My goal was not to be famous or rich but to be good at what I did. And that required going to New York and studying and working in the theater.

D. Career
Knight's feature films include The Group (1966) The Dutchman (1966) Petulia (1968) The Rain People (1969) and As Good as It Gets (1997) and Elevator (2011) in which Shirley Knight plays one of several people trapped in a Wall Street elevator with a bomber. Newcomb in twenty of the thirty-nine episodes of the NBC western television series Buckskin with Tom Nolan Sally Brophy and Mike Road.

She has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1960 for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and in 1962 for Sweet Bird of Youth eight times for Emmy Awards (winning three) and has also netted a Golden Globe and Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her role in the 1967 film Dutchman.