Estelle Parsons | |
---|---|
Born | Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S. | November 20, 1927
Education | Connecticut College (BA) Boston University |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1956–present |
Known for | Roseanne The Conners |
Spouses | |
Children | 3 |
Estelle Parsons (born November 20, 1927) is an American actress. [1]
After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program Today and made her stage debut in 1961. During the 1960s, Parsons established her career on Broadway before progressing to film. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and was also nominated for her work in Rachel, Rachel (1968).
Parsons worked extensively in film and theatre during the 1970s and later directed several Broadway productions. Later work included perhaps her best known role, as Beverly Harris, mother of the title character, on the sitcom Roseanne , and, later, on its spinoff The Conners . She has been nominated five times for the Tony Award (four times for Lead Actress of a Play and once for Featured Actress). In 2004, Parsons was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Parsons was born in Lynn Hospital, Lynn, Massachusetts, the younger of two children born to Elinor Ingeborg (née Mattsson), a native of Sweden, and Eben Parsons, who was of English descent. Estelle's older sister, Elaine Parsons Ruggles, was born in 1923 and died in 1996. [2] [3]
She attended Oak Grove School for Girls in Maine. After graduating from Connecticut College in 1949, Parsons initially studied law at Boston University School of Law, and then worked as a singer with a band before settling on an acting career in the early 1950s. [4] In 1983, when co-starring with fellow Academy Award-winning actor Jack Lemmon in a new Ernest Thompson stage play in Los Angeles, Parsons appeared on the November 1 episode of The Tonight Show , telling Johnny Carson that Lemmon had been her first boyfriend, when they were both teenagers in the 1940s. [5]
Parsons moved to New York City, and worked as a writer, producer and commentator for The Today Show . She made her Broadway debut in 1956 in the ensemble of the Ethel Merman musical Happy Hunting . Her Off-Broadway debut was in 1961, and she received a Theatre World Award in 1963 for her performance in Whisper into My Good Ear/Mrs. Dally Has a Lover (1962).
In 1964, Parsons won an Obie Award for Best Actress for her performance in two Off-Broadway plays, Next Time I'll Sing to You and In the Summer House. In 1967, she starred with Stacy Keach in the premiere of Joseph Heller's play We Bombed in New Haven at the Yale Repertory Theatre. [6]
Parsons has received Tony Award nominations for her work in The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968), And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (1971), Miss Margarida's Way (1978), Morning's at Seven (2002), and The Velocity of Autumn (2014). She played Leokadia Begbick in the American premiere of the Weill–Brecht opera, Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny (1970), and performed as Mrs. Peachum to Lotte Lenya's Jenny in Threepenny Opera on tour and in New York City. In 1978 she played Lady Macbeth in the Kauai Community Players production. She also played Ruth in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway in 1981. From June 17, 2008, through May 17, 2009, she played the role of Violet Weston in August: Osage County . She continued playing the role during the show's national tour beginning July 24, 2009, in Denver. [ citation needed ]
In 1979, Parsons directed a production of Antony and Cleopatra at Interart Theatre in New York in which she incorporated some Spanish into the show, prompting Joseph Papp to invite her to direct at the New York Shakespeare Festival (now The Public Theatre), and becoming the first woman to do so. [7] As a director, Parsons has a number of Broadway credits, including a production of Romeo and Juliet , Macbeth and As You Like It in 1986. Off-Broadway, she directed Dario Fo's Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo (1983). She served as the Artistic Director of the Actors Studio for five years, from 1998 to 2003. [8]
In 2016, she starred in Israel Horovitz's new play Out Of The Mouths Of Babes along with Judith Ivey directed by Barnet Kellman at The Cherry Lane Theater in New York City. [9]
In 2004, Parsons was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. [10]
Her film career includes an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and a nomination for Rachel, Rachel (1968). She received a BAFTA Award nomination for her role in Watermelon Man (1970), and appeared in I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Two People (1973), A Memory of Two Mondays (1974), For Pete's Sake (1974), Dick Tracy (1990) and Boys on the Side (1995).
