Barbara Harris (actress)
Encyclopedia
Barbara Harris is an American
actress who was a Broadway
stage star and later became a film actress. She appeared in such films as A Thousand Clowns
, Plaza Suite
, Nashville, Family Plot
, Freaky Friday
, Peggy Sue Got Married
, and Grosse Pointe Blank
. Harris has won a Tony Award
and has been nominated for an Academy Award and received four Golden Globe Award
nominations.
, the daughter of Oscar Harris, an arborist
who later became a businessman, and Natalie Densmoor, an accomplished pianist
. She began her stage career as a teenager at the Playwrights Theatre in Chicago
. Her fellow players included Edward Asner, Elaine May
and Mike Nichols
.
She was also a member of the Compass Players
, the first ongoing improvisational theatre
troupe in the United States, directed by Paul Sills
, to whom she was married at this time. Though the Compass Players closed in disarray, a second theatre directed by Sills called The Second City
opened in Chicago in 1959 and attracted national attention. Despite Sills and Harris having divorced by this time, Sills cast her in this company and brought her to New York to play in a Broadway edition at the Royale Theater, opening on September 26, 1961. For her performance in this, she received her first Tony Award
nomination.
for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her Broadway
debut in the original musical revue production From the Second City (1961), which ran at the Royale Theater from September 26, 1961 to December 9, 1961. The revue also featured the young Alan Arkin
and Paul Sand
. Produced by Max Liebman (among others) and directed by Paul Sills
, the production presented Harris in such sketches as Caesar's Wife, First Affair, Museum Piece, and The Bergman Film winning critical and audience acclaim.
In a rare 2002 interview with the New Times of Scottsdale, Arizona
, she recalled her ambivalence about even bringing the troupe to New York from Chicago. She said, "When I was at Second City, there was a vote about whether we should take our show to Broadway or not. Andrew Duncan and I voted no. I stayed in New York, but only because Richard Rodgers
and Alan Jay Lerner
came and said, "We want to write a musical for you!" Well, I wasn't big on musical theater. I had seen part of South Pacific
in Chicago and I walked out. But it was Richard Rodgers calling!"
While Rodgers and Lerner were busy working on their original musical for her, she won the Theatre World Award
for her role in playwright Arthur Kopit's dark comedic farce, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
. She earned a nomination for the 1966 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
(1965), a Broadway musical created for her by Alan Jay Lerner
and Burton Lane
. She starred as "Daisy Gamble", a New Yorker who seeks out the help of a psychiatrist to stop smoking. Under hypnosis, the apparently kooky, brash, and quirky character reveals unexpected hidden depths. During her hypnotic trances, she becomes fascinating to the psychiatrist as she reveals herself as a woman who has lived many past lives, one of them ending tragically. While critics were divided over the merits of the show, they praised Harris' performance. The show opened on October 14, 1965 at the Mark Hellinger Theater and ran for 280 performances, earning a total of three Tony
nominations. Harris performed numbers from the show with John Cullum
on The Bell Telephone Hour - The Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner, broadcast on February 27, 1966. She had previously appeared on Broadway with Anne Bancroft
in a 1963 production of Bertolt Brecht
's Mother Courage
, staged by Jerome Robbins
, at the Martin Beck Theater; the production received five Tony Award
nominations.
Harris gave another memorable performance in The Apple Tree
, another Broadway musical created for her, this time by the team of composer Jerry Bock
and lyricist Sheldon Harnick
, known best for Fiddler On the Roof
. The show, in which Harris co-starred with Alan Alda
and Larry Blyden
was directed by Mike Nichols, opened at the Shubert Theater on October 5, 1966 and closed on November 25, 1967. The show was based on three tales by Mark Twain
, Frank R. Stockton
, and Jules Feiffer
and Harris starred in all three. She played Eve in Twain's The Diary of Adam and Eve, a melodramatically campy temptress in The Lady and the Tiger, and two roles in Jules Feiffer
's
Passionella. She was the adorably forlorn, soot-stained nasal-congested chimney-sweep who wants only to be "a beautiful glamorous movie star, for its own sake", and, by virtue of an instantaneous costume-change, the huge-bosomed, gold-gowned, blonde bombshell of a movie star she always dreamed she'd be. Richard Watts Jr. of the New York Post
wrote "[t]here are many high triumphs of the imagination in the vastly original musical comedy ... [b]ut it is Miss Harris who provides it with the extra touch of magic". Walter Kerr
called her "the square root of noisy sex" and "sweetness carried well into infinity". Harris captured the 1967 Tony
for Best Actress in a Musical as well as Cue Magazine's "Entertainer of the Year" award. Of her friend and colleague Mike Nichols
, she said in 2002, "Mike Nichols was a toughie. He could be very kind, but if you weren't first-rate, watch out. He'd let you know."
