Inga Swenson obit

Inga Swenson, Actress on Broadway and Gretchen the Cook on ‘Benson,’ Dies at 90

Nominated for three Emmys and two Tonys, she also stood out in the 1962 films 'The Miracle Worker' and 'Advise & Consent.'  

She was not on the list.

Inga Swenson, the two-time Tony-nominated singer and actress who as the dictatorial German cook Gretchen Kraus sparred with Robert Guillaume‘s character on the 1980s ABC sitcom Benson, has died. She was 90. 

Swenson died Sunday night of natural causes in hospice care in Los Angeles, her son, Mark Harris, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Swenson also sparkled in two critically acclaimed 1962 films released seven weeks apart — as the mother of Helen Keller (Patty Duke) in Arthur Penn’s The Miracle Worker (1962) and as the wife of a U.S. senator with a dark secret (Don Murray) in Otto Preminger’s political thriller Advise & Consent (1962).

On the strength of those performances, the Nebraska native — no, she was not born in Germany — was cast in 1963 as the spinster Lizzy in 110 in the Shade, based on N. Richard Nash’s play The Rainmaker. She received a Tony nomination for best actress in a musical for that performance, then landed another for her turn as Sherlock Holmes foe Irene Adler in the Hal Prince-directed Baker Street a year later.

In 1978, Swenson showed up midway through the first season of the ABC comedy Soap as Ingrid Svenson, the Swedish birth mother of Corinne Tate (Diana Canova). When Guillaume, who portrayed the scene-stealing butler Benson DuBois on that series, was given a spinoff, Swenson came along to play Gretchen, a German immigrant.

The statuesque Swenson and Guillaume worked alongside each other inside the governor’s mansion for seven seasons (1979-86), and she received Emmy noms in 1980, ’82 and ’85 for her work. A running gag had Benson insulting Gretchen under his breath, only to have her bellow, “I hear you!”

Before the Susan Harris-created Soap and Benson, “I never had any interest in sitcoms because I lacked all the qualities,” she explained in a 1983 interview. “I walk into a casting office and sit down with my knees together. People take one look and say, ‘You’re not funny. You don’t even have a funny face.'”

Born in Omaha on Dec. 29, 1932, Swenson was 15 when her father, an attorney and Swedish consul who was knighted by King Gustav V, died in a car accident. She graduated from Omaha Central High School in 1950, then studied under famed acting teacher Alvina Krause at Northwestern University.

“When she was on stage in a supporting role, other, more colorful actresses, faded out; attention always went to a tall, quietly beautiful girl seemingly doing nothing to achieve focus,” Krause wrote about her pupil in 1962. “How she acted was a mystery: she used no tricks of characterization, no incomparable vocal eccentricities: there was nothing in her work to label ‘theatrical,’ no moments of bravura acting. Yet she invariably wove her spell.”

A trained lyric soprano, Swenson made her Broadway debut in New Faces of 1956 (alongside, among others, Maggie Smith), then trained with Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof and Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio.

She won a Theatre World Award in 1957 for her turn opposite Walter Slezak in The First Gentleman, starred in Romeo and Juliet and other productions for the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, and served as Julie Andrews’ standby for Guenevere in Camelot on Broadway.

In portraying Lizzy in 110 in the Shade, Swenson followed Geraldine Page and Katharine Hepburn, who played the character in The Rainmaker on Broadway in 1954-55 and in the 1956 Paramount film version, respectively.

In 1965, she starred as Adler opposite Fritz Weaver as Holmes in Baker Street, which was written by written by Jerome Coopersmith and featured music from Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock. Three years later, she portrayed Eliza in a City Center revival of My Fair Lady.

Swenson also played the mother of Hoss (Dan Blocker) on Bonanza, the younger sister of Rose (Betty White) on The Golden Girls, the matriarch of a wealthy Pennsylvania family on two North & South miniseries and a nun in Lipstick (1976).

In addition to her son, an assistant editor with credits including Blues Brothers 2000 and Digging to China, survivors include her husband, singer-actor Lowell Harris (West Side Story), whom she married in February 1953, and her granddaughter, Lily.

Another son, James, died at age 26 in a motorcycle accident in 1987

 

Stage credits

 

Stage debut – Maid, Peg O' My Heart, Berkshire Playhouse, Stockbridge, MA, 1949.

Broadway debut – Singer, New Faces of '56 (revue), Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 1956.

London debut – Lizzie Currie, 110 in the Shade, Palace Theatre, 1967.

Principal stage appearances

Princess Alexandria, The Swan, Minnie Fay, The Merchant of Yonkers, singer, Sing Out, Sweet Land, and extra, Othello, all Playhouse Theatre, Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, 1952.

Aunt Anna Rose, Treasure Hunt, Monica, The Medium, Lucy, The Telephone, Dunyasha, The Cherry Orchard, Alizon Elliot, The Lady's Not for Burning, and Isabelle, Ring 'round the Moon, all Playhouse Theatre, Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, 1953.

