Cloris Leachman - # 254

Cloris Leachman, Sitcom Standout and Oscar Winner, Dies at 94

 

She was number 254 on the list.

She played Phyllis on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and her own series and was memorable in 'The Last Picture Show' and 'Young Frankenstein.'

Cloris Leachman, the Miss America contestant who won an Oscar for her work in The Last Picture Show, then collected two of her record nine Emmys for playing the quirky Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died. She was 94.

Leachman, the bawdy Iowa native also known for her hilarious turns in the Mel Brooks - Gene Wilder classic Young Frankenstein (1974) and on the TV shows Malcolm in the Middle and Raising Hope, died of natural causes Wednesday in Encinitas, California, according to her manager, Juliet Green.

Leachman is perhaps best known for playing Mary Richards' delusional, self-centered landlady Phyllis on the legendary CBS sitcom and then on her own spinoff show in which her character, now a widowed single mother, moved from Minneapolis to San Francisco. The actress received Emmy nominations each year from 1972 through 1976, winning in '74 and '75.

Phyllis has been described as "neurotic," but Leachman "didn't find any fun in that word," she once said. "I decided to be perfect. And there's nothing more boring than somebody that's perfect. She was insufferable."

For playing Grandma Ida on Fox's Malcolm in the Middle, Leachman picked up six straight outstanding guest actress comedy noms from 2001 through '06, winning twice. The last one gave her her ninth Emmy trophy, the most ever awarded to any actor (her haul also includes one Daytime Emmy win).

Leachman got more laughs — and yet another Emmy nom, the 22nd of her career —  for guest-starring as the not-always-lucid grandmother Maw Maw on Fox's sitcom Raising Hope.

"I love it very much and it's very far out," Leachman told the Huffington Post in 2012. "I'm either sitting on the toilet saying, ‘It takes as long as it takes' when people try to get me out of the bathroom. Or I have no bra on at all and I'm going out the front door and down the street."

Leachman also portrayed Ruth Martin, Timmy's mom, on Lassie; a mother terrified by her son (Billy Mumy) on the classic 1961 Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life;" and Ellen DeGeneres' eccentric mom Dot on The Ellen Show. She also effective replaced Charlotte Rae (her former classmate at Northwestern) on The Facts of Life.

Leachman was just great as the scary old Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein; every time someone says her last name in the film, the horses whinny loudly offscreen. "I asked Mel about that a few years ago," she noted, "and he said, 'Blucher means glue.' "

It turned out he was mistaken, but the gag sure is funny. She also appeared for Brooks as the evil Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety (1977) and as tavern owner Madame Defarge in History of the World: Part I (1987).

At age 82, the amazingly durable Leachman competed on Dancing With the Stars, and just before she turned 90, she accepted the role of Zorya Vechernyaya, the eldest of three sisters who watch over the constellations, on the Starz fantasy drama American Gods. She appeared on television in every decade from the 1940s to the 2010s.

In the Peter Bogdanovich drama The Last Picture Show (1971), Leachman won her best supporting actress Oscar for portraying the lovelorn Ruth Popper, the neglected wife of a high school coach in a dusty Texas town. She memorably has an affair with a student (Timothy Bottoms).

"When we started to do the bed scene, the first thing came from Timothy, and he said, 'I ain't taking off my clothes for this scene.' So honoring that, we designed the scene around not taking our clothes off, and we planned to get down to our underwear and then get into bed," she recalled in a commentary for a Criterion DVD edition.

"And they planted some underwear in the bed, so that when we get into bed, we pretend as if we're taking off our underwear but actually throw out the planted underwear. And we do the scene and we take off our clothes, and we go to either side of the bed and get under the covers, and I immediately took off my bra and pants and threw it out, and he just threw out his planted underwear."

During production, she asked to shoot a scene again, but Bogdanovich said there was no need to. "You just won the Oscar," he said.

Leachman was born on April 30, 1926, in Des Moines, Iowa, the oldest of three sisters. Her father owned a lumber company. "We lived in the country," she said. "We didn't have any money back then during the Great Depression. Mama was still very imaginative without any money. She'd buy cheap material and we had curtains and clothes and dresses and tablecloths all of the same cloth and pattern."

While attending Northwestern, where she studied drama (and was good friends with Rae and another future actor, Paul Lynde), she competed as Miss Chicago in the 1946 Miss America pageant and finished among the 16 finalists. She used her winnings to move to New York to attend the Actors Studio and study with Elia Kazan.