Just as Harris appeared poised to join the first ranks of Broadway stars, she stopped appearing on stage after The Apple Tree
, except for the off-Broadway first American production of Brecht and Weill's Mahagonny in 1970, in which she played the role of Jenny, originally created by Lotte Lenya
. In the 2002 interview, Harris said, "Who wants to be up on the stage all the time? It isn't easy. You have to be awfully invested in the fame aspect, and I really never was. What I cared about was the discipline of acting, whether I did well or not."
, Channing
, The Defenders and The Nurses
. In 1965, she made an auspicious feature film
debut as social worker Sandra Markowitz in the screen version of A Thousand Clowns
. She co-starred opposite Jason Robards
, who played the freewheeling, eternally optimistic guardian of his teenage nephew, the custody of whom is threatened by authorities' dim view of his bohemian lifestyle. The New York Times critic wrote on December 9, 1965 that the movie "has the new and sensational Barbara Harris playing the appropriately light-headed girl". Harris and Robards won Golden Globe nominations.
In Neil Simon
's Plaza Suite
with Walter Matthau
, the British entertainment magazine Time Out London called the "delightful" Harris' gifts "wasted." She had only slightly better opportunities in The War Between Men and Women
with Jack Lemmon
, and the screen version of Arthur Kopit's darkly comic Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
with Rosalind Russell
as the monstrous mother of Robert Morse
who takes the stuffed corpse of her dead husband along on trips. Reviewing the latter film for the New York Times on February 16, 1967, critic Bosley Crowther
wrote, "Barbara Harris from the original play cast is as wacky as she was on the stage -- casual and direct and totally blase about the boisterous business of sex. Her tussle to accomplish her purpose, with the corpse falling out into the roam every time she is about to score a field goal, is still the funniest scene."
She earned an Oscar nomination for the 1971 film (which co-starred Dustin Hoffman
) Who Is Harry Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
, about a rich, successful, womanizing pop song writer suffering a debilitating but oddly liberating mental crisis. The script was by Herb Gardner, who also wrote A Thousand Clowns
.
In 1975, Harris appeared in one of her signature film roles in Robert Altman
's masterpiece Nashville, playing "Albuquerque", a ditzy, scantily clad country singing hopeful who may be far more opportunistic and calculating than she would first appear. Accounts of the film's chaotic and inspired production, particularly in Jan Stuart's book The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece, indicate a clash between actress and director. Harris earned a Golden Globe nomination (one of 11 for the film); as Oscar-nominated co-star Lily Tomlin
put it, "I was the hugest of Barbara Harris fan; I thought she was so stunning and original." Although the two were set to reunite with Altman in a sequel, that film was never made.
The following year, Alfred Hitchcock
cast her in Family Plot
as a bogus spiritualist hunting with her cab driver boyfriend for a missing heir and a family fortune. Among a cast that included Bruce Dern
, William Devane
, and Karen Black
, Hitchcock was particularly delighted by Harris' quirkiness, skill and intelligence. She received critical kudos as well as a Golden Globe nomination for the film, which was based upon the novel The Rainbird Pattern
by Victor Canning
and which marked a reunion of Hitchcock with Ernest Lehman
, who created the original screenplay for North by Northwest
. In a rare interview published in a 2002 edition of the New Times of Scottsdale, Arizona
, she admitted that she "[t]urned down Alfred Hitchcock
when he first asked me to be in one of his movies". After agreeing to star in Family Plot, she recalled that "Hitchcock was a wonderful man".
with a young Jodie Foster
, Movie Movie
for director Stanley Donen
, and The North Avenue Irregulars
with Edward Herrmann
and Cloris Leachman
. She co-starred in The Seduction of Joe Tynan
with one of her former Broadway leading men, Alan Alda
(who also wrote the screenplay), a tale of a liberal Washington Senator caught in an affair with a younger woman, played by Meryl Streep
.
