Bonnie Bartlett | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Moline High School |
Alma mater | Northwestern University |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1951–2017 |
Spouse | |
Children | 3 [a] |
Bonnie Bartlett Daniels (born June 20, 1929) [1] is an American actress. Her career spans seven decades, with her first major role being on a 1950s daytime drama, Love of Life . Bartlett is known for her role as Grace Snider Edwards on the Michael Landon television series Little House on the Prairie and as Ellen Craig on the medical drama series St. Elsewhere . Her husband, actor William Daniels, played her fictional husband Dr. Mark Craig, and they both won Emmy Awards on the same night in 1986—becoming the first married couple to accomplish the feat since Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1965.
Bartlett was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, the daughter of Carrie Archer and Elwin Earl Bartlett, [2] and was raised in Moline, Illinois. Her father had been an actor in stock productions across the country, but he gave up acting because her mother wanted to settle in Wisconsin. [3] [4]
In 1947, she graduated from Moline High School. [5] Afterward, she attended Northwestern University, where she earned her degree in 1951. [6]
Bartlett debuted in television playing the heroine Vanessa Dale Raven on the soap opera Love of Life from 1955 to 1959, replacing actress Peggy McCay. She then moved on to night-time roles in the 1960s. [7]
She portrayed Grace Snider Edwards on Little House on the Prairie from 1974–1977 and as Ellen Craig on St. Elsewhere. Each role began as infrequently recurring characters. As Grace Snider Edwards, her character's prominence in the series gradually increased from 1975–1977 following the courtship by and marriage to Isaiah Edwards, played by Victor French. In St. Elsewhere, she took on greater prominence in the 1984–1985 season when the storyline included Ellen and Mark's marital problems. The storyline deepened in the next season when their son was killed and they had to raise their granddaughter. Further difficult material included Ellen and Mark's divorce and slow reconciliation following the loss of their granddaughter in a custody dispute with her birth mother. [8] Bartlett won back-to-back Emmys for her portrayal of Ellen Craig. [9]
For many years, Bartlett accepted only small guest appearances on such programs as The Golden Girls , Gunsmoke , The Rockford Files , and The Waltons . Her acting career picked up considerably in the 1980s, including the TV miniseries V and North and South: Book II , as well as the pivotal role as the mother of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito's characters in the 1988 film, Twins .
Bartlett and husband William Daniels made Emmy Awards history in 1986 when they became the second real-life married couple to win acting awards on the same night. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne first accomplished the feat in 1965. [10] Bartlett and Daniels won for their portrayals of Dr. Mark and Mrs. Ellen Craig on the TV series St. Elsewhere . They later acted together again when she played a college dean who employed her husband's character, in a season of Daniels's ABC series Boy Meets World , and their characters later married. [11]
When St. Elsewhere ended in 1988, Bartlett's career moved to a wide variety of guest-starring appearances, including major roles on Wiseguy as a tough and corrupt matriarch of a sewage business; as Andrea Drey, secretary general of the United Earth Oceans Organization on seaQuest DSV ; on Home Improvement as Lucille Taylor (Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor's mother); and on ER as Ruth Katherine Greene. Bartlett had a feature-film role to in Valediction.
Bartlett and Daniels both served on the Screen Actors Guild's board of directors. [12]
Bartlett was added to the Hall of Honor at her alma mater, Moline High School in Moline, Illinois. [5]
Bartlett met William Daniels, at Northwestern University. They were married on June 30, 1951. [13]
In 1961, she gave birth to a son, who died 24 hours later. They adopted two sons: Michael, who became an assistant director and stage manager in Los Angeles, and Robert, who became an artist and computer graphics designer based in New York City. [14] [15]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1976 | The Last Tycoon | Brady's Secretary | |
1979 | California Dreaming | Melinda Brooke | |
Promises in the Dark | Nurse Farber | ||
1982 | Frances | Studio Stylist | |
1984 | Love Letters | Maggie Winter | |
1988 | Twins | Mary Ann Benedict | |
1993 | Dave | Female Senator | |
1995 | The Grass Harp | Mrs. Buster | |
1996 | Ghosts of Mississippi | Billie DeLaughter | |
1998 | Primary Colors | Martha Harris | |
2006 | Saving Shiloh | Mrs. Wallace | |
2012 | Valediction | Anabell | Short film |
