastic (2016), Hereditary (2018), and Mass (2021). For Compliance, she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. For Mass, she earned nominations for a British Academy Film Award and a Critics' Choice Award. Dowd was a series regular on the HBO series The Leftovers (2014–2017), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. She played Aunt Lydia Clements on the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale (2017–2025), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Dowd became interested in acting at a young age but was dissuaded by her family at first because they did not approve of her pursuing an acting career. Dowd's first appearance was in the 1985 television movie First Steps with fellow Chicago actor Megan Mullally.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Ann Dowd timeline

  1. Dowd's first appearance was in the 1985 television movie First Steps with fellow Chicago actor Megan Mullally.
  2. She played Aunt Lydia Clements on the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale (2017–2025), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

The world when Ann Dowd was born

Ann Dowd was born in 1956. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1956

  • #1 song"Heartbreak Hotel" – Elvis Presley
  • Top movieAround the World in 80 Days
  • Top TV showI Love Lucy
  • Best-selling bookPeyton Place – Grace Metalious

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentDon Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series
  • Top headlineElvis Presley takes America by storm
  • Technology milestoneFirst transatlantic telephone cable (TAT-1)
  • Defining fadElvis Presley mania
  • Notable inventionHard disk drive (IBM)
  • World population2.82 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonPhiladelphia Warriors (NBA)
  • U.S. population168.1M

1956 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ann Dowd's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19562026
Gas$0.30$3.45/gal
Average home$11,700$435,000
Average income$6,500$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.50$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population168.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.