In 1981, she starred in Second-Hand Hearts
for esteemed director Hal Ashby
as "Dinette Dusty", a recently widowed waitress and would-be singer who marries a boozy carwash worker named "Loyal", played by Robert Blake
to get back her children from their paternal grandparents. The film, based on a highly sought-after "road movie" screenplay by Charles Eastman
, was a disaster that tarnished the careers of all concerned. Critic Vincent Canby
in his negative New York Times review on May 8, 1981 opined, "[t]he film's one bright spot is Barbara Harris, who plays Dinette as sincerely as possible under awful conditions. She looks great even when she's supposed to be tacky, and is genuinely funny as she tries to make sense out of Loyal's muddled philosophizing, which, of course, the screenplay requires her to match." Harris was offscreen until 1986 when she played the mother of Kathleen Turner
in Peggy Sue Got Married
. Her last films were Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
and Grosse Pointe Blank
.
Harris currently teaches and directs. Asked if she might one day be lured back to mainstream stage, film or television, Harris said in the 2002 interview:
In 2005, she briefly resurfaced, guest starring as "The Queen" and "Spunky Brandburn" on the Radio Repertory Company of America audio drama, Anne Manx on Amazonia, which aired on XM Satellite Radio
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress who was a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
stage star and later became a film actress. She appeared in such films as A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns is a 1962 American play by Herb Gardner, which tells the story of a young boy who lives with his eccentric uncle Murray, who is forced to conform to society in order to keep custody of the boy. A 1965 movie version was adapted from the play by Gardner and directed by Fred Coe.-...
, Plaza Suite
Plaza Suite
Plaza Suite is a comedy play by Neil Simon.-Plot:The play is composed of three acts, each involving different characters but all set in Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel...
, Nashville, Family Plot
Family Plot
Family Plot is a 1976 American dark comedy/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, his fifty-third and final film. It stars Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, William Devane, and Karen Black....
, Freaky Friday
Freaky Friday (1976 film)
Freaky Friday is a 1976 American comedy film starring Jodie Foster as Annabel Andrews and Barbara Harris as her mother.The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, in which mother and daughter switch bodies and get a taste of each others' lives. The cause of the switch is left...
, Peggy Sue Got Married
Peggy Sue Got Married
Peggy Sue Got Married is a 1986 American comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Kathleen Turner as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high school...
, and Grosse Pointe Blank
Grosse Pointe Blank
Grosse Pointe Blank is a 1997 American Black comedy film, directed by George Armitage, and starring John Cusack and Minnie Driver.In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Grosse Pointe Blank the 21st greatest comedy film of all time. The film's soundtrack features mainly independent music hits...
. Harris has won a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
and has been nominated for an Academy Award and received four Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
nominations.
Early life
Harris was born in Evanston, IllinoisEvanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
, the daughter of Oscar Harris, an arborist
Arborist
An arborist, or arboriculturist, is a professional in the practice of arboriculture, which is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants...
who later became a businessman, and Natalie Densmoor, an accomplished pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
. She began her stage career as a teenager at the Playwrights Theatre in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Her fellow players included Edward Asner, Elaine May
Elaine May
Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
and Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
.
She was also a member of the Compass Players
Compass Players
The Compass Players was a 1950s cabaret revue show started by alumni, dropouts and hangers-on from the University of Chicago. The troupe was active from 1955-1958 in Chicago and St. Louis...
, the first ongoing improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...
troupe in the United States, directed by Paul Sills
Paul Sills
Paul Sills was a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.-Biography:...
, to whom she was married at this time. Though the Compass Players closed in disarray, a second theatre directed by Sills called The Second City
The Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...
opened in Chicago in 1959 and attracted national attention. Despite Sills and Harris having divorced by this time, Sills cast her in this company and brought her to New York to play in a Broadway edition at the Royale Theater, opening on September 26, 1961. For her performance in this, she received her first Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nomination.
Broadway
Harris received a nomination for the 1962 Tony AwardTony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in the original musical revue production From the Second City (1961), which ran at the Royale Theater from September 26, 1961 to December 9, 1961. The revue also featured the young Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
and Paul Sand
Paul Sand
Paul Sand is an American comedic actor.-Background:Sand was born Paul Sanchez in Santa Monica, California, the son of Sonia Borodiansky, a writer, and Ernest Rivera Sanchez, an aerospace tool designer. His father was Mexican and his mother of Russian descent.-Career:At the age of 11, he started at...
