Terry Finn
Encyclopedia
Teresa Jo Ann Bernadette 'Terry' Finn is an American
actress best known for creating the role of Gussie Carnegie in the original Broadway
cast of the Stephen Sondheim
/Hal Prince
/George Furth
musical comedy Merrily We Roll Along
and its Original Cast Album.
, the fifth child of Katherine (née Conley), an elementary school teacher and Peter David Finn, a New York City
fireman stationed in Brooklyn
. Growing up on the Island, Finn attended St. Pius X Elementary School in Plainview
. She made her stage debut at the age of 11 as a member of the Pius Players in the leading role of Flora in The Innocents. She attended high school at Queen of the Rosary Academy in Amityville where she studied to go on to a teaching career.
Finn began undergrad studies at Iona College
in New Rochelle
as a psychology
major. Following an impromptu audition for Professor Roderick Nash, she was persuaded to switch her major to Communication Arts in the Theatre Department. As a member of the Iona Players, Finn appeared in a series of leading roles, from Blanche Du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire
to Sally Bowles in Cabaret
. Following her graduation, she was once again persuaded to return to Iona during post-grad summer session and was cast in the lead as Maria in West Side Story
, this was her third Stephen Sondheim musical
, which included roles as Marta in Company
and Young Dolly in Follies
.
in Hugh Leonard
's A Life as understudy
to Dana Delany
. Following A Life, casting director Joanna Merlin chose Finn to create the role of Gussie Carnegie in Merrily We Roll Along
. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth and direction by Hal Prince, this stage production is considered a musical theatre legend in spite of the fact that it closed after 52 previews and 16 performances. Despite a flurry of negative reviews, Clive Barnes
raved in the New York Post
that "A beautifully acrid comic skit is provided by Terry Finn as a producer's wife with even less morals than taste and a turn a phrase that would cause a viper to bite out its tongue in envy," and in the New York Daily News Douglas Watt wrote "There is also good work by Jason Alexander
and his gushingly imperious wife Terry Finn." Following the brief run at the Alvin Theatre
, the cast gathered at RCA Records
Studio 'A' on on November 29, 1981 — the day after the show closed — to record the original cast album. The album's popularity eventually led to a "Merrily We Roll Along Original Broadway Cast Reunion Concert" which was staged at the La Guardia Concert Hall in Lincoln Center on September 30, 2002. Following a search outlined in a Broadway.com article entitled "Finding Finn," Merrily director Lonny Price
recalled, "Terry was dazzling in the role of Gussie ... I couldn't imagine doing [the reunion] without her and now I'm glad that I don't have to!" Finn was reunited with her original cast mates in the one-night-only benefit that raised more than $200,000 for Musical Theatre Works. Robert Simonson and Kenneth Jones of Playbill.com noted that the "inclusion of lesser-known songs considerably beefed up the role of Gussie, played by Terry Finn, who is barely present on the show's famous original cast album." A documentary film recalling the 25-plus year history of the show, its creators and cast is in discussion, with a tentative title Rolling Along.
Off Broadway, Finn appeared as Pearl Gordon in Clifford Odets
's Paradise Lost at The Mirror Repertory Company under the direction of John Strasberg
, as Kate Poplin in Big Maggie at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre, as Audrey in William Shakespeare
's As You Like It
with the New York Acting Unit and in regional theatre starred as Constanze Weber-Mozart in Peter Shaffer
's play Amadeus
in The Wells Theatre at The Virginia Stage Company. The Navy News critic Janet Withers wrote that Finn's Constanze is "beautiful, talented and engagingly saucy."
s in New York City
, Finn has appeared in television movie
s, starring as Margie Moran in Seeds of Tragedy for Fox Television Network,The Disappearance of Nora for CBS Television and Shadow of Obsession on NBC
. In her television series debut, she guest starred as Mrs. Kitty Conley in an episode of Trial By Jury entitled 'Psychic Vision'. starring Raymond Burr
. Produced by Dick Clark Productions
and directed by Marty Passeta, Jr. ,it aired on September 15, 1989.
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
(1991), followed by the 1993 Hollywood Pictures
/Nintendo
film Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. star Bob Hoskins
invited Finn to co-star in a film project he was planning to star in and direct. This film was the 1996 fantasy Rainbow
, with Finn in the leading role of Jackie Bailey and Hoskins as Frank Bailey, Jackie's father-in-law. Between Super Mario Bros. and Rainbow, Finn appeared as the Birthday Mom in Hollywood Pictures' Terminal Velocity
(1994). In 2003, she appeared once again with Hoskins in Den of Lions
. Finn will next be seen in the 2012 feature film Days of Wrath
as Emily Conley.
on August 1, 1990 on Central Park West in New York City. They have a son Finn Henry Snyder who was born in Beverly Hills
, California
on October 2, 1997. In 2005, they renewed their vows in the former offices of George Harrison
's Handmade Films
in Los Angeles
, California, where they first met in January 1989.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress best known for creating the role of Gussie Carnegie in the original 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...
cast of the Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
/Hal Prince
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century...