2016 | Nina | Recital Stage Woman |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1955–1959 | Love of Life | Vanessa Dale Raven | Unknown episodes |
1965 | The Patty Duke Show | Miss Castle | Episode: "My Cousin the Heroine" |
1969 | The Jackie Gleason Show | Donna Douglas | Episode: "The Honeymooners: The Honeymoon Is Over" |
1973 | Emergency! | Eunice Evans | Episode: "Computer Error" |
1974–1979 | Little House on the Prairie | Grace Snider Edwards | 26 episodes |
1974 | Gunsmoke | Maylee Baines | Episode: "The Foundling" |
The Waltons | Martha Rudge | Episode: "The Car" | |
Gunsmoke | Agnes Benton | Episode: "In Performance of Duty" | |
1975 | Kojak | Joan Milner | Episode: "The Good Luck Bomber" |
The Legend of Lizzie Borden | Sylvia Knowlton | TV movie | |
1976 | The Rockford Files | Casey Patterson | Episode: "The Oracle Wore a Cashmere Suit" |
1977 | Washington: Behind Closed Doors | Joan Bailey | 2 episodes |
Killer on Board | Debra Snowden | Television movie | |
1979 | Hart to Hart | Myra Bensinger | Episode: "Murder Between Friends" |
Salem's Lot | Ann Norton | Television movie | |
1980 | Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case | Norma Joyce | Television movie |
Barney Miller | Ellen Milford | Episode: "The Delegate" | |
1981 | ABC Afterschool Specials | Miriam Scott | Episode: "She Drinks a Little" |
Knots Landing | Dr. Ruth West | Episode: "Critical Condition" | |
A Long Way Home | JoAnn Booth | TV movie | |
1982–1988 | St. Elsewhere | Ellen Craig | 70 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (1986–87) Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Quality Drama Series Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series |
1982 | Barney Miller | Emily Loftis | Episode: "Inquiry" |
Lou Grant | Claire | Episode: "Unthinkable" | |
1983 | V | Lynn Bernstein | 2 episodes |
1985 | Hotel | Olga Petrovsky | Episode: "Passports" |
1986 | The Deliberate Stranger | Louise Bundy | TV movie |
1987 | Right to Die | Lillian | TV movie |
1988 | The Golden Girls | Barbara Thorndyke | Episode: "Dorothy's New Friend" |
1989 | Matlock | Lorraine Maslin | Episode: "The Blues Singer" |
Murder, She Wrote | Marilyn North | Episode: "Seal of the Confessional" | |
1989–1990 | Midnight Caller | Hillary Townsend-King | 4 episodes |
1990 | The Great Los Angeles Earthquake | Anita Parker | |
Wiseguy | Harriet Weiss | 2 episodes | |
1992 | L.A. Law | Gloria Lee | Episode: "Diet, Diet My Darling" |
Room for Two | Francine Luboff | Episode: "Pilot" | |
I'll Fly Away | Beth Lekatzis | Episode: "Fragile Truths" | |
1994 | SeaQuest DSV | Secretary General of the UEO | Episode: "The Last Lap at Luxury" |
1995 | The Courtyard | Cathleen Fitzgerald | Television film |
1995–1998 | Home Improvement | Lucille Taylor | 5 episodes |
1996 | The Faculty | Katherine | Episode: "Bus Stop" |
1997–1998 | ER | Ruth Greene | 2 episodes |
1997–1999 | Boy Meets World | Dean Bolander | 5 episodes |
The Practice | Joanne Oz | 2 episodes | |
1997 | Touched by an Angel | Emily | Episode: "Venice" |
Sleeping with the Devil | Stasha Dubrovich | Television movie | |
1998 | Stargate SG-1 | Linea | Episode: "Prisoners" |
1999–2002 | Once and Again | Barbara Brooks | 7 episodes |
2000 | Touched by an Angel | Lucy Scribner | Episode: "The Grudge" |
2002 | Firefly | Patience | Episode: "Serenity" |
Strong Medicine | Edna Carlyle | Episode: "Discharged" | |
2003 | Touched by an Angel | Loretta | Episode: "And a Nightingale Sang" |
2004 | NCIS | Dr. Sylvia Chalmers | Episode: "My Other Left Foot" |
2005 | Huff | Margaret | Episode: "All the King's Horses" |
2006 | Boston Legal | Marguerite Hauser | Episode: "Shock and Oww!" |
General Hospital | Miriam Spinelli | 2 episodes | |
2008 | Grey's Anatomy | Patient Rosie Bullard | Episode: "Rise Up" |
2012 | Of Two Minds | Kathleen | Television movie |
2013 | Parks and Recreation | Paula Horke | Episode: "Women In Garbage" |
2017 | Better Call Saul | Helen | 2 Episodes |
Alfred David Lunt was an American actor and director, best known for his long stage partnership with his wife, Lynn Fontanne, from the 1920s to 1960, co-starring in Broadway and West End productions. After their marriage, they nearly always appeared together. They became known as "the Lunts" and were celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Guardsman is a 1931 American pre-Code film based on the play Testőr by Ferenc Molnár. It stars Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Roland Young and ZaSu Pitts. It opens with a stage re-enactment of the final scene of Maxwell Anderson's Elizabeth the Queen, with Fontanne as Elizabeth and Lunt as the Earl of Essex, but otherwise has nothing to do with that play.
Bonnie Lynn Hunt is an American actress and comedian. Her film roles include Rain Man, Beethoven, Beethoven's 2nd, Jumanji, Jerry Maguire, The Green Mile, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Cheaper by the Dozen 2.