. Produced by Max Liebman (among others) and directed by Paul Sills
Paul Sills
Paul Sills was a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.-Biography:...
, the production presented Harris in such sketches as Caesar's Wife, First Affair, Museum Piece, and The Bergman Film winning critical and audience acclaim.
In a rare 2002 interview with the New Times of Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
, she recalled her ambivalence about even bringing the troupe to New York from Chicago. She said, "When I was at Second City, there was a vote about whether we should take our show to Broadway or not. Andrew Duncan and I voted no. I stayed in New York, but only because Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
came and said, "We want to write a musical for you!" Well, I wasn't big on musical theater. I had seen part of South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
in Chicago and I walked out. But it was Richard Rodgers calling!"
While Rodgers and Lerner were busy working on their original musical for her, she won the Theatre World Award
Theatre World Award
The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
for her role in playwright Arthur Kopit's dark comedic farce, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur L. Kopit. The play opened off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre in New York City in 1962 and moved to the Morosco Theatre...
. She earned a nomination for the 1966 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever is a musical with music by Burton Lane and a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner based loosely on Berkeley Square, written in 1929 by John L. Balderston. It concerns a woman who has ESP and has been reincarnated...
(1965), a Broadway musical created for her by Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
and Burton Lane
Burton Lane
Burton Lane was an American composer and lyricist. His most popular and successful work is the musical Finian's Rainbow, "the score for which Lane will always be most remembered."-Biography:...
. She starred as "Daisy Gamble", a New Yorker who seeks out the help of a psychiatrist to stop smoking. Under hypnosis, the apparently kooky, brash, and quirky character reveals unexpected hidden depths. During her hypnotic trances, she becomes fascinating to the psychiatrist as she reveals herself as a woman who has lived many past lives, one of them ending tragically. While critics were divided over the merits of the show, they praised Harris' performance. The show opened on October 14, 1965 at the Mark Hellinger Theater and ran for 280 performances, earning a total of three Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations. Harris performed numbers from the show with John Cullum
John Cullum
John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including On the Twentieth Century and Shenandoah , winning the Tony Awards for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each...
on The Bell Telephone Hour - The Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner, broadcast on February 27, 1966. She had previously appeared on Broadway with Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....
in a 1963 production of Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
's Mother Courage
Mother Courage
Mother Courage is a character from a Grimmelshausen novel Lebensbeschreibung der Ertzbetrügerin und Landstörtzerin Courasche dating from around 1670...
, staged by Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...
, at the Martin Beck Theater; the production received five Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations.
Harris gave another memorable performance in The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree is a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith...
, another Broadway musical created for her, this time by the team of composer Jerry Bock
Jerry Bock
Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock was an American musical theater composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical Fiorello! and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof with...
and lyricist Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Harnick is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof....
, known best for Fiddler On the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
. The show, in which Harris co-starred with Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
and Larry Blyden
Larry Blyden
Larry Blyden was an American actor and game show host, best known for his appearances on Broadway and as the host of the game show What's My Line?-Personal life:...
was directed by Mike Nichols, opened at the Shubert Theater on October 5, 1966 and closed on November 25, 1967. The show was based on three tales by Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Frank R. Stockton
Frank R. Stockton
Frank Richard Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century...
, and Jules Feiffer
Jules Feiffer
Jules Ralph Feiffer is an American syndicated cartoonist, most notable for his long-run comic strip titled Feiffer. He has created more than 35 books, plays and screenplays...
and Harris starred in all three. She played Eve in Twain's The Diary of Adam and Eve, a melodramatically campy temptress in The Lady and the Tiger, and two roles in Jules Feiffer
Jules Feiffer
Jules Ralph Feiffer is an American syndicated cartoonist, most notable for his long-run comic strip titled Feiffer. He has created more than 35 books, plays and screenplays...