Early in her career, Leachman starred in several Broadway productions, including Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific and, opposite Katharine Hepburn, in Shakespeare's As You Like It.

She also thrived on live television, making her debut on The Ford Theatre Hour in 1948 and later performing on many of the top shows of the '50s, including The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, The Billy Rose Show, Zane Grey Theater and Armstrong Circle Theatre.

In the 1960s, Leachman performed on such TV Westerns as Gunsmoke, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Rawhide, Laramie and Wagon Train and guest-starred in the G-man series The Untouchables.

Leachman also turned up in such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) — playing a prostitute — and Lovers and Other Strangers (1970). Later, she played Granny in the movie version of The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and starred as a wild-eyed criminal in Jonathan Demme's Crazy Mama (1975).

Leachman's other film credits include Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The North Avenue Irregulars (1979), Herbie Goes Bananas (1980), Prancer (1989), Love Hurts (1990), My Boyfriend's Back (1993), Music of the Heart (1999), Hanging Up (2000), Manna From Heaven (2002), Alex & Emma (2003) and Beerfest (2006).

She also brought her distinctive talents to voice work in such animated films as Beavis and Butt-head Do America (1996), The Iron Giant (1999), Ponyo (2008) and The Croods (2013).

In 1997, Leachman appeared on the cover of Alternative Medicine Digest in body paint, a parody of Demi Moore's notorious Vanity Fair cover.

"I was lying in bed and started thinking, ‘What would I do? If they had to use me, I think I should be stark naked and hanging from a tree. It would be good [with] old, old roots coming up and [an] old trunk coming up to younger and younger and then the arms of the tree with beautiful fruit hanging.' I thought that would be pretty."

She added, "Or just [have] fruits and vegetables painted all over me naked."

In 2009, Leachman donned vegetables once again for a PETA campaign, posing in a dress of red cabbage and leaf lettuce with the phrase, "Let Vegetarianism Grow on You." A vegetarian since age 35, the actress said: "I couldn't eat meat now if you gave me $1 million. I couldn't put it in my mouth."

She also was a self-proclaimed atheist. "For many, many years, I thought that God would get even with me or punish me because I didn't believe in him, or her, or them," she explained. "And nothing ever happened except for good things. So I don't believe at all in God, and I'm very relieved that I don't.

"Extraordinary miracles, billions and trillions of them, happen all the time, but not because there's a God."

In 1953, she married George Englund, director of the 1963 Marlon Brando film The Ugly American, and they divorced in 1979. The couple had five children; one of them, Bryan, died of a drug overdose in 1986.

 

Filmography

Film

Leachman in 1975

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1947      Carnegie Hall      Dancing Nightclub Patron             Uncredited

1955      Kiss Me Deadly Christina Bailey

1956      The Rack              Caroline              

1962      The Chapman Report      Miss Selby          

1969      Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid        Agnes   

1970      WUSA   Philomene         

The People Next Door    Tina Hoffman    

Lovers and Other Strangers          Bernice Henderson         

1971      The Steagle         Rita Weiss          

The Last Picture Show    Ruth Popper       Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

1973      Charley and the Angel    Nettie Appleby

Dillinger               Anna Sage          

Happy Mother's Day, Love George            Ronda  

1974      Daisy Miller        Mrs. Ezra Miller                

Young Frankenstein        Frau Blücher      

1975      Crazy Mama       Melba Stokes    

1977      The Mouse and His Child               Euterpe                Voice only

High Anxiety      Nurse Diesel      

1979      The North Avenue Irregulars       Claire Porter      

The Muppet Movie         Lord's Secretary               

Scavenger Hunt                 Mildred Carruthers         

1980      Herbie Goes Bananas      Aunt Louise Trends         

Foolin' Around   Samantha           

1981      Yesterday            Mrs. Kramer      

History of the World, Part I          Madame Defarge            

My Strange Uncle                             Short film

1986      Shadow Play       Millie Crown      

My Little Pony: The Movie            Hydia     Voice only

Castle in the Sky               Dola       Voice only - English version

1987      Hansel and Gretel            Griselda               

Walk Like a Man               Margaret Shand               

1988      Going to the Chapel        Mrs. Haldane    

1989      Prancer                 Mrs. McFarland                

1990      Texasville             Ruth Popper      

1991      Love Hurts           Ruth Weaver     

The Giant of Thunder Mountain                 Narrator / The Elder Amy             

Picture This                         Documentary

1993      My Boyfriend's Back        Maggie The Zombie Expert          

The Beverly Hillbillies      Daisy May "Granny" Moses        

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble              Aunt Agatha/Aunt Sophia            

