But alas, the Holy Grail of her craft – the Oscar – has eluded her. Twice she’s been nominated for the honor but, like many Eastern students who can only sniff greatness, she has been denied.

Winner or not, Allen is an incredible actress—among the most underrated in the industry. She’s played frustrated housewives that include Pat Nixon and a 1970s-era spouse in a burned-out marriage. She helped found the Steppenwolf Theater Company and has ties to another famous EIU alum: John Malkovich.

Born on Aug. 20, 1956 in Rochelle, Illinois, Joan Allen spent her days riding her bike, practicing ballet and doing plays. She attended Rochelle Township High School where she was in the music program, speech contests and the theater and was voted most likely to succeed.

She told the Calgary Sun she "was a good, small-town girl. Acting gave me the opportunity to do outrageous things. It allowed me to be sad, happy, angry and lustful even if it was just vicariously.”

Allen decided to go to Eastern in either 1974 or ’75 because her old sister was already attending.

“I thought it would be a nice little haven to have my sister around during my first year in college, and the Theatre Arts Department really was a nice size department,” Allen told the alumni magazine, Old Main Line. “You didn’t have to wait until you were a junior or senior to be in plays or to be on the main stage. That was very appealing to me.”

And Allen did get involved right away. She performed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She was nicknamed the “Dutchman Queen” because of her skill of dutchmanning, which involved dipping strips of canvas in glue and joining flaps together for a backdrop that required a finished edge. Once, she climbed through a window of the theater department around 11 p.m. one night because she and some classmates forgot something in the Studio Theater. She wandered through the underground tunnels around campus (hot, she said) and made desperate attempts to straighten her curly hair.

“I also remember Dracula: Sabat which I believe Randy Arney ‘78 was in, also,” Allen told the Old Main Line. “We had bowls of alcohol that we had to light and bring on stage. It dripped over onto the sides of my hands and my hands were on fire, which hurt. That was pretty wild. It almost put the set on fire. It was a lot of fun because there really were a lot of good people there at the time. Interesting people!”

Allen said Malkovich was one of the first people she met.

“He had these purple platform shoes on," Allen told Premiere magazine. "He shared one of those houses with a couch and a rocking chair on the front porch. One of the women there was a bisexual, and maybe one of the guys -- it was very eye opening."

Allen told Old Main Line Malkovich (below while acting with Steppenwolf) was one of the coolest people she met.

“I was really drawn to him and probably terrified at the same time,” she said, according to the magazine. “I didn’t know what to make of him because I was just this naive little gal from a small town in northern Illinois. I remember standing in the lobby of the theater building after my first semester talking to someone and John came over to me, stuck his finger through the belt loop in my jeans, and pulled me aside. I’m wondering, ‘What is this guy doing? And why is he doing it to me?’ ”

“He pulled me to the side and then he asked me to do an acting scene with him,” Allen said. “It was from this Arthur Miller play called After the Fall. That was a really very cool experience and I think we actually did it for an English class that was studying the play. It was thrilling to work on the scene with him because he was the dark, mysterious, interesting guy in the Theatre Department. He didn’t usually get cast on the main stage because he did a lot of self-generated work, Harold Pinter and things like that. He was really the first one to introduce me to writers like Pinter and Edward Albee, as well as Ionesco and absurdist playwriting. After I met John I would go to the library and just pull plays down off the shelf that I had never imagined existed. It opened a whole new world to me and that was pretty exciting, too.”

No one really knows why, but Allen turned tail in 1976 and left Eastern for Northern -- anyone familiar with higher education in Illinois knows it couldn't have been because she wanted to go to a better school. She probably endured the humiliation of being a Huskie to work at Steppenwolf, which she joined in 1977. There, she was molded and defined as an actress and in her off time worked as a secretary.

“It was the most amazing, talented group,” she said in Premiere. “We could pick our seasons, cast who we wanted. I thought I was the luckiest person in the world. And that group of people is responsible for who I am today.”

The troupe moved to New York and Allen’s awards began rolling in. She won a Tony Award performing Burn This with Malkovich. She then She won a whole host of other honors—including an Obie and Tony award—for The Marriage of Bette & Boo, The Heidi Chronicles and And A Nightingale Sang.

She then hit the silver screen, starring in Nixon and The Crucible, work that earned her Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nominations in 1996 and '97, respectively. Those roles, expecially Nixon led to films that included Pleasantville, Face/Off and The Ice Storm.

"My Nixon nomination took me to a whole new level of interest. My nomination for The Crucible didn't have nearly as much of an effect," Allen told the Calgary Sun.

“(Director) John Woo offered me my roles in Face/Off and The Ice Storm without auditioning me. He said Nixon was audition enough for him,” she said, according to the Sun.

Her most recent projects include the portrayal of an Irish journalist murdered by the Dublin mob and vice president in the movie The Contender.

And add this dubious distinction to the list: some celebrity Web sites claims to have a naked picture of her posted on the Internet. But you do wonder if that is really her.

Other revealing items about Joan Allen: she often wears wigs, is 5 foot 10 inches tall and is left handed. She is married to fellow actor Peter Friedman and they have one daughter, Sadie.

She often returns to her hometown and keeps in touch with Eastern Illinois University (she gave the Old Main Line interview in 1999) and has been honored as a Distinguished Alum by the university. Allen’s image can be seen throughout a famous Rochelle diner and, at last check, a high school student was trying to get a road in the city named after Joan Allen.

Sources for information and some photos: Premiere magazine, The Oscars, The Calgary Sun, The Internet Movie Database, Hollywood.com, Hollywood Online, Mr. Showbiz, Eastern Illinois University and Back Lot