Jeremy Piven has announced that his mother Joyce Piven has died at the age of 94.
The actor, 56, shared the news on Sunday, Jan. 19, in an emotional Instagram post that featured a series of photos of himself and his mom.
In the first photo, Jeremy smiled as his mom rested her head on his shoulder, while the rest of the carousel featured throwback photos of the pair together and concluded with a photo of Jeremy holding his mother’s hand in the hospital.
“Joyce Piven has left us,” his caption began. “I was pretending this day wouldn’t come yet here we are. If you know me you understand how much I love this woman. Yes she’s my mother but she was an incredible human being.”
He added, “Acting teacher to so many of us who genuinely enjoyed the evolution of her students. Taught us to respects the space we occupy when we perform, instilled the integrity of the work and how lucky we are to get it.”
Joyce, who was a director, teacher and actress, founded the Piven Theatre Workshop with her late husband Byrne Piven in 1974.
“When we would run lines together (until the end) she would enter into the character and do whatever accent was needed,” Jeremy continued. “I secretly filmed her and showed the director and she got the role!”
The star added, “They all said she was too frail to fly but we did it anyway. She got a standing ovation on the set (I’m over 80 movies into it and I’ve never seen that) she was a voracious reader and 15 years ago.”
“She gave me a short story by Arthur Miller called ‘The Performance’ she hung on all these years until we got it made into a film .She would ask me about it daily. We are all walking miracles. The film is a tribute to her,” he continued of his 2023 film.
Jeremy went on to say that he wasn’t sure how he was going to “navigate” life without his mother, “yet this beautiful life is about transformation which was one of her theater games.”
“Taught us Comedy & drama can exist simultaneously ( just like life ) She affected so many lives,” he said. “She taught acting not so that you could be a professional, but so that you could learn more about yourself.”
Jeremy concluded, “She was graceful until her last breath. Always the teacher… We don’t know how long we have here in this human form but I can tell you that we lost a good one. She’s dancing with my father. Be good to each other.”
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Several stars shared their condolences to Jeremy in the comments section, with Jamie Foxx writing, “❤️❤️❤️,” while Cindy Crawford wrote, “Such a lovely tribute. Your mom sounds like a true blessing 🙏.”
In addition to Jeremy, Joyce shared daughter Shira Piven with Byrne, who died at the age of 72 in 2002. The pair had been married since 1954.
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