On television, Parsons played the recurring role of Beverly Harris, the mother of the title character on Roseanne ; her Beverly character is the daughter of character Nana Mary, played by fellow Academy Award winner Shelley Winters. Other television credits include appearances in The Patty Duke Show , Love, American Style , All In The Family , Archie Bunker's Place , Open Admissions , Frasier , Law & Order: Special Victims Unit , and The Good Wife , as well as The UFO Incident: The Story of Betty and Barney Hill and the PBS production of June Moon . She played the part of Babe in three episodes of the second and fifth seasons of Grace and Frankie .
She was honored with a Woman of Achievement Award from the Women's Project Theater in 2009. [11] In 2010, she appeared in London, playing psychic Helga ten Dorp in Deathtrap at the Noël Coward Theatre in the West End. [12]
Parsons' most recent Broadway appearances include Good People (2011) and Nice Work If You Can Get It (2012). [13]
In April 2018, Parsons returned to television reprising her role as Beverly Harris, mother of Roseanne Barr's title character, in season 10, episode 5 of Roseanne . [14]
Parsons married author Richard Gehman in 1953. They had twin daughters, reporter Abbie and actress Martha Gehman, before divorcing in 1958. [5] Her grandson Eben Britton, Abbie's son, is a former player for the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars as a guard/tackle, and who was named for his great-grandfather, Estelle's father. [15]
In January 1983, she married her partner of 10 years, Peter Zimroth, who has served as Assistant U.S. Attorney, Assistant District Attorney and court-appointed monitor of the NYPD's policies and practices regarding stop-and-frisk. [16] They adopted a son, Abraham, born in February 1983. [5] Peter Zimroth died on November 8, 2021. [17]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1963 | Ladybug Ladybug | JoAnn's Mother | |
1967 | Bonnie and Clyde | Blanche | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress [18] Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance (2nd place) |
1968 | Rachel, Rachel | Calla Mackie | Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress [18] |
1969 | Don't Drink the Water | Marion Hollander | |
1970 | Watermelon Man | Althea Gerber | Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role |
I Walk the Line | Ellen Haney | ||
I Never Sang for My Father | Alice | ||
1973 | Two People | Barbara Newman | |
1974 | For Pete's Sake | Helen Robbins | |
1975 | Fore Play | 1st Lady / Barmaid | |
1989 | The Lemon Sisters | Mrs. Kupchak | |
1990 | The Blue Men | May | |
Dick Tracy | Mrs. Trueheart | ||
1995 | Boys on the Side | Louise | |
1996 | Looking for Richard | Margaret | |
1997 | That Darn Cat | Old Lady McCracken | |
2018 | Diane | Mary |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1954 | Today | Self | Episode dated 6 September 1954 |
1963 | The Defenders | Mrs. Martin | "Metamorphosis" |
1964 | The DuPont Show of the Week | Carrie Bernice | "The Gambling Heart" |
The Patty Duke Show | Mrs. Appleton | "The Con Artist" | |
1965 | The Doctors and the Nurses | Mrs. Meyers | "Where There's Smoke" |
1966 | The Trials of O'Brien | Miss Baines | "Alarums and Excursions" |
1968 | Snap Judgment | Self | Episode dated 18 November 1968 |
Hemingway's Spain: A Love Affair | Self (voice only) | ||
Kraft Music Hall | Self | Episode #11.30 | |
The 40th Annual Academy Awards | Self | Oscar winner | |
1970 | The Front Page | Mollie Malloy | |
The David Frost Show | Self | Episode #2.240 | |
1971 | 25th Tony Awards | Self | Nominee |
Great Performances | Agnes | A Memory of Two Mondays | |
1972 | Love, American Style | Bernice | "Love and the Clinic/Love and the Perfect Wedding/Love and the President/Love and the Return of Raymond" |
Medical Center | Bev | "Wall of Silence" | |
1973 | Terror on the Beach | Arlene Glynn | |
1974 | The Gun and the Pulpit | Sadie Underwood | |
Great Performances | Lucille | "June Moon" | |
1975 | The UFO Incident | Betty Hill | |