/George Furth
George Furth
George Furth was an American librettist, playwright, and actor.-Biography:Furth was born George Schweinfurth in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Evelyn and George Schweinfurth...
musical comedy Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along (musical)
Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart....
and its Original Cast Album.
Early life
Terry Finn was born on August 6, 1955 in Long Island City, New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, the fifth child of Katherine (née Conley), an elementary school teacher and Peter David Finn, a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
fireman stationed in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. Growing up on the Island, Finn attended St. Pius X Elementary School in Plainview
Plainview, New York
Plainview is a hamlet located on Long Island in the town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York, USA. The population of the CDP as of 2010 was 26,217. The Plainview post office has the ZIP code 11803....
. She made her stage debut at the age of 11 as a member of the Pius Players in the leading role of Flora in The Innocents. She attended high school at Queen of the Rosary Academy in Amityville where she studied to go on to a teaching career.
Finn began undergrad studies at Iona College
Iona College (New York)
Iona College is located in New Rochelle, New York, 20 miles north of Manhattan in suburban Westchester County. The college occupies 35 acres on North Ave. The college also operates a Graduate Center in Pearl River, Rockland County, New York....
in New Rochelle
New Rochelle, New York
New Rochelle is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state.The town was settled by refugee Huguenots in 1688 who were fleeing persecution in France...
as a psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
major. Following an impromptu audition for Professor Roderick Nash, she was persuaded to switch her major to Communication Arts in the Theatre Department. As a member of the Iona Players, Finn appeared in a series of leading roles, from Blanche Du Bois in 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...
to Sally Bowles in Cabaret
Cabaret (musical)
Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
. Following her graduation, she was once again persuaded to return to Iona during post-grad summer session and was cast in the lead as Maria in West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...
, this was her third Stephen Sondheim musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, which included roles as Marta in Company
Company (musical)
Company is a musical with a book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards and won six....
and Young Dolly in Follies
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...
.
Stage career
Finn made her Broadway debut at the Morosco TheatreMorosco Theatre
The Morosco Theatre was a legitimate theatre located at 217 West 45th Street in the heart of the theater district in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States....
in Hugh Leonard
Hugh Leonard
Hugh Leonard was an Irish dramatist, television writer and essayist. In a career that spanned 50 years, Leonard wrote more than 18 plays, two volumes of essays and two autobiographies, one novel and numerous screenplays and teleplays, as well as writing a regular newspaper column.-Life and...
's A Life as understudy
Understudy
In theater, an understudy is a performer who learns the lines and blocking/choreography of a regular actor or actress in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or emergencies, the understudy takes over the part...
to Dana Delany
Dana Delany
Dana Welles Delany is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.After various roles in the early career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy...
. Following A Life, casting director Joanna Merlin chose Finn to create the role of Gussie Carnegie in Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along is a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It concerns a man who has lost the idealistic values of his youth. Its innovative structure presents the story in reverse order, with the character regressing from a mournful adult to a young man whose future is filled with...
. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth and direction by Hal Prince, this stage production is considered a musical theatre legend in spite of the fact that it closed after 52 previews and 16 performances. Despite a flurry of negative reviews, Clive Barnes
Clive Barnes (critic)
Clive Alexander Barnes, CBE was a British-born American writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977 he was the dance and theater critic for the New York Times, the most powerful position he had held, since its theater critics' reviews historically have had great influence on the success or failure of...
raved in 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...
that "A beautifully acrid comic skit is provided by Terry Finn as a producer's wife with even less morals than taste and a turn a phrase that would cause a viper to bite out its tongue in envy," and in the New York Daily News Douglas Watt wrote "There is also good work by Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...
and his gushingly imperious wife Terry Finn." Following the brief run at the Alvin Theatre
Neil Simon Theatre
The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927 and located at 250 West 52nd Street in midtown-Manhattan....
, the cast gathered at RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
Studio 'A' on on November 29, 1981 — the day after the show closed — to record the original cast album. The album's popularity eventually led to a "Merrily We Roll Along Original Broadway Cast Reunion Concert" which was staged at the La Guardia Concert Hall in Lincoln Center on September 30, 2002. Following a search outlined in a Broadway.com article entitled "Finding Finn," Merrily director Lonny Price
Lonny Price
Lonny Price is an American actor, writer, and director, primarily in theatre. He is known for making statements on current events in versions of his musicals. His acclaimed May 2008 New York Philharmonic production of Camelot was making a statement about the current war including having different...
recalled, "Terry was dazzling in the role of Gussie ... I couldn't imagine doing [the reunion] without her and now I'm glad that I don't have to!" Finn was reunited with her original cast mates in the one-night-only benefit that raised more than $200,000 for Musical Theatre Works. Robert Simonson and Kenneth Jones of Playbill.com noted that the "inclusion of lesser-known songs considerably beefed up the role of Gussie, played by Terry Finn, who is barely present on the show's famous original cast album." A documentary film recalling the 25-plus year history of the show, its creators and cast is in discussion, with a tentative title Rolling Along.