Lynn Fontanne was an English actress. After early success in supporting roles in the West End, she met the American actor Alfred Lunt, whom she married in 1922 and with whom she co-starred in Broadway and West End productions over the next four decades. They became known as "The Lunts", and were celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic.
Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands was an American actress, whose career in film, stage, and television spanned nearly seven decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she collaborated with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, including A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), both of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night (1977). She appeared in Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988), and her son Nick Cassavetes's film, The Notebook (2004). In 2021, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said, "The most important and original movie actor of the past half century-plus is Gena Rowlands." In November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances.
Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, who called her "a profoundly truthful actress." Because Hagen was on the Hollywood blacklist, in part because of her association with Paul Robeson, her film opportunities dwindled and she focused her career on New York theatre.
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988. The series stars Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd, and William Daniels as teaching doctors at an aging, run-down Boston hospital who give interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions. The series was produced by MTM Enterprises, which had success with a similar NBC series, the police drama Hill Street Blues, during that same time. The series were often compared to each other for their use of ensemble casts and overlapping serialized storylines.
William David Daniels is an American actor who is known for his television roles, notably as Mark Craig on the drama series St. Elsewhere, for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards; the voice of KITT on the television series Knight Rider; and George Feeny on the sitcom Boy Meets World, which earned him four People's Choice Award nominations. He reprised his Knight Rider role in the sequel TV movie Knight Rider 2000 and his Boy Meets World role in the sequel series Girl Meets World. He also portrayed Carter Nash in Captain Nice.
Ron Leibman was an American actor. He won both the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play in 1993 for his performance as Roy Cohn in Angels in America. Leibman also won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1979 for his role as Martin 'Kaz' Kazinsky in his short-lived crime drama series Kaz.
Lindsay Ann Crouse is an American actress. She made her Broadway debut in the 1972 revival of Much Ado About Nothing and appeared in her first film in 1976 in All the President's Men. For her role in the 1984 film Places in the Heart, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her other films include Slap Shot (1977), Between the Lines (1977), The Verdict (1982), Prefontaine (1997), and The Insider (1999). She also had a leading role in the 1987 film House of Games, which was directed by her then-husband David Mamet. In 1996, she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for "Between Mother and Daughter", a CBS Schoolbreak Special episode. She is also a Grammy Award nominee.
Hope Davis is an American actress. She is known for her performances on stage and screen earning various awards including nominations for a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Mary Fickett was an American actress with roles in the American television dramas The Nurses, The Edge of Night as Sally Smith (1961) and Dr. Katherine Lovell (1967–68), and as Ruth Parker Brent Martin #1 on All My Children.
Christina Pickles is a British-born American actress. She is known for her role as Nurse Helen Rosenthal in the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere (1982–1988), for which she received five nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She is also known for her recurring role as Judy Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, for which she was nominated for the 1995 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
Bonnie Bedelia is an American actress. After beginning her career in theatre in the 1960s, Bedelia starred in the CBS daytime soap opera Love of Life and made her film debut in The Gypsy Moths. Bedelia subsequently appeared in the films They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Lovers and Other Strangers, Heart Like a Wheel, The Prince of Pennsylvania, Die Hard, Presumed Innocent, Sordid Lives, and Needful Things.
Mary Megan Winningham, known professionally as Mare Winningham, is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards.
Marla Vene Adams was an American actress. She was best known for playing the roles of Belle Clemens on the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm and Dina Abbott Mergeron on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role on The Young and the Restless in 2021. She had been nominated in the same category in 2018.
Ten Chimneys was the summer home and gentleman's farm of Broadway actors Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt, and a social center for American theater. The property is located in Genesee Depot in the Town of Genesee in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States.
Edith Ailsa Geraldine Craig, known as Edy Craig, was a prolific theatre director, producer, costume designer and early pioneer of the women's suffrage movement in England. She was the daughter of actress Ellen Terry and the progressive English architect-designer Edward William Godwin, and the sister of theatre practitioner Edward Gordon Craig.
Nancy Wesley is a fictional character from the American NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives, played by Patrika Darbo. Nancy was created when the serial's producer Tom Langan wanted a "real woman" as opposed to a "super-skinny" actress to join the cast. Casting director Fran Bascom contacted Darbo with the offer and she accepted. Langan did not require the actress to audition for the role. Nancy is introduced as the wife of Craig Wesley and is described as a loyal spouse. Langan liked the dynamic between the two characters; he believed that "handsome" Craig loved the "not super-thin" Nancy very much. Darbo has spoken about the characters sharing a mutual love and credits her own rapport with Spirtas to the character's popularity. Nancy has been featured in storylines involving breast cancer, a feud with Mike Horton, getting run over by a truck, and having a child to provide her leukemia stricken daughter, Chloe Lane with a bone marrow transplant. The character was also involved in a storyline that was part of a promotional campaign for food franchisor Mrs. Fields and charity Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Margot Peters was an American novelist and biographer, including of Charlotte Brontë, George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the Drews and Barrymores, May Sarton, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. She was a recipient of the Ambassador Book Award.