Oscar-nominated actress and Kansas-native Shirley Knight is coming to Wichita.

On Friday afternoon, she'll be conducting workshops at Wichita State University's Wilner Auditorium.

Then on Saturday, a pair of her movies will be shown at the Warren Theatre at 13th & Greenwich: "Sweet Bird of Youth" at noon, and "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" at 12:30. She'll be conducting a question-and-answer session at 2:30, following the movies.

At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the Warren Theatre will be inducting Knight into its new Walk of Fame.

Knight made her film debut in 1959 in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Oscar nomination), and was also nominated for an Oscar for her second film, Sweet Bird of Youth. 

She is considered the most celebrated American actress of her generation. She has won the Tony Award, three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, The Venice Film Festival Best Actress, The Joseph Jefferson Award, The Evening Standard Award, and the Critics prize at the CANNES film festival (for producing the film Dutchman). 

She has been nominated for two academy awards, two Tony Awards, the British Academy Award, ten Emmys, three Golden Globes, the Helen Hayes Award, and two Drama Desk Awards. She was recently honored by the Rome film festival for her work in the cinema.  

Kathleen Sebilius, the governor of Kansas, gave Miss Knight the Distinguished Artist Award in 2007 and presented her with the Kansan of the Year Award in 2000.  After fifty years as an actress she is still working constantly and has two films coming out in 2008: Mall Cop, and The Many Lives of Pippa Lee. She also continues her role as Phyllis Van De Camp on Desperate Housewives.