Lynn Cohen and Roger Robinson Win 2009 Richard Seff Awards

Lynn Cohen and Roger Robinson have won the 2009 Richard Seff Awards, presented by Actors’ Equity Foundation to “honor a female and male character actor, 50 years of age or older, for the best performance in a supporting role in a Broadway or off-Broadway production.” They will receive $1,000 and a crystal trophy at a June 9 ceremony during Equity’s Eastern Regional Board meeting.

Cohen was honored for her performance as an ebullient elderly woman who plots her escape from a nursing home in Tina Howe’s Chasing Manet at Primary Stages. Her Broadway credits include Ivanov and Orpheus Descending, and recent off-Broadway credits include Macbeth, The Golem and Paradise Island. Known for her role as Magda in Sex and the City, Cohen has been featured in a number of recent films, including Eagle Eye, Synecdoche New York, Deception, Across the Universe and Then She Found Me.

Robinson’s win came for his Tony-nominated performance as rootworker and "conjurer" Bynum Walker in the current Broadway revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Robinson received a Tony nomination for Wilson’s Seven Guitars and has appeared on Broadway in Drowning Crow, Amen Corner the Musical, Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, The Iceman Cometh, The Miser and Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?

Equity member Richard Seff established the awards in 2003, having turned to acting after a successful career as an agent. Last year’s winners were Hallie Foote and David Rasche.