Maureen Stapleton

Lois Maureen Stapleton (June 21, 1925 – March 13, 2006) was an American actress. She received numerous accolades, becoming one of the few actors to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. She also received a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award.

Stapleton started her career in theater with her Broadway debut in The Playboy of the Western World (1946). She went on to receive two Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Rose Tattoo (1951) and for Best Actress in a Play for The Gingerbread Lady (1971). She was Tony-nominated for her roles in The Cold Wind And The Warm (1959), Toys in the Attic (1960), Plaza Suite (1971) and The Little Foxes (1981).

For her portrayal of Emma Goldman in the historical epic film Reds (1981), she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was also Oscar-nominated for her roles in Lonelyhearts (1958), Airport (1970) and Interiors (1978). During her career, Stapleton acted in films such as Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Plaza Suite (1971), The Fan (1981), Cocoon (1985), The Money Pit (1986) and Nuts (1987).

On television, Stapleton played a variety of roles including in the television film Among the Paths to Eden (1967), for which she won Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama. She was Emmy-nominated for her roles in Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975), The Gathering (1977), B.L. Stryker (1989), Miss Rose White (1992) and Road to Avonlea (1995). She received a Grammy Award nomination for narrating To Kill a Mockingbird in 1975. For her life achievement, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.

Early life Stapleton was born in Troy, New York, the daughter of John P. Stapleton and Irene (née Walsh), and grew up in a strict Irish American Catholic family. Her father was an alcoholic and her parents separated during her childhood.

Career

Stapleton moved to New York City at the age of 18, and worked as a salesgirl, hotel clerk, and modeled to pay the bills, including for artist Raphael Soyer. Stepping in because Anna Magnani refused the role due to her limited English, Stapleton won a Tony Award for her role in Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo in 1951 (Magnani's English improved, however, and she was able to play the role in the film version, winning an Oscar).

Stapleton played in other Williams' productions, including Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton and Orpheus Descending (and its film adaptation, The Fugitive Kind, co-starring her friend Marlon Brando), as well as in The Cold Wind and the Warm (Tony nomination, 1959) and Lillian Hellman's Toys in the Attic (1960), for which she received another Tony Award nomination. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Neil Simon's Plaza Suite in 1968 and won a second Tony Award for Simon's The Gingerbread Lady, which was written especially for her, in 1971. Later Broadway roles included a Tony-nominated turn as "Birdie" in The Little Foxes, opposite Elizabeth Taylor, and as a replacement for Jessica Tandy in The Gin Game.

Stapleton's film career, though limited, brought her immediate success, with her debut in Lonelyhearts (1958) earning nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award. She appeared in the 1963 film version of Bye Bye Birdie, in the role of Mama Mae Peterson, with Dick Van Dyke, Janet Leigh, Paul Lynde, and Ann-Margret. Stapleton played the role of Dick Van Dyke's mother, even though she was only five months and 22 days older than Van Dyke. She was nominated again for an Oscar for Airport (Golden Globe Award nomination, 1970 Her later appearances included Johnny Dangerously (1984), Cocoon (1985), and its sequel Cocoon: The Return (1988).

Stapleton won a 1968 Emmy Award for her performance in Among the Paths of Eden and was nominated for six more, for Avonlea (1996), Miss Rose White (1992), B.L. Stryker (1989), the television version of All the King's Men (1959), Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975), and The Gathering (1977), and Kraft Theatre (1959). She was an alumna of the famous Actors Studio in New York City, led by Lee Strasberg, where she became friends with Marilyn Monroe, who was only one year younger than Stapleton. She was impressed with Monroe's talent, and always thought it was a shame that Monroe was rarely allowed to play roles beyond the ditzy blonde. By comparison, Stapleton thought herself lucky: "I never had that problem. People looked at me on stage and said, 'Jesus, that broad better be able to act.'" One of the most famously remembered scenes at the studio was when Stapleton and Monroe acted in Anna Christie together.

Despite her association with Strasberg, Stapleton cited Mira Rostova as her most influential acting teacher. She appeared with Rostova and another of Rostova's pupils, Montgomery Clift, Off-Broadway in The Seagull (1954). Additionally, in his book Sanford Meisner on Acting, Meisner cites Stapleton as being "a wonderful actress." The pair starred together on Broadway in The Cold Wind and the Warm.

She was nominated for a 1975 Grammy Award for the spoken word recording of To Kill a Mockingbird.

She hosted the 19th episode of Season 4 of NBC's Saturday Night Live in 1979.

Personal life and death Stapleton's first husband was Max Allentuck, general manager to the producer Kermit Bloomgarden, and her second was playwright David Rayfiel, from whom she divorced in 1966. She had a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Katharine, by her first husband. Her daughter, Katharine Allentuck, played a single movie role, that of "Aggie" in Summer of '42 (Stapleton herself also had a minor, uncredited role in the film as the protagonist's mother, though only her voice is heard; she does not appear on camera). Her son, Daniel Allentuck, is a documentary filmmaker.

Stapleton suffered from anxiety and alcoholism for many years, and once told an interviewer, "The curtain came down, and I went into the vodka." She also said that her unhappy childhood contributed to her insecurities, which included a fear of flying, airplanes, and elevators.

Stapleton was a member of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. In 1984, she signed a letter protesting German arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

A lifelong heavy smoker, Stapleton died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2006 at her home in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Acting credits

Film

Television

Theatre

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1958 Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress Lonelyhearts 1970 Airport 1978 Interiors 1981 Reds 1970 British Academy Film Awards Best Actress in a Supporting Role Airport 1982 Reds 1996 CableACE Awards Actress in a Dramatic Special/Series Avonlea 1971 Drama Desk Awards Outstanding Performance The Gingerbread Lady 1958 Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Lonelyhearts 1970 Airport 1971 Plaza Suite 1978 Interiors 1981 Reds 1975 Grammy Awards Best Spoken Word Recording To Kill a Mockingbird 1978 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Supporting Actress Interiors 1981 Reds 1978 National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Supporting Actress Interiors 1981 Reds 1966 New York Emmy Awards Individuals New York Television Theatre 1978 New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actress Interiors 1981 Reds 1959 Primetime Emmy Awards Best Single Performance by an Actress Kraft Television Theatre 1968 Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama Among the Paths to Eden 1975 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Special Program – Drama or Comedy Queen of the Stardust Ballroom 1978 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special The Gathering 1989 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series B.L. Stryker 1992 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special Miss Rose White 1996 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Avonlea 1951 Theatre World Awards The Rose Tattoo 1951 Tony Awards Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Play 1959 Best Leading Actress in a Play The Cold Wind And The Warm 1960 Toys in the Attic 1968 Plaza Suite 1971 The Gingerbread Lady 1981 Best Featured Actress in a Play The Little Foxes