1994      A Troll in Central Park     Gnorga Voice only

1995      Nobody's Girls: Five Women of the West                               Documentary

Now and Then   Grandma Albertson        

1996      Beavis and Butt-Head Do America             Old Woman on Plane and Bus     Voice only

1997      Never Too Late Olive     

Annabelle's Wish              Aunt Agnes         Voice only

1999      Gen¹³     Helga     Voice only

The Iron Giant   Mrs. Tensedge Voice only

Music of the Heart           Assunta Guaspari            

2000      Hanging Up         Pat Mozell          

2001      The Amati Girls Dolly Amati        

2002      Manna from Heaven       Helen   

2003      Alex & Emma     Grandmother   

Bad Santa            Grandma             Uncredited

2004      Spanglish             Evelyn Wright   

2005      Buzz                       Documentary

The Longest Yard              Lynette                

Sky High               Nurse Spex        

The Californians                Eileen Boatwright            

2006      Scary Movie 4    Mrs. Norris         

Beerfest               Great Gam Gam               

2008      The Women       Maggie

New York, I Love You      Mitzie   Segment: "Joshua Marston"

2009      American Cowslip            Sandy   

Ponyo   Yoshie   Voice only - English version

Inglourious Basterds       Mrs. Himmelstein            Scenes cut

2010      Expecting Mary Annie   

You Again            Helen Sullivan    Uncredited

2011      The Fields            Gladys  

2012      Gambit Grandma Merle               

Adult World        Mary Anne         

The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure       Dottie Rounder

Foodfight!           Brand X Lunch Lady         Voice only

2013      The Bronx Bull   Lilian Forrester

The Croods         Gran      Voice only

2015      The Wedding Ringer       Grandma Palmer             

This Is Happening             Estelle  

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse                 Ms. Fielder         

Unity     Narrator               Documentary

Baby, Baby, Baby              Actress

2016      So B. It Alice Wilinsky   

The Bronx Bull   Lillian Forrester                

The Comedian   May Conner      

Recalculating     Texter   Short film

2017      The Gilksmans   Helen Neuman

2018      I Can Only Imagine           Memaw              

Lez Bomb             Josephine           

It's Who You Know          Liz           Short film

2019      When We Last Spoke      Itasca   

2020      The Croods: A New Age Gran      Voice role

Jump, Darling     Margaret            

2021      High Holiday       Nana     Completed; Posthumous release

2021      Not to Forget     Donna   Completed; Posthumous release; Final film role

 

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1949      Hold It Please     Herself – Panelist             Canceled after 3 episodes

1950–1952          Charlie Wild, Private Detective   Effie Perrine       4 episodes

1952      Bob and Ray       Herself – Series regular

1956      Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre                Martha Jessop   Episode: "You Only Run Once"

1955–1958          Alfred Hitchcock Presents             Caroline Hardy / Mary Templeton / Susan Stanger             3 episodes

1956, 1961          Gunsmoke          Boni / Flory Tibbs             2 episodes

1957–1958          Lassie    Ruth Martin        28 episodes

1959      Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond             Rita Wallace       Episode: "The Dark Room"

1960      The Man in the Moon     Herself – Performer        Variety Special

Rawhide               Mary Ann Belden             Episode: "Incident of the Arana Sacar"

Thriller Beatrice               Episode: "Girl with a Secret"

Johnny Staccato                Jessica Winthrop              Episode: "Solomon"

Wanted Dead or Alive    Ann Barchester Episode: "The Medicine Man"

1961      The Donna Reed Show   Iris          Episode: "Mouse at Play"

Twilight Zone     Mrs. Fremont     Episode: "It's a Good Life"

Cain's Hundred Katie Cortner     Episode: "The Fixer"

The Untouchables           Billie Mailer        Episode: "Jigsaw"

1962      Target: The Corruptors!                 Betty     Episode: "The Wrecker"

77 Sunset Strip Lady Eve Winters              Episode: "Shadow on your shoulder, S5-E9"

Route 66              Lydia      Episode: "Love is a Skinny Kid"

Laramie                Sarah     Episode: "Trial by Fire"

Going My Way   Karen Murdock Episode: "Keep an Eye on Santa Claus"

Stoney Burke     Eunice Stocker   Episode: "Cousin Eunice"

Wagon Train      Nancy Lee Davis                Episode: "The Nancy Lee Davis Story"

The Untouchables           Julie Liemer        Episode: "Man in the Middle"

