Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman, DFA (h.c.) (born April 30, 1926) is an Academy Award-winning American actress of stage, film and TV.

Biography

Early life

Leachman, the eldest of three sisters, was born in Des Moines, Iowa to Buck and Cloris Leachman. She majored in drama at Northwestern University, where she was a member of Gamma Phi Beta and was classmates with future comic actor Paul Lynde. Leachman began appearing on television and in films shortly following a run for Miss America as "Miss Chicago (1946)".

Career

Leachman has won numerous awards during her lengthy career. In 1978 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1971's The Last Picture Show, based on the bestselling book by Larry McMurtry. She has also won seven primetime and one daytime Emmy Awards and been nominated 20 times for her work in television over the years, most notably as the character of neighbor/landlady/nosy friend "Phyllis Lindstrom" on the Mary Tyler Moore. The character was a fixture on the Mary Tyler Moore program for five years; she left Minneapolis in 1975 for a spinoff series, Phyllis for which she garnered a Golden Globe. In 1986, she returned to television, replacing Charlotte Rae as the den mother on The Facts of Life. Leachman's role, playing Rae's sister, Beverly Ann Stickle, could not save the aging series and it was canceled two years later.

Currently, she plays embittered, greedy, Slavic Canadian "Grandma Ida" on the FOX series Malcolm in the Middle. Other 2005 television credits include starring in the successful Lifetime Television mini-series Beach Girls with Rob Lowe and Julia Ormond. She received two Outstanding Guest Actress primetime Emmy nominations in 2005 including a fifth nomination for Malcolm in the Middle for comedy and a nod for the CBS drama Joan of Arcadia.

In 2005, she was nominated for a SAG Award for her role as the wine-soaked, former jazz singer and grandmother "Evelyn" in the Sony feature Spanglish opposite Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni. She had replaced an ailing Anne Bancroft in the role. The same year, she appeared in the big screen features The Longest Yard, and Sky High. In 2006, her performance alongside Sir Ben Kingsley and Annette Bening in the HBO special Mrs. Harris earned her an Emmy nomination.

On May 14, 2006 she was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Drake University.

Personal life

Leachman was married for 26 years (1953 to 1979) to Hollywood impresario George Englund, with whom she had four sons and one daughter. One of their sons died from a drug overdose in 1986, and another was married to the actress Sharon Stone. Leachman and Englund divorced and Leachman did not remarry. They have several grandchildren.

Leachman is a longtime resident of Brentwood, California.

Filmography

Carnegie Hall (1947)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Rack (1956)
The Chapman Report (1962)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Lovers and Other Strangers (1970)
WUSA (1970)
The People Next Door (1970)
The Steagle (1971)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Charley and the Angel (1973)
Dillinger (1973)
Happy Mother's Day, Love George (1973)
Daisy Miller (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Crazy Mama (1975)
The Mouse and His Child (1977) (voice)
High Anxiety (1977)
The Muppet Movie (1979) (Cameo)
The North Avenue Irregulars (1979)
Scavenger Hunt (1979)
Soggy Bottom, USA (1980)
Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)
Foolin' Around (1980)
Yesterday (1981)
Part I (1981)
My Strange Uncle (1981) (short subject)
Shadow Play (1986)
My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) (voice)
Castle in the Sky (1986) (voice in 2003 English dubbed version)
Walk Like a Man (1987)
Hansel and Gretel (1988)
Prancer (1989)
Texasville (1990)
Love Hurts (1991)
The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1991) (narrator)
Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas (1991) (documentary)
My Boyfriend's Back (1993)
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
A Troll in Central Park (1994) (voice)
Nobody's Girls: Five Women of the West (1995) (documentary)
Now and Then (1995)
Beavis and Butt-head Do America (1996) (voice)
Never Too Late (1997)
Gen¹³ (1998) (voice) (unreleased)
The Iron Giant (1999) (voice)
Music of the Heart (1999)
Hanging Up (2000)
The Amati Girls (2000)
Manna from Heaven (2002)
Alex & Emma (2003)
Bad Santa (2003)
The Californians (2004)
Spanglish (2004)
The Longest Yard (2005)
Sky High (2005)
Scary Movie 4 (2006)

Television Work

Hold It Please (1949) (canceled after 3 episodes)
Charlie Wild, Private Detective (1950-1952)
Bob and Ray (regular performer in 1952)
Lassie (cast member from 1957-1958)
The Man in the Moon (1960)
Silent Night, Lonely Night (1969)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (cast member from 1970-1975)
Suddenly Single (1971)
Of Thee I Sing (1972)
Haunts of the Very Rich (1972)
A Brand New Life (1973)
Crime Club (1973)
Dying Room Only (1973)
The Migrants (1974)
Hitchhike! (1974)
Pete 'n' Tillie (1974)
Thursday's Game (1974)
Ernie, Madge and Artie (1974)
Death Sentence (1974)
Someone I Touched (1975)
A Girl Named Sooner (1975)
Phyllis (1975-1977)
Death Scream (1975)
The New Original Wonder Woman (1975) (pilot for series)
The Love Boat (1976) (pilot for series)
It Happened One Christmas (1977)
Long Journey Back (1978)
Backstairs at the White House (1979) (miniseries)
Willa (1979)
Mrs. R's Daughter (1979)
S.O.S. Titanic (1979)
The Oldest Living Graduate (1980)
The Acorn People (1981)
Advice to the Lovelorn (1981)
Miss All-American Beauty (1982)
The Woman Who Willed a Miracle (1983)
Changing Habits (1983)
The Demon Murder Case (1983)
Between the Laughter (1984)
Breakfast with Les and Bess (1985)
Deadly Intentions (1985)
Blind Alleys (1985)
Love Is Never Silent (1985)
The Little Troll Prince (1985) (voice)
Ladies of the Corridor (1986)
The Facts of Life (cast member from 1986-1988)
The Facts of Life Down Under (1987)
Going to the Chapel (1988)
The Nutt House (1989) (canceled after a few weeks)
Fine Things (1990)
Malcolm in the Middle (guest star as Lois' mother)

External link

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