Bishop moved to New York City to try to become a ballet dancer.[3] Bishop's big break came when she was cast as the sexy, hard-edged Sheila in the 1975 Broadway production of A Chorus Line, for which she won the 1976 Tony Award as "Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Musical)" as well as the 1976 Drama Desk Award for "Outstanding Actress in a Musical". Many details of the character Sheila's past were drawn from Bishop's real life, as she helped develop the character during early workshops.[3] She was also cast in Broadway productions of Six Degrees of Separation, Neil Simon's Proposals, the Tony Award-winning The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and Bus Stop.[5]
In film, she was cast opposite Jill Clayburgh in Paul Mazursky's big-screen drama An Unmarried Woman (1978). In the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, she was originally set for a small role, but took on the much bigger role of Mrs. Houseman when Lynne Lipton (originally cast to play the role) fell ill during the first week of shooting.
Bishop resides in South Orange, New Jersey. She was first married to stagehand and electrician Peter Miller in 1970 before divorcing in 1975.[3] She was married to the TV talk show host Lee Leonard until his death in 2018.[8][9]
↑ Worth-Baker, Marcia. "Mother's Always Right: played the mother many times over", Maplewood Matters, accessed April 22, 2007. "Ask Kelly Bishop, South Orange resident and star of Gilmore Girls, what drew her to the role of Emily Gilmore, and she recalls, 'The pilot was simply the best script I ever read.'"
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