's
Passionella. She was the adorably forlorn, soot-stained nasal-congested chimney-sweep who wants only to be "a beautiful glamorous movie star, for its own sake", and, by virtue of an instantaneous costume-change, the huge-bosomed, gold-gowned, blonde bombshell of a movie star she always dreamed she'd be. Richard Watts Jr. of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
wrote "[t]here are many high triumphs of the imagination in the vastly original musical comedy ... [b]ut it is Miss Harris who provides it with the extra touch of magic". Walter Kerr
Walter Kerr
For the RN admiral see Lord Walter KerrWalter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theater critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals.-Biography:...
called her "the square root of noisy sex" and "sweetness carried well into infinity". Harris captured the 1967 Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Actress in a Musical as well as Cue Magazine's "Entertainer of the Year" award. Of her friend and colleague Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
, she said in 2002, "Mike Nichols was a toughie. He could be very kind, but if you weren't first-rate, watch out. He'd let you know."
Just as Harris appeared poised to join the first ranks of Broadway stars, she stopped appearing on stage after The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree is a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith...
, except for the off-Broadway first American production of Brecht and Weill's Mahagonny in 1970, in which she played the role of Jenny, originally created by Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
. In the 2002 interview, Harris said, "Who wants to be up on the stage all the time? It isn't easy. You have to be awfully invested in the fame aspect, and I really never was. What I cared about was the discipline of acting, whether I did well or not."
Early film and television work
From 1962 through 1964, she appeared as a guest star on such popular television series as Naked CityNaked City (TV series)
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format....
, Channing
Channing
-People:Channing could be used either as a given or surname.Surname*Carol Channing, American actress*Chad Channing, American drummer*Edward Channing , American historian*Justin Andrew Channing -People:Channing could be used either as a given or surname.Surname*Carol Channing, American actress*Chad...
, The Defenders and The Nurses
The Nurses
The Nurses is a soap opera that aired on ABC from September 27, 1965 to March 31, 1967. The show was a continuation of a serialized primetime drama which aired on CBS originally called The Nurses when it premiered in 1962, later called The Doctors and the Nurses.The setting was Alden General...
. In 1965, she made an auspicious feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
debut as social worker Sandra Markowitz in the screen version of A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns is a 1962 American play by Herb Gardner, which tells the story of a young boy who lives with his eccentric uncle Murray, who is forced to conform to society in order to keep custody of the boy. A 1965 movie version was adapted from the play by Gardner and directed by Fred Coe.-...
. She co-starred opposite Jason Robards
Jason Robards
Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...
, who played the freewheeling, eternally optimistic guardian of his teenage nephew, the custody of whom is threatened by authorities' dim view of his bohemian lifestyle. The New York Times critic wrote on December 9, 1965 that the movie "has the new and sensational Barbara Harris playing the appropriately light-headed girl". Harris and Robards won Golden Globe nominations.
In Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
's Plaza Suite
Plaza Suite (film)
Plaza Suite is a 1971 American comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller. The screenplay by Neil Simon is based on his 1968 play of the same title. The film stars Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton, Barbara Harris and Lee Grant.-Plot:...
with Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...
, the British entertainment magazine Time Out London called the "delightful" Harris' gifts "wasted." She had only slightly better opportunities in The War Between Men and Women
The War Between Men and Women
The War Between Men and Women is a 1972 slapstick live-cartoon comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Barbara Harris, and Jason Robards.It is based on the writings of humorist James Thurber, and was released in 1972 by Cinema Center Films. Like many other films in the Cinema Center catalog, it has long...
with Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
, and the screen version of Arthur Kopit's darkly comic Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur L. Kopit. The play opened off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre in New York City in 1962 and moved to the Morosco Theatre...
with Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
as the monstrous mother of Robert Morse
Robert Morse
Robert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
who takes the stuffed corpse of her dead husband along on trips. Reviewing the latter film for the New York Times on February 16, 1967, critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
wrote, "Barbara Harris from the original play cast is as wacky as she was on the stage -- casual and direct and totally blase about the boisterous business of sex. Her tussle to accomplish her purpose, with the corpse falling out into the roam every time she is about to score a field goal, is still the funniest scene."
She earned an Oscar nomination for the 1971 film (which co-starred Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
) Who Is Harry Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? is an American comedy drama film released in 1971 directed by Ulu Grosbard and starring Dustin Hoffman. It portrays a single day in the life of Georgie Soloway, played by Hoffman...
