Getty Torn and his wife, Amy Wright, pictured on the red carpet in 2009.
Amy Wright was Rip Torn’s third wife. On July 9, legendary character actor Torn passed away in his home in Lakeville, Connecticut, at the age of 88. In addition to his wife, Torn is survived by his six children.
Torn’s first wife was actress Ann Wedgeworth, the couple were married in 1956 and divorced in 1961. They had a daughter together named Danae. Torn married again in 1963, this time to actress Geraldine Page. Together, they had three children, Angelica Page as well as twins, Tony and Jon. The couple stayed married until Page’s passing in 1987.
Two years later, in 1989, Torn, then 58, would marry the woman who would remain his wife until his death, Amy Wright, then 39. The couple had two children together, Katie and Claire.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Wright Is an Actor in Her Own Right, Having Appeared in Such Classics as ‘The Deer Hunter’ & ‘The Amityville Horror’
Like her husband, Wright is an actor. According to her IMDb page, Wright has appeared in movies such as “The Deer Hunter,” “Breaking Away,” “The Amityville Horror” and 1979’s “Heartland,” in which Rip Torn played the leading role. For her role in 1988’s “The Accidental Tourist,” the New York Times mentioned Wright as the film’s “shining light.”
In 2013, Wright served as the artistic director of the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City.
2. Wright First Met Torn When She Was 26 & He Was 45
Wright told People Magazine in 1989 that she first met Rip Torn in 1976 when she was 26 and he was 45. She was playing Ophelia to his Hamlet in an off-Broadway production of the Shakespeare play. Later, she would play Torn’s mistress while his real-life wife, Geraldine Page, played his wife in the play, “The Stronger.”
Wright says of that time, “Gerry was willing to act with me for Rip’s sake. As difficult as it was personally for all of us, I felt very lucky to be able to work with her. There were some bad moments,” she adds. “I was jealous of her for certain reasons—for being a better actress, for being married to Rip and having known him for so many years, and she was jealous of me for other reasons. We both suffered.”
In October 2012, the New York Post referred to Wright as Rip Torn’s mistress during his marriage to Geraldine Page. The article mentions that Wright was “brought into the household” by Torn. Torn’s daughter with Page, Angelica, said, “I have no memory of that. People tell me that it happened and I can’t even believe it’s true. It did coincide with a time when I started wearing black exclusively, so I’m thinking there might be a connection. I don’t know what the arrangement was. We had baby sitters, housekeepers, lots of people around. Maybe I thought she was a maid or something . . .”
3. Torn & Wright Lived for a Time in a New York City Apartment That Her Family Owned Since the 1920s
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Torn and Wright were the subject of a May 2006 New York Times Magazine feature. The article explained the couple’s home life as living in an apartment in Washington Square Park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City while also living in a larger home in Lakeville, Connecticut. The apartment had been owned by Wright’s family since the 1920s and was described as a “cozy, rambling space.”
Wright had told People Magazine in 1989 that the apartment had been owned by her aunt Lizzie. The apartment was Wright’s first home when she moved to New York City in 1974. Wright said of her early life in Manhattan, “Aunt Lizzie slept in one end of the apartment. I slept at the other, and we would both work the same crossword puzzle that was always out on the kitchen table.”
4. A Friend Says, ‘Amy Doesn’t Give a Damn What Other People Think of Her’
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In her 1989 People Magazine feature, playwright Lanford Wilson said of Wright, in particular, a reference to her helping to raise Torn’s children from a previous marriage, “Amy doesn’t give a damn what other people think of her. I can’t imagine her conforming just because someone else thought that she should.” Wilson added that despite Wright’s low profile, she was “a very, very talented girl.”
5. Wright’s Father Was the Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago
People Magazine explained in their 1989 feature that Wright was a native of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Her father, Benjamin, was the professor of psychology and statistics at the University of Chicago. The article describes her upbringing as unconventional where pillow fights were a common post-dinner activity. There was no television and few rules. Wright is the eldest of four children. Her father told the magazine, “She was such a quiet, unassuming girl, no one expected her to be so breathtaking on the stage.”
Wright was educated at Beloit College in Wisconsin where she achieved a theater arts qualification and teaching credentials.
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