1965      Mr. Novak           Dorothy Hummer             Two-part episode "Faculty Follies"

Dr. Kildare           Rhoda Kirsh        5 episodes

1966      Perry Mason       Gloria Shine        Episode: "The Case of the Crafty Kidnapper"

1967      The Guns of Will Sonnett              Vera       Episode: "And A Killing Rode Into Town"

The Big Valley    Fay         Episode: "Plunder"

The Road West Amadee               Episode: "The Eighty-Seven Dollar Bride"

1967, 1969          The Virginian      Ellen McKinley / Clara     2 episodes

1968      Adam-12              Judy       Episode: "Log 141: The Color TV Bandit"

1969      Mannix                 Barker's Ex-Wife               Episode: "The Need of a Friend"

1970      That Girl               Sandi     Episode: "Don and Sandi and Harry and Snoopy"

1970–1975          The Mary Tyler Moore Show       Phyllis Lindstrom              34 episodes

1972      Night Gallery      Mrs. Fulton         Episode: "You Can't Get Help Like That Anymore"

The Sixth Sense                 Judith Eaton       Episode: "Witch, Witch, Burning Bright"

Young Dr. Kildare             Julie's Mother    Episode: "The Night of the Intern"

1974      Rhoda   Phyllis Lindstrom              Episodes: "Rhoda's Wedding" (Part 1 & 2)

1975–1977          Phyllis   Phyllis Lindstrom              48 episodes

1975      Wonder Woman               Queen Hippolyta              Episode: "The New Original Wonder Woman"

1976      The Love Boat    Lisa Andersen / Karen Cooper     3 episodes

1977      The Muppet Show           Herself – Guest Star        Episode: "Cloris Leachman"

Yabba Dabba Doo! The Happy World of Hanna-Barbera   Herself – Special Guest Documentary

1979      Backstairs at the White House    Mrs. Elizabeth Jaffray     Miniseries

1983      ABC Afterschool Special                 May Lemke         Episode: "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle"

1985      American Playhouse       Bess Dischinger                 Episode: "Breakfast with Les and Bess"

1986–1988          The Facts of Life                Beverly Ann Stickle          48 episodes

1987      Schoolhouse Rock!          Presenter            Direct to video; Goldenvision era videos only.

1989      The Nutt House                 Ms. Frick / Mrs. Nutt       10 episodes

1991      Mary Tyler Moore: The 20th Anniversary Show   Herself Documentary

The Simpsons    Mrs. Glick (voice)             Episode: "Three Men and a Comic Book"

1991–1992          Walter & Emily Emily Collins       13 episodes

1994      The Nanny          Clara Mueller     Episode: "The Nanny-In-Law"

1995      Maybe This Time              Beasy McDonough           Episode: "Beasy Body"

Promised Land Ethel Mooster   2 episodes

1997–2003          Touched by an Angel      Ruth      4 episodes

1999–2000          Thanks Grammy Winthrop          6 episodes

2000      The Norm Show                Mrs. Beaumont                 Episode: "Norm vs. the Oldest Profession"

2001–2006          Malcolm in the Middle   Grandma Ida      11 episodes

2001–2002          The Ellen Show Dot Richmond   18 episodes

2002      The Mary Tyler Moore Reunion Herself Documentary

2003      The Twilight Zone             Mrs. Fremont    Episode: "It's Still a Good Life"

Crazy Love                           Unsold pilot

2005      Family Guy          Herself Episode: "Petarded"

Two and a Half Men        Norma Episode: "Madame and Her Special Friend"

Joan of Arcadia Aunt Olive           Episode: "The Cat"

2006      The Great Malones                          Unsold pilot

2007, 2012          Phineas and Ferb              Heinz Doofenshmirtz's mother (voice)    2 episodes

2008      Comedy Central Roast    Herself Episode: "Roast of Bob Saget"

Dancing with the Stars   Herself – Celebrity contestant    17 episodes

2009      The Office           Lily Hanaday[4] Episode: "Stress Relief"

Hawthorne         Ms. Lachman      Episode: "Healing Time"

2010–2014          Raising Hope      Barbara June "Maw Maw" Thompson     83 episodes

2010      Blue Mountain State       Professor's Mom              Episode: "Midterms"

RuPaul's Drag Race          Herself Episode: "Golden Gals"; special guest judge with Debbie Reynolds

2012      Top Gear              Herself Episode: "Limos"

Adventure Time                Old Marceline (voice)     2 episodes

2013      Kirstie   Shirley, Maddie's mother              Episode: "Little Bummer Boy"

Hot in Cleveland               Peg         Episode: "Love Is All Around"; guest star

2014–2015          Girl Meets World              Mrs. Svorski        2 episodes

2015      The Millers          Louise   Episode: "Louise Louise"; guest star

Hawaii Five-0     Ruth Tennenbaum          Episode: "Kuka'awale (Stakeout)"; guest star

2016      The Eleventh      Margaret             5 episodes

Bob's Burgers     Meryl (voice)      Episode: "Secret Admiral-irer"

Royal Pains         Annette Bellamy               Episode: "The Good News Is..."