, about a rich, successful, womanizing pop song writer suffering a debilitating but oddly liberating mental crisis. The script was by Herb Gardner, who also wrote A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns is a 1962 American play by Herb Gardner, which tells the story of a young boy who lives with his eccentric uncle Murray, who is forced to conform to society in order to keep custody of the boy. A 1965 movie version was adapted from the play by Gardner and directed by Fred Coe.-...
.
In 1975, Harris appeared in one of her signature film roles in Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
's masterpiece Nashville, playing "Albuquerque", a ditzy, scantily clad country singing hopeful who may be far more opportunistic and calculating than she would first appear. Accounts of the film's chaotic and inspired production, particularly in Jan Stuart's book The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece, indicate a clash between actress and director. Harris earned a Golden Globe nomination (one of 11 for the film); as Oscar-nominated co-star Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
put it, "I was the hugest of Barbara Harris fan; I thought she was so stunning and original." Although the two were set to reunite with Altman in a sequel, that film was never made.
The following year, Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
cast her in Family Plot
Family Plot
Family Plot is a 1976 American dark comedy/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, his fifty-third and final film. It stars Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, William Devane, and Karen Black....
as a bogus spiritualist hunting with her cab driver boyfriend for a missing heir and a family fortune. Among a cast that included Bruce Dern
Bruce Dern
Bruce MacLeish Dern is an American film actor. He also appeared as a guest star in numerous television shows. He frequently takes roles as a character actor, often playing unstable and villainous characters...
, William Devane
William Devane
William Joseph Devane is an American film, television and theater actor.-Life and career:Devane was born in Albany, New York in 1937 or 1939 , the son of Joseph Devane, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's chauffeur when he was Governor of New York...
, and Karen Black
Karen Black
Karen Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Rhinoceros, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Airport 1975, and Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot...
, Hitchcock was particularly delighted by Harris' quirkiness, skill and intelligence. She received critical kudos as well as a Golden Globe nomination for the film, which was based upon the novel The Rainbird Pattern
The Rainbird Pattern
The Rainbird Pattern is a 1972 novel by Victor Canning.It was adapted for the screen by Ernest Lehman in 1976 and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock under the title Family Plot....
by Victor Canning
Victor Canning
Victor Canning was a prolific writer of novels and thrillers who flourished in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, but whose reputation has faded since his death in 1986...
and which marked a reunion of Hitchcock with Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman was an American screenwriter. He received 6 Academy Award nominations during his screenwriting career...
, who created the original screenplay for North by Northwest
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...
. In a rare interview published in a 2002 edition of the New Times of Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
, she admitted that she "[t]urned down Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
when he first asked me to be in one of his movies". After agreeing to star in Family Plot, she recalled that "Hitchcock was a wonderful man".
Later career
Harris continued to appear in films of the 1970s-80s, including Freaky FridayFreaky Friday
Freaky Friday is a classic comedic children’s novel written by Mary Rodgers first published in the USA in 1972, and adapted for film several times.-Plot:...
with a young Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
, Movie Movie
Movie Movie
Movie Movie is a 1978 musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen. Movie Movie consists of two short films, both starring the husband-and-wife team of George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere, with a fake movie trailer sandwiched in between them...
for director Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen ; is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin' in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Damn...
, and The North Avenue Irregulars
The North Avenue Irregulars
The North Avenue Irregulars is a 1979 Disney film distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Company starring Edward Hermann, Barbara Harris and Susan Clark. It was based on original work by Albert Fay Hill, as adapted by Don Tait...
with Edward Herrmann
Edward Herrmann
Edward Kirk Herrmann is a U.S. television and film actor. He is best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of Franklin D...
and Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
. She co-starred in The Seduction of Joe Tynan
The Seduction of Joe Tynan
The Seduction of Joe Tynan is a 1979 American political film drama directed by Jerry Schatzberg and produced by Martin Bregman. The screenplay was written by Alan Alda, who also played the title role....
with one of her former Broadway leading men, Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
(who also wrote the screenplay), a tale of a liberal Washington Senator caught in an affair with a younger woman, played by Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
.
