FRANCES STERNHAGEN

'Frances Sternhagen' (born January 13, 1930) is an American actress. She was raised in Washington, D.C.
Sternhagen has appeared on and off Broadway, in movies and on TV ever since the 1950s, and today is among the leading ladies of the New York stage with major roles continuing well into her 70s (see [1]).
In summer 2006, she finished her 24th Broadway role, then she guest starred on TV's ''The Closer'', playing Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick)'s disapproving Southern mother.

Contents

Stage career

Film roles

Television roles

Personal information

Filmography

Television Work

External links

Stage career

Frances Sternhagen started her career teaching acting, singing and dancing to school children at Milton Academy in Massachusetts, and first performed herself in 1948 at a Bryn Mawr summer theater in ''The Glass Menagerie'' and ''Angel Street'' according to her (see[2]) profile on Broadway.com.
She went on to work at Washington's Arena Stage Group from 1953-54, then had her Broadway debut in 1955 as Miss T. Muse in ''The Skin of Our Teeth''. The same year she had her off-Broadway debut in "Thieves' Carnival" and her TV debut in "The Great Bank Robbery" on "Omnibus" (CBS). By the following year she had won an off-Broadway (see [3]) Obie Award for "Distinguished Performance (Actress)" in ''The Admirable Bashville'' (1955-56).
She has had an illustrious career in the New York theater ever since. As recorded in the Internet Broadway Database (see[4], [5]) in 24 Broadway roles through 2006 she has won two Tony awards, for "Best Actress, Supporting or Featured (Dramatic}" in 1974 for the original Broadway production of Neil Simon's ''The Good Doctor'' based on Chekhov stories (which also won her a Drama Desk Award for "Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play"); and, for "Best Actress (Featured Role--Play)" in the 1995 revival of ''The Heiress'', based on the Henry James novella.
She has been nominated for Tony awards five other times, including for her roles in the original Broadway casts of ''Equus'' (1975) and ''On Golden Pond'' (1979), both later made into Oscar-nominated movies with other actresses, as well as for Lorraine Hansberry's ''The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window'' (1972), the musical ''Angel'' (1978) which was based on Thomas Wolfe's ''Look Homeward Angel'', and the 2002 revival of Paul Osborne's ''Morning's at Seven''.
Her best-known off-Broadway role was her feisty portrayal of the title character in 1987's Pulitzer prize-winning drama (see [6]) ''Driving Miss Daisy'' which she created and played for over two years at Playwright's Horizon in New York. (Jessica Tandy later won an Academy Award playing Daisy in the 1989 movie.)
Off-Broadway awards include two nominations for the (see[7]) Drama Desk Award for "Outstanding Actress in a Play": in 1998, for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's ''Long Day's Journey Into Night'' at the (see [8]) Irish Repertory Theater, and in 2005, for the World War I drama (see [9]) ''Echoes of the War''.
She also won Distinguished Performance (see[10]) Obie Awards for ''The Room'' and ''A Slight Ache'' (1964-65). In 1998 she won the Dramatists Guild Fund's ''Madge Evans & Sidney Kingsley Award for Excellence in Theater''.
She recently starred in the 2005 revival of Edward Albee's ''Seascape'', produced by Lincoln Center Theater at the Booth Theater on Broadway. She had also appeared in the original Broadway production of Edward Albee's ''All Over'' in 1971, with Colleen Dewhurst and Jessica Tandy. Her previous Broadway role was in the summer 2005 production of ''Steel Magnolias'' with Marsha Mason, Delta Burke, Christine Ebersole, Lily Rabe and Rebecca Gayheart.

Film roles

Frances Sternhagen made her (see[11]) film debut in 1967's New York City high school drama (see[12]) ''Up the Down Staircase'', which starred Sandy Dennis. She has worked periodically in Hollywood since then. She had character roles in the 1971 Paddy Chayefsky's classic ''The Hospital'', in ''Two People'' (1973) and in Billy Wilder's ''Fedora'' (1978). She appeared in ''Starting Over'' (1979) which starred Burt Reynolds; with Sean Connery in ''Outland'' (1981); and with Michael J. Fox in ''Bright Lights, Big City'' (1988). She played Farrah Fawcett's mother in ''See You In the Morning'' (1989), Richard Farnsworth's wife in ''Misery'' (1990), and John Lithgow's psychiatrist in ''Raising Cain'' (1992). Sternhagen is set to star in Frank Darabont's suspense/thriller " The Mist" , scheduled for November 21, 2007.

