Biography

Payton-Wright was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, the daughter of Eleanor Ruth (née

Married and maiden names

A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 McKinley) and Gordon Edgar Payton-Wright. She graduated from the Birmingham-Southern College

Birmingham-Southern College

Birmingham–Southern College is a 4-year, private liberal arts college located three miles northwest of downtown Birmingham. Founded in 1856, it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Approximately 1400 students from 30 states and 23 foreign countries attend the college...

 in 1963. She began her television career in 1972 as Rhonda on Corky. She later joined the cast of Another World

Another World (TV series)

Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...

 in 1979 in the role of Hazel Parker, a role she played for one year.

Payton-Wright is an accomplished actress having appeared in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. Following numerous film roles and television appearances, Payton-Wright joined the cast of the ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

, One Life to Live

One Life to Live

One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...

, in 1991, and was the first to play the role of sweet natured, but simple-minded Agatha "Addie" Cramer. She currently plays this part recurringly on the show.

Broadway

• The Show-Off
• Exit the King
• The Cherry Orchard
• Jimmy Shine
  Jimmy Shine
  Jimmy Shine is an American musical with music and lyrics by John Sebastian and a musical book by Murray Schisgal. The plot of the musical centers on its title character who is a struggling artist in Greenwich Village during the 1960s...
  
  
• The Crucible
  The Crucible
  The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
  
  
• All Over Town
• The Glass Menagerie
  The Glass Menagerie
  The Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...
  
  
• Romeo & Juliet
• M Butterfly
• The Night of the Iguana
  The Night of the Iguana
  The Night of the Iguana is a stageplay written by American author Tennessee Williams, based on his 1948 short story. The play premiered on Broadway in 1961. Two film adaptations have been made, including the Academy Award-winning 1964 film of the same name....
  
  
• A Streetcar Named Desire
  A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
  A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
  
  
• Something Unspoken
• Mourning Becomes Electra
  Mourning Becomes Electra
  Mourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932...
  
   (Drama Desk Award)

Off-Broadway

• The Effect of Gamma Rays...
  The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
  The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is a 1964 play written by Paul Zindel, a playwright and science teacher. Zindel received the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for the work. The play's world premiere was staged in 1964 at the Alley Theatre...
  
   (Obie, Clarence Derwent Award, Variety Critics' Poll Citation)
• Jesse and the Bandit Queen (Obie Award)
• The Seagull
  The Seagull
  The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
  
  
• Hamlet
  Hamlet
  The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
  
  
• The Replacement
• Mrs. Warren's Profession
  Mrs. Warren's Profession
  Mrs Warren's Profession is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893. The story centers on the relationship between Mrs Kitty Warren, a brothel owner, described by the author as "on the whole, a genial and fairly presentable old blackguard of a woman" and her daughter, Vivie...
  
  
• Richard III
  Richard III (play)
  Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
  
  
• Til the Rapture Comes
• The Day Emily Married
  The Day Emily Married
  -Setting:The setting is in the early summer of 1956 and takes place in Harrison, Texas. -Synopsis:...
  
   (2005)

Film:

• In Dreams
• The Freshman
  The Freshman (1990 film)
  The Freshman is a 1990 American crime comedy film starring Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick, in which Brando parodies his portrayal of Vito Corleone in The Godfather....
  
  
• My Little Girl
  My Little Girl
  My Little Girl is a 1986 American drama film that was released in the U.S. in 1987. The film was the directorial debut of Connie Kaiserman and Jennifer Lopez' first major motion picture. It was the final movie performance of Oscar-winning actress Geraldine Page.-Plot:Franny Bettinger has had a...
  
  
• Ironweed
• Starlight
• Going in Style
  Going in Style
  Going in Style is a 1979 caper film written and directed by Martin Brest. It stars George Burns, Art Carney, Lee Strasberg and Charles Hallahan. The casino scenes were shot at the Aladdin Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.- Plot synopsis :...
  
  
• Resurrection
• At the Dark End of the Street
• Corky

Television:

• The Prodigal (PBS)
• Brother to Dragons (PBS)
• Look Homeward Angel (Playhouse 90)
• The Adams Chronicles (PBS, Emmy Nomination)
• Law & Order
  Law & Order
  Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
  
   (guest)
• Homicide
  Homicide
  Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
  
   (recurring)
• Spencer for Hire (guest)
• One Life to Live
  One Life to Live
  One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
  
   (recurring)
• Gunsmoke,as Emma DonavanEpisode year 17-21 Yankton

External links

• Pamela Payton-Wright interview: Performance Working in the Theatre CUNY-TV video by the American Theatre Wing
  American Theatre Wing
  The American Theatre Wing is a New York City-based organization "dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre," according to its mission statement...
  
  , September 1989