Georgie Elgin, The Country Girl, Celia Copplestone, The Cocktail Party, Mrs. Larue, Mrs. McThing, Countess Aurelia, The Madwoman of Chaillot, and Angelique, The Imaginary Invalid, all Playhouse Theatre, Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, 1954.

Olivia, Twelfth Night, Jan Hus Playhouse, New York City, 1954.

Princess Charlotte, The First Gentleman, Belasco Theatre, New York City, 1957.

Madge, Picnic, and Amy Kittridge, A Swim in the Sea, both Royal Poinciana Playhouse, Palm Beach, FL, 1958.

Ophelia, Hamlet, Helena, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Perdita, The Winter's Tale, all American Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, CT, 1958.

Amy Kittridge, A Swim in the Sea, Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, PA, 1958.

Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, American Shakespeare Festival, 1959.

Solveig, Peer Gynt, Phoenix Theatre, New York City, 1960.

Julie Jordan, Carousel, Melody Top Theatre, Hillside, IL, 1962.

Gillian, Bell, Book, and Candle, Kiamesha Playhouse, Kiamesha Lake, New York, 1962.

Desdemona, Othello, Arena Stage, Washington, DC, 1963.

Magnolia, Show Boat, Kenley Players, Warren, OH, then Columbus, OH, both 1963.

Lizzie Currie, 110 in the Shade, Broadhurst Theatre, New York City, 1963.

Irene Adler, Baker Street, Broadway Theatre, New York City, 1965.

title role, Mary Stuart, Parker Playhouse, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 1967.

Eliza Doolittle, My Fair Lady, City Center Light Opera Company, City center theater, New York City, 1968.

Lady Alice More, A Man for All Seasons, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, 1979.

The Crucible, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre, 1972

The Four Poster, New Stage Theatre, Jackson, MS, 1979.

Major theatrical tours

Marie Louise, My Three Angels, U.S. cities, 1957.

Julie Jordan, Carousel, U.S. cities, 1960.

Lizzie Currie, 110 in the Shade, U.S. cities, 1963

Movie credits

Ellen Anderson, Advise & Consent, Columbia, 1962

Kate Keller, The Miracle Worker, United Artists, 1962

Sister Monica, Lipstick, Paramount, 1976

Mrs. Craddock, The Betsy, Allied Artists, 1978

Singer, The Mountain Men, Columbia, 1980

 

Television credits

Television debut – Singer, Chrysler Special, CBC (Canadian television), 1957.[4]

 

Television series

Gretchen Kraus, Benson, ABC, 1979–86.[4]

Television mini-series

Amelia Foster, Testimony of Two Men, syndicated, 1977.

Maude Hazard, North and South, ABC, 1985.

Maude Hazard, North and South, Book II, ABC, 1986.[4]

Marilyn Bradshaw Reagan, Nutcracker: Money, Madness, and Murder, NBC, 1987.[4]

 

Television episodes

Liza, "The Best Wine", Goodyear Playhouse, NBC, 1957

Marjorie, "The World of Nick Adams", The Seven Lively Arts, CBS, 1957

Maria, "Heart of Darkness", Playhouse 90, CBS, 1958

Milly Theale, "Wings of the Dove", Playhouse 90, CBS, 1958

Vera, "Goodbye, But It Doesn't Go Away", The United States Steel Hour, CBS, 1958

Rose Maylie, "Oliver Twist", DuPont Show of the Month, CBS, 1959

Lady Jane, "Victoria Regina", Hallmark Hall of Fame, NBC, 1961

Inger Borgstrom Cartwright, "Inger, My Love" and "Journey Remembered", Bonanza, NBC, 1962

Henrietta Higgins, "The Sod House Woman", Sara, CBS, 1976

Marie Barrett, "Hitchhike To Terror", Barnaby Jones, CBS, 1978

Ingrid Swenson, Soap, ABC, 1978–79

Helen's mother, "Sex & Violence" (unaired), Highcliffe Manor, NBC, 1979

Sonya Green, "Till Death Do Us Part", Hotel, ABC, 1988

Holly Lindstrom, "Little Sister", The Golden Girls, NBC, 1989

Madelyn Stone, "George and the Old Maid", Newhart, CBS, 1989.

 

Other television

The Defenders, CBS, 1961 and 1962

Dr. Kildare, NBC, 1962

The Nurses, CBS, 1963

American Musical Theatre, CBS, 1964

The Tonight Show, NBC, 1964

My Father and My Mother, CBS Playhouse, CBS, 1968

Medical Center, CBS, 1970 and 1971

The Tape Recorder, NET Playhouse, PBS, 1970

 

Television movies

Ilyana Kovalefskii, Earth II, ABC, 1971.

Nora Bayes, Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women, NBC, 1978.

Matty Kline, Bay Cove, NBC, 1987.

Television specials

Lavinia, Androcles and the Lion, NBC, 1967.

Mrs. Trimble, My Dear Uncle Sherlock, ABC Short Story Specials, ABC, 1977.

Mrs. Marston, The Terrible Secret, ABC Afterschool Special, ABC, 1979.

Kate, The Gay Deceivers, CBC, 1956.