Television roles

She may be best known to TV audiences as Esther Clavin, mother of John Ratzenberger's Boston postman character Cliff Clavin, on the long-running series ''Cheers'' for which she received two Emmy Award nominations. She also played Millicent Carter on ''ER'', Bunny MacDougal, mother of Trey, Charlotte's first husband on ''Sex and the City'' (another Emmy Award nomination) and ''Law & Order'', among other network sitcoms, and worked for many years in soap operas such as ''Another World'', ''The Secret Storm'' and ''Love of Life''. She played two roles on the ABC soap opera''One Life to Live''. She recorded a voiceover for a May 2002 episode of ''The Simpsons'' known as ''The Frying Game'', in which Homer Simpson is sentenced to the electric chair.

Personal information

Frances Sternhagen was educated at The Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, and then went on to Vassar College, where according to (see [13]) Broadway.com, she was elected head of the Drama Club "after silencing a giggling college crowd at a campus dining hall with her interpretation of a scene from Richard II, playing none other than Richard himself." She also studied at the Perry Mansfield School of the Theatre, and New York's Neighborhood Playhouse (see [14]) Broadway.com quotes her as telling Newsday in an August 2004 interview, "When kids are asked now what they want to be, they say, 'I want to be famous,' and they have no concept of what kind of work that involves."
She is the daughter of John M. and Gertrude Sternhagen. She met her husband, actor and drama teacher Thomas Carlin (who died in 1991), at The Catholic University of America (although she is not Catholic) and had 6 children with him -- Paul, Amanda, Tony, Sarah, Peter, and John Carlin -- several of whom are now professional actors and musicians.
Frances Sternhagen lives in New Rochelle, New York.

Filmography

★ ''The Hospital (1971)

★ ''Two People (1973)

★ ''Fedora (1978)

★ ''Starting Over (1979)

★ ''Outland (1981)

★ ''Independence Day (1983)

★ ''Romantic Comedy (1983)

★ ''Bright Lights, Big City (1988)

★ ''See You In the Morning (1989)

★ ''Communion (1989)

★ ''Sibling Rivalry (1990)

★ ''Misery (1990)

★ ''Doc Hollywood (1991)

★ ''Walking The Dog (1991)

★ ''Raising Cain (1992)

★ ''Curtain Call (1999)

★ ''Midnight Gospel (2000)

★ ''Landfall (2001)

★ ''The Rising (2001)

★ ''The Laramie Project (2002)

★ ''Highway (2002)

★ ''The Mist (2007)

Television Work

★ ''The Secret Garden (1973-1974) (TV series)

★ ''Enemies (1974) (TV movie)

★ ''The Rimes of Eldritch (1974) (TV movie)

★ ''Who'll Save Christmas (1978) (TV movie)

★ ''Mother and Daughter: The Loving War (1980) (TV movie)

★ ''The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1980) (TV movie)

★ ''Prototype (1983) (TV movie)

★ ''The Dining Room (1984) (TV movie)

★ ''Spencer (1985) (TV series)

★ ''Resting Place (1986) (TV movie)

★ ''At Mother's Request (1987) (TV movie)

★ ''Once Again (1987)

★ ''Golden Years (1991) (TV series)

★ ''Law and Order (1991) as Estelle Muller (1 episode)

★ ''She Woke Up (1992) (TV movie)

★ ''Tales From the Crypt (1992) (TV series) 1 episode

★ ''Cheers (1986-1993) (TV series)

★ ''Labor of Love: The Arlette Schweitzer Story (1993) (TV movie)

★ ''The Road Home (1994) (TV series)

★ ''The Outer Limits (1995) (TV series) 1 episode

★ ''Law and Order (1997) as Margaret Langdon (1 episode)

★ ''The Simpsons (2002) (1 episode)

★ ''Sex and the City (2000-2002)

★ ''ER (1997-2003)

★ ''Becker (2004) (TV series) 1 episode

★ ''The Closer (2006-2007)

External links

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