Justice League Action     Granny Goodness (voice)             4 episodes

2017–2019          American Gods Zorya Vechernyaya         3 episodes

2018–2020          Elena of Avalor Hool (voice)        3 episodes

2019      Teachers              Memaw               Episode: "Wedded Miss"

Mad About You                 Mrs. Mandelbaum           10 episodes

 

Television films

Year       Title       Role

1969      Silent Night, Lonely Night             Ginny

1971      Suddenly Single                 Joanne Hackett

1972      Haunts of the Very Rich Ellen Blunt

Of Thee I Sing    Mary Turner

1973      A Brand New Life              Victoria Douglas

Crime Club          Hilary Kelton

Dying Room Only              Jean Mitchell

1974      The Migrants      Viola Barlow

Hitchhike!           Claire Stevens

Thursday's Game              Lois Ellison

Death Sentence                Susan Davies

1975      Someone I Touched        Laura Hyatt

Ladies of the Corridor     Lulu Ames

A Girl Named Sooner      Old Mam Hawes

Death Scream    Mrs. Singleton

1977      It Happened One Christmas         Clara Oddbody

1978      Long Journey Back           Laura Casella

1979      Willa      Darla Jean

Mrs. R's Daughter            Ruth Randell

S.O.S. Titanic      Molly Brown

1981      The Acorn People             Nurse Betty Nelson

Advice to the Lovelorn   Maggie Dale

1982      Miss All-American Beauty             Agatha Blaine

1983      Dixie: Changing Habits   Sister Eugenio

The Demon Murder Case              Joan Greenway

1984      Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter        Mary Kovacs

1985      Deadly Intentions             Charlotte Raynor

Blind Alleys         Fran Sato

The Little Troll Prince      Queen Sirena (voice)

1987      The Facts of Life Down Under     Beverly Ann Stickle

1990      Fine Things         Ruth Fine

1991      In Broad Daylight              Ruth Westerman

A Little Piece of Heaven                 Edwina 'Ed' McKevin

1993      Spies      Pamela Beale

Fade to Black     Ruth

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble              Aunt Agatha/Aunt Sofia

Without a Kiss Goodbye                Mrs. Samuels

Miracle Child      Doc Betty

1995      Between Love and Honor              Anna Collura

2005      Mrs. Harris          Pearl 'Billie' Schwartz, Tarnower's Sister

2007      Lake Placid 2      Sadie Bickerman

Love Takes Wing               Hattie Clarence

 

Stage work

    Ah, Wilderness! (Des Moines, 1942)

    Blithe Spirit (Northwestern University, 1943)

    Sundown Beach (Broadway, 1948)

    South Pacific (Broadway, 1951; month-long replacement for Martha Wright)

    Come Back, Little Sheba (Pre-Broadway tryout, 1950; left cast to star in As You Like It)

    As You Like It (Broadway, 1950)

    A Story for a Sunday Evening (Broadway, 1950; Won Theatre World Award)

    Lo and Behold! (Broadway, 1952)

    Dear Barbarians (Broadway, 1952)

    Sunday Breakfast (Broadway, 1952)

    The Day Before Spring (Palm Beach, Florida, 1953)

    The Crucible (Broadway, 1953; replacement for Madeleine Sherwood)

    King of Hearts (Broadway, 1954)

    A Touch of the Poet (Broadway, 1958; replacement for Kim Stanley)

    Masquerade (Broadway, 1959)

    Twigs (Marriott Theater in Lincolnshire, Illinois, 1978)

    The Oldest Living Graduate (1980)

    High Spirits (Broadway opening eventually cancelled, 1981)

    A Little Family Business (Drury Lane Oak Brook, Illinois, 1985)

    A Fatal Weakness (Monaco, 1985)

    Grandma Moses: An American Primitive (US national tour, 1989)

    Show Boat ((US national tour, 1994)

    Young Frankenstein (workshop for the musical, 2006)