Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman (April 30, 1926 – January 27, 2021) was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nine decades. She received many accolades including 22 Primetime Emmy nominations of which she won eight; with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, she is tied for the distinction of most acting Emmy Awards ever awarded to a performer. Leachman also won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

She was known for her versatility and distinctive physicality, where she used props to accentuate and express her roles' characterizations. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Leachman attended Northwestern University and began appearing in local plays as a teenager. After competing in the 1946 Miss America pageant, she secured a scholarship to study under Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in New York City, making her professional debut in 1948. In film, she appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971) as a neglected 1950s housewife who has an affair with a student of her husband, a high-school gym teacher; she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

After winning a scholarship in the Miss America pageant, placing in the top 16, Leachman studied acting under Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in New York City. She had been cast as a replacement for the role of Nellie Forbush during the original run of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific. A few years later, she appeared in the Broadway-bound production of William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba, but left the show before it reached Broadway when Katharine Hepburn asked her to co-star in a production of William Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Leachman was slated to play the role of Abigail Williams in the original Broadway cast of Arthur Miller's seminal drama The Crucible. The production played four preview performances at the Playhouse Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware, from January 15–17, 1953, prior to opening on Broadway on January 22. However, Leachman left the production the day before opening night in Wilmington, with Madeleine Sherwood assuming the role. Leachman's name was heavily publicized prior to the production's opening, and her name still appeared in the printed program; a sign appeared at the box office in Wilmington noting the change.

Leachman was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011. That same year, she was ranked number 23 on the TV Guide Network special Funniest Women on TV. On June 20, 2014, Leachman received an honorary degree from her alma mater, Northwestern University. In 2017, she received PETA's Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedication to animal-rights issues. She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Television Category on September 22, 1980, at 6435 Hollywood Boulevard.

Born 1926-04-30 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Died 2021-01-26.

On ThumbScore, Cloris Leachman appears in 16 films with an average audience score of 81.2%, most frequently in the Comedy genre.

Sources: Wikipedia, TMDB