In 1981, she starred in Second-Hand Hearts
Second-Hand Hearts
Second-Hand Hearts is film produced by Lorimar Productions and released by Paramount Pictures. Although it was filmed in 1979 it was not released until 1981. The film stars Barbara Harris and Robert Blake and was directed by Hal Ashby. It was plagued by a troubled production, and upon release...
for esteemed director Hal Ashby
Hal Ashby
Hal Ashby was an American film director and film editor.-Birth and early years:Born William Hal Ashby in Ogden, Utah, Ashby grew up in a Mormon household and had a tumultuous childhood as part of a dysfunctional family which included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide and his...
as "Dinette Dusty", a recently widowed waitress and would-be singer who marries a boozy carwash worker named "Loyal", played by Robert Blake
Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
to get back her children from their paternal grandparents. The film, based on a highly sought-after "road movie" screenplay by Charles Eastman
Charles Eastman
Charles Alexander Eastman was a Native American physician, writer, national lecturer, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry...
, was a disaster that tarnished the careers of all concerned. Critic Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
in his negative New York Times review on May 8, 1981 opined, "[t]he film's one bright spot is Barbara Harris, who plays Dinette as sincerely as possible under awful conditions. She looks great even when she's supposed to be tacky, and is genuinely funny as she tries to make sense out of Loyal's muddled philosophizing, which, of course, the screenplay requires her to match." Harris was offscreen until 1986 when she played the mother of Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
in Peggy Sue Got Married
Peggy Sue Got Married
Peggy Sue Got Married is a 1986 American comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Kathleen Turner as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high school...
. Her last films were Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Frank Oz. The screenplay by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro, and Paul Henning focuses on two con artists who ply their trade on the French Riviera...
and Grosse Pointe Blank
Grosse Pointe Blank
Grosse Pointe Blank is a 1997 American Black comedy film, directed by George Armitage, and starring John Cusack and Minnie Driver.In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Grosse Pointe Blank the 21st greatest comedy film of all time. The film's soundtrack features mainly independent music hits...
.
Harris currently teaches and directs. Asked if she might one day be lured back to mainstream stage, film or television, Harris said in the 2002 interview:
Well, if someone handed me something fantastic for 10 million dollars, I'd work again. But I haven't worked in a long time as an actor. I don't miss it. I think the only thing that drew me to acting in the first place was the group of people I was working with: Ed AsnerEd AsnerEdward Asner , commonly known as Ed Asner, is an American film, television, stage, and voice actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, primarily known for his Emmy Award-winning role as Lou Grant on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series, Lou Grant...
, Paul SillsPaul SillsPaul Sills was a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.-Biography:...
, Mike NicholsMike NicholsMike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
, Elaine MayElaine MayElaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
. And all I really wanted to do back then was rehearsal. I was in it for the process, and I really resented having to go out and do a performance for an audience, because the process stopped; it had to freeze and be the same every night. It wasn't as interesting."
In 2005, she briefly resurfaced, guest starring as "The Queen" and "Spunky Brandburn" on the Radio Repertory Company of America audio drama, Anne Manx on Amazonia, which aired on XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
.
Theater
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | From the Second City | Broadway debut Nominated - Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical |
|
| 1962 | Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur L. Kopit. The play opened off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre in New York City in 1962 and moved to the Morosco Theatre... |
Rosalie | Reprised her role in the 1967 film Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur L. Kopit. The play opened off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre in New York City in 1962 and moved to the Morosco Theatre... |
| 1963 | Mother Courage and Her Children Mother Courage and Her Children Mother Courage and Her Children is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin... |
Yvette Pottier | |
| 1965 | On a Clear Day You Can See Forever On a Clear Day You Can See Forever On a Clear Day You Can See Forever is a musical with music by Burton Lane and a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner based loosely on Berkeley Square, written in 1929 by John L. Balderston. It concerns a woman who has ESP and has been reincarnated... |
Daisy Gamble | Nominated - Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical |
| 1966 | The Apple Tree The Apple Tree The Apple Tree is a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith... |
Eve - The Diary of Adam and Eve Passionella - Passionella Princess Barbara - The Lady or the Tiger |
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical |
| 1970 | Mahagonny | Jenny | Off-Broadway production |