1976 | The Tenth Level | Crossland | |
NBC Special Treat | Edwina Kemp | "Big Henry and the Polka Dot Kid" | |
All in the Family | Dolores Mancheney Fencel | "Archie's Secret Passion" | |
1978 | All in the Family | Blanche Hefner | 2 episodes |
1979 | Archie Bunker's Place | Blanche Hefner | "Blanche and Murray" |
Backstairs at the White House | Bess Truman | Four episodes | |
1981 | The Gentleman Bandit | Marjorie Seebode | |
Guests of the Nation | Kate O'Connell | ||
1982 | Today | Self | Episode dated 14 January 1982 |
American Playhouse | Mabel Lederer/Angela Motorman | "Come Along with Me" | |
1987 | American Playhouse | "Waiting for the Moon" (the producers wish to thank) | |
1988 | Open Admissions | Clare Block | |
1989–1997, 2018 | Roseanne | Beverly Harris | 61 episodes Nominated for TV Land Award |
1990 | Everyday Heroes | Matty Jennings | |
1992 | A Private Matter | Mary Chessen | Nominated—CableACE Award Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries |
1993 | The American Clock | Older Doris | |
Family Feud | Self | "Roseanne vs. Jackie Thomas Sitcoms" | |
1994 | Inside the Actors Studio | Self | |
1997 | Touched by an Angel | Jeannette Fisher | "Sandcastles" |
1998 | The Love Letter | Beatrice Corrigan | |
The 70th Annual Academy Awards | Self | ||
1999 | Freak City | Mrs. Stanapolous | |
2000 | Backstory | Self | "Bonnie and Clyde" |
2001 | 100 Centre Street | Esther O'Neill | "The Fix" |
2002 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Rose Rinato | "Denial" |
The 56th Annual Tony Awards | Self | ||
2004 | Frasier | Celeste's Mother (voice) Opal Herself (photograph) | "Frasier-Lite" "Coots and Ladders" "Goodnight, Seattle" |
Strip Search | Roberta Gray | ||
Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde | Self | ||
2005 | Empire Falls | Bea | 2 episodes |
2013 | The Good Wife | Nana Joe | Episode: "What's in the Box?" |
2016–2019 | Grace and Frankie | Babe | 3 episodes |
2018–present | The Conners | Beverly Harris | 9 episodes |
2023–2024 | Around the Sun (audio drama) | Bibi | 2 episodes |
Laura Elizabeth Metcalf is an American actress and comedian. Known for her complex and versatile roles across the stage and screen, she has received various accolades throughout her career spanning more than four decades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Ellen Tyne Daly is an American actress whose six-decade career included many leading roles in movies and theater. She has won six Emmy Awards for her television work, a Tony Award, and is a 2011 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee.
Joanna Gleason is a Canadian-American actress and singer. She is a Tony Award–winning musical theatre actress and has also had a number of notable film and TV roles. She is known for originating the role of the Baker's Wife in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She is also known for her film work in Mike Nichols' Heartburn (1986), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), and Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997). She has had television roles in shows such as ER, Friends, The West Wing, The Good Wife and The Affair.
Sutton Lenore Foster is an American actress. She is known for her work on the Broadway stage, for which she has won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical twice, in 2002 for her role as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and in 2011 for her performance as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, a role which she reprised in 2021 for a production in London and for which she received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Her other Broadway credits include Grease, Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, Violet, The Music Man, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Once Upon a Mattress. On television, Foster played the lead role in the short-lived ABC Family comedy-drama Bunheads from 2012 to 2013. From 2015 to 2021, she starred in the TV Land comedy-drama Younger.