Off Broadway, Finn appeared as Pearl Gordon in Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
's Paradise Lost at The Mirror Repertory Company under the direction of John Strasberg
John Strasberg
John Strasberg is the son of Lee and Paula Strasberg of the Actors Studio, and brother of actress Susan Strasberg....
, as Kate Poplin in Big Maggie at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre, as Audrey in William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
with the New York Acting Unit and in regional theatre starred as Constanze Weber-Mozart in Peter Shaffer
Peter Shaffer
Sir Peter Levin Shaffer is an English dramatist and playwright, screenwriter and author of numerous award-winning plays, several of which have been filmed.-Early life:...
's play Amadeus
Amadeus
Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer.It is based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, highly fictionalized.Amadeus was first performed in 1979...
in The Wells Theatre at The Virginia Stage Company. The Navy News critic Janet Withers wrote that Finn's Constanze is "beautiful, talented and engagingly saucy."
Television career
In addition to work in daytime soap operaSoap 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,...
s in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Finn has appeared in television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
s, starring as Margie Moran in Seeds of Tragedy for Fox Television Network,The Disappearance of Nora for CBS Television and Shadow of Obsession on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. In her television series debut, she guest starred as Mrs. Kitty Conley in an episode of Trial By Jury entitled 'Psychic Vision'. starring Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...
. Produced by Dick Clark Productions
Dick Clark Productions
Dick Clark Productions is an entertainment production company founded by entertainer Dick Clark...
and directed by Marty Passeta, Jr. ,it aired on September 15, 1989.
Film career
Finn's film debut was in Orion PicturesOrion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is a 1991 American science fiction comedy film, and the directing debut of Peter Hewitt. It is the second film in the Bill & Ted franchise, and a sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure . Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and George Carlin reprise their respective roles...
(1991), followed by the 1993 Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures is one of The Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures brand, it produces films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures.-History:...
/Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
film Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. (film)
Super Mario Bros. is a 1993 American action film directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. Based on the Super Mario Bros.video game and its entire franchise, the film features Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper and Samantha Mathis. It tells the story of the Mario brothers, Mario and...
Super Mario Bros. star Bob Hoskins
Bob Hoskins
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
invited Finn to co-star in a film project he was planning to star in and direct. This film was the 1996 fantasy Rainbow
Rainbow (1996 film)
Rainbow is a 1996 family adventure film directed by Bob Hoskins, written by Ashley Sidaway and Robert Sidaway and starring Bob Hoskins, Terry Finn, Jacob Tierney, Saul Rubinek and Dan Aykroyd...
, with Finn in the leading role of Jackie Bailey and Hoskins as Frank Bailey, Jackie's father-in-law. Between Super Mario Bros. and Rainbow, Finn appeared as the Birthday Mom in Hollywood Pictures' Terminal Velocity
Terminal Velocity (film)
Terminal Velocity is a 1994 action movie starring Charlie Sheen as a daredevil skydiver who becomes mixed up with Russian spies. It was written by David Twohy and directed by Deran Sarafian. Originally, Sheen's role was written for Tom Cruise, although William Baldwin was also considered. The...
(1994). In 2003, she appeared once again with Hoskins in Den of Lions
Den of Lions
Den of Lions is a 2003 American-Hungarian film, directed by James Bruce. It is a violent straight-to-video B-movie, starring relatively famous actors.-Plot:...
. Finn will next be seen in the 2012 feature film Days of Wrath
Days of Wrath
Days of Wrath is a 2008 drama film starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Laurence Fishburne and Wilmer Valderrama. The film is directed by Celia Fox, and written by Mitchell Kapner and Michael Markee.-Plot:...
as Emily Conley.
Personal life
Finn married motion picture production designer David L. SnyderDavid Snyder
David L. Snyder is a film and television production designer. He was nominated for Best Art Direction for his work on Blade Runner at the 55th Annual Academy Awards...
on August 1, 1990 on Central Park West in New York City. They have a son Finn Henry Snyder who was born in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
on October 2, 1997. In 2005, they renewed their vows in the former offices of George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
's Handmade Films
Handmade Films
HandMade Films is a British film production and distribution company. Through a series of sales, and acquisitions, the company now known as Handmade Plc owns all the rights and assets of the original HandMade Films Ltd...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California, where they first met in January 1989.