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | A Thousand Clowns A Thousand Clowns A Thousand Clowns is a 1962 American play by Herb Gardner, which tells the story of a young boy who lives with his eccentric uncle Murray, who is forced to conform to society in order to keep custody of the boy. A 1965 movie version was adapted from the play by Gardner and directed by Fred Coe.-... |
Dr. Sandra Markowitz | Film debut Nominated - Golden Globe for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy |
| 1967 | Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur L. Kopit. The play opened off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre in New York City in 1962 and moved to the Morosco Theatre... |
Rosalie | |
| 1971 | Plaza Suite Plaza Suite (film) Plaza Suite is a 1971 American comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller. The screenplay by Neil Simon is based on his 1968 play of the same title. The film stars Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton, Barbara Harris and Lee Grant.-Plot:... |
Muriel Tate | |
| Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? is an American comedy drama film released in 1971 directed by Ulu Grosbard and starring Dustin Hoffman. It portrays a single day in the life of Georgie Soloway, played by Hoffman... |
Allison Densmore | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |
| 1972 | The War Between Men and Women The War Between Men and Women The War Between Men and Women is a 1972 slapstick live-cartoon comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Barbara Harris, and Jason Robards.It is based on the writings of humorist James Thurber, and was released in 1972 by Cinema Center Films. Like many other films in the Cinema Center catalog, it has long... |
Terry Kozlenko | |
| 1974 | Mixed Company Mixed Company Mixed Company is a 1974 comedy film starring Barbara Harris.... |
Kathy Morrison | |
| 1975 | The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery | Miss Helen Fredericks | |
| Nashville | Albuquerque | Nominated - Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress | |
| 1976 | Family Plot Family Plot Family Plot is a 1976 American dark comedy/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, his fifty-third and final film. It stars Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, William Devane, and Karen Black.... |
Blanche Tyler | Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Nominated - Golden Globe for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy |
| Freaky Friday Freaky Friday (1976 film) Freaky Friday is a 1976 American comedy film starring Jodie Foster as Annabel Andrews and Barbara Harris as her mother.The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, in which mother and daughter switch bodies and get a taste of each others' lives. The cause of the switch is left... |
Mrs. Ellen Andrews | Nominated - Golden Globe for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy | |
| 1978 | Movie Movie Movie Movie Movie Movie is a 1978 musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen. Movie Movie consists of two short films, both starring the husband-and-wife team of George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere, with a fake movie trailer sandwiched in between them... |
Trixie Lane | |
| 1979 | The North Avenue Irregulars The North Avenue Irregulars The North Avenue Irregulars is a 1979 Disney film distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Company starring Edward Hermann, Barbara Harris and Susan Clark. It was based on original work by Albert Fay Hill, as adapted by Don Tait... |
Vickie | |
| The Seduction of Joe Tynan The Seduction of Joe Tynan The Seduction of Joe Tynan is a 1979 American political film drama directed by Jerry Schatzberg and produced by Martin Bregman. The screenplay was written by Alan Alda, who also played the title role.... |
Ellie Tynan | ||
| 1981 | Second-Hand Hearts Second-Hand Hearts Second-Hand Hearts is film produced by Lorimar Productions and released by Paramount Pictures. Although it was filmed in 1979 it was not released until 1981. The film stars Barbara Harris and Robert Blake and was directed by Hal Ashby. It was plagued by a troubled production, and upon release... |
Dinette Dusty | |
| 1986 | Peggy Sue Got Married Peggy Sue Got Married Peggy Sue Got Married is a 1986 American comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Kathleen Turner as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high school... |
Evelyn Kelcher | |
| 1987 | Nice Girls Don't Explode Nice Girls Don't Explode Nice Girls Don't Explode is a 1987 comedy film in which April Flowers is kept away from boys by her overprotective mother because flames have a tendency to spontaneously erupt whenever her hormones are aroused. For April, "protection" on a dinner date is carrying a fire extinguisher... |
Mom | |
| 1988 | Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film) Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Frank Oz. The screenplay by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro, and Paul Henning focuses on two con artists who ply their trade on the French Riviera... |
Fanny Eubanks | |
| 1997 | Grosse Pointe Blank Grosse Pointe Blank Grosse Pointe Blank is a 1997 American Black comedy film, directed by George Armitage, and starring John Cusack and Minnie Driver.In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Grosse Pointe Blank the 21st greatest comedy film of all time. The film's soundtrack features mainly independent music hits... |
Mary Blank | |
Television
| Year | Series | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios... |
County Police Sheriff Connie Brackett | Appeared in Season 1-7 |
| 1975 | The Rockford Files The Rockford Files The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah... |
Amelia Mitchell | Appeared in one episode: "The Great Blue Lake Land and Development Company " |