Geraldine Mary Fitzgerald was an Irish actress. She received the Daytime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. She was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2020, she was listed at number 30 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Kathleen Freeman was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost invariably to comic effect. In film, she is perhaps best remembered for appearing in 12 Jerry Lewis comedies in the 1950s and 1960s and The Blues Brothers (1980).
The Norman Conquests is a trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. Each of the plays depicts the same six characters over the same weekend in a different part of a house. Table Manners is set in the dining room, Living Together in the living room, and Round and Round the Garden in the garden.
Katherine Burton is a Welsh actress, the daughter of actors Richard Burton and Sybil Christopher. On television, Burton received critical acclaim as Ellis Grey in the Shonda Rhimes drama series Grey's Anatomy, and as Vice President Sally Langston on Scandal. She has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards.
Denise Dillon is an American actress and comedian best known for starring as Toby Pedalbee on the HBO comedy Dream On from 1990 to 1996. Dillon was first known for her stage work and was nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway. Other television credits include spending one season as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1981 and co-starring on the Fox sitcom Women in Prison. She subsequently continued to act in theater and both teaches and performs improv comedy.
Marian Hall Seldes was an American actress. A five-time Tony Award nominee, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for A Delicate Balance in 1967, and received subsequent nominations for Father's Day (1971), Deathtrap (1978–82), Ring Round the Moon (1999), and Dinner at Eight (2002). She also won a Drama Desk Award for Father's Day.
June Gable is an American character actress, perhaps best known for her role as Joey's agent Estelle Leonard in the NBC sitcom Friends. She also played a nurse in the delivery room in season 1 episode 23, “The One With The Birth.” She received a Tony Award nomination for her work on Broadway.
Deathtrap is a 1978 American play written by Ira Levin with many plot twists and which refers to itself as a play within a play. It is in two acts with one set and five characters. It holds the record for the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway, and was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Play. Deathtrap was well received by many and has been frequently revived. It was adapted into a film starring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon in 1982.
Rachel York is an American actress and singer. She is known for stage roles, including award winning performances in Camelot, Hello, Dolly!, Into the Woods, and Anything Goes. She also has performed in film and on television, including her portrayal of Lucille Ball in the 2003 television film Lucy.
Carol Potter is an American actress best known for playing Cindy Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210.
The Shadow Box is a play written by actor Michael Cristofer. The play made its Broadway debut on March 31, 1977. It is the winner of the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. The play was made into a telefilm, directed by Paul Newman in 1980.
Martha Gehman is an American actress and acting coach, perhaps best known for her role as Ophelia in the 1985 cult classic The Legend of Billie Jean.
Estelle Gettleman, known professionally as Estelle Getty, was an American actress and comedienne. She was best known for her portrayal of Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls (1985–1992), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised the role in Empty Nest (1993–1995), The Golden Palace (1992–1993), Blossom (1990–1995), and Nurses (1991–1994). Notable films in which she appeared include Mask (1985), a semibiographical film in which she played the grandmother of Roy L. Dennis, Mannequin (1987), and Stuart Little (1999). She retired from acting in 2001 due to failing health, and died in 2008 from dementia with Lewy bodies.
Good People is a 2011 play by David Lindsay-Abaire. The world premiere was staged by the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City. The production was nominated for two 2011 Tony Awards – Best Play and Best Leading Actress in a Play, with the latter winning.
Ruthie Ann Miles is an American actress and singer, best known for her roles in musical theatre, especially in The King and I and Here Lies Love, and on television.
Peter Lenard Zimroth was an American legal scholar, public official and private practitioner. As New York City Corporation Counsel from 1987 to 1989, he unsuccessfully defended the constitutional purview of the New York City Board of Estimate in protracted litigation, culminating in its disestablishment under the Equal Protection Clause in 1989. In 2013, he became the court-appointed monitor of the New York City Police Department's stop-and-frisk policies and practices.