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Frances SternhagenAmerican actress
Date of Birth: 13.01.1930
Country:  USA |
Content:
Early Life and Education
Frances Hussey Sternhagen was born in Washington, D.C. on January 13, 1930. Her father was a tax court judge, and her mother was a homemaker and World War I nurse. She attended Madeira School and Potomac School in McLean, Virginia.
At Vassar College, she was elected president of the drama club "after she hushed a giggling campus crowd in the campus dining room with her rendition of a scene from 'Richard II,' playing none other than Richard himself." She studied as a graduate student at The Catholic University of America. She also trained at the Perry-Mansfield School of Theatre and the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City.
Career
1948–1973: Early WorkSternhagen began her career teaching drama, singing, and dance to school children at the Milton Academy in Massachusetts, and made her stage debut in 1948 in the summer stock playhouse performances of "The Glass Menagerie" and "Angel Street" at Bryn Mawr. She continued to work on the Washington, D.C., stage at Arena Stage from 1953 to 1954, then made her Broadway debut in 1955 as Miss T. Muse in "The Skin of Our Teeth."
That same year, she made her off-Broadway debut in "The Thieves' Carnival" and her television debut on CBS's "Omnibus" in "The Great Bank Robbery." The following year, she won her first Obie Award for "Outstanding Performance (Actress)" in "The Disenchanted" (1955–56).
Sternhagen made her film debut in "Up the Down Staircase" (1967). She worked in Hollywood periodically thereafter. Sternhagen appeared as the daughter in the original 1971 Broadway production of Edward Albee's "All Over," with Colleen Dewhurst and Jessica Tandy. She had featured roles in Paddy Chayefsky's "The Hospital" (1971), "Two People" (1973), and Billy Wilder's "Fedora" (1978).
1974–1993: Theatrical Roles and Acclaim
Sternhagen won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play: in 1974 for the original Broadway production of Neil Simon's "The Good Doctor" and in 1995 for the revival of "The Heiress." She was nominated for the Tony Award five more times, including for her performances in the original Broadway productions of "Equus" (1975) and "On Golden Pond" (1979), as well as Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" (1972), "Angel" (1978), which was based on Thomas Wolfe's novel "Look Homeward, Angel," and the 2002 revival of Paul Osborn's "Morning's at Seven."
During this time, she appeared as the resilient wife of Charles Durning in "Starting Over" (1979) with Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh and as the curt, tough-talking Dr. Marian Lazarus alongside Sean Connery in "Outland" (1981), which earned her a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She had supporting roles in "The Outing" (1987), "Bright Lights, Big City" (1988), and "Doc Hollywood" (1991), both with Michael J. Fox.
Sternhagen's work as Richard Farnsworth's Sheriff Buster's wife Virginia in Rob Reiner's 1990 adaptation of Stephen King's 1987 novel "Misery," and her portrayal of Dr. Lynn Waldheim in Brian De Palma's 1992 psychological horror thriller "Raising Cain" earned her two more Saturn Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress.
Sternhagen played the central character in the 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Driving Miss Daisy," which was adapted for the stage by Alfred Uhry and premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York City. Sternhagen took over the role when the play moved to the John Houseman Theatre, and played it for over two years. Her off-Broadway accolades include three Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Actress in a Play in 1979 for "On Golden Pond" and in 1998 for the revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night" (in which her real-life son Paul Carlin played her character Jamie Tyrone's son) for the Irish Repertory Theatre, and in 2005 for "Echoes of War."
1994–2014: Late Roles
Sternhagen starred as Farrah Fawcett's mother in "See You in the Morning" (1989), Irene Reppler, one of several small town citizens trapped in a supermarket, in Frank Darabont's horror film "The Mist" (2007), real-life "Joy of Cooking" writer Irma Rombauer in "Julie & Julia" (2009), Clearwater Marine Aquarium owner Gloria Forrest in "Dolphin Tale" (2011), and, in her last film role, Clare in the romantic comedy "And So It Goes" (2014).
To television viewers, she is perhaps best known as Esther Clavin, the mother of John Ratzenberger's character Cliff Clavin, the Boston mailman, on the long-running sitcom "Cheers," on which she appeared from 1986 to 1993. She received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her performance.
Sternhagen's other television roles included Millicent Carter on "ER"; Bunny MacDougal, the mother of Charlotte's first husband Trey, on "Sex and the City" (another Emmy nomination); the unforgettable Willie Rae Johnson (mother of Brenda Leigh Johnson, played by Kyra Sedgwick) on "The Closer"; and "Law & Order," among other network dramas and sitcoms. She had long-running roles on the soap operas "Another World," "All My Children," "One Life to Live," "The Doctors," and played two roles on "One Life to Live." She provided the voiceover for the May 2002 episode of "The Simpsons" ("Simpsons Tall Tales"). She is also known to many as Mrs. Marsh from the series of Colgate toothpaste television commercials that aired in the 1970s.
In the summer of 2005, she appeared in the Broadway revival of "Steel Magnolias" alongside Marsha Mason, Delta Burke, Christine Ebersole, Lily Rabe, and Rebecca Gayheart. She also appeared in Edward Albee's 2005 revival of "Seascape," staged by Lincoln Center Theater at the Booth Theatre on Broadway, and in the World War II drama "Echoes of War" (2005). In 2013, Sternhagen was honored with the Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement. She is a member of the New Rochelle Walk of Fame.
