Frances Sternhagen - # 312

Tony-Winning Stage and Screen Actress Frances Sternhagen Dies at 93

 

She was number 312 on the list.

Frances Sternhagen, the versatile actress whose half-century on Broadway included two Tony Awards, seven nominations and memorable roles in Equus, On Golden Pond and The Heiress, has died. She was 93.

Sternhagen died peacefully Monday of natural causes at her home in New Rochelle, New York, her family said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “We continue to be inspired by her love and life,” they noted.

With all her success on the stage, Sternhagen is perhaps best known for playing two mothers on television: the blue-blooded Bunny MacDougal on HBO’s Sex and the City and the overbearing Esther Clavin on NBC’s Cheers. She received Emmy nominations for both performances.

Sternhagen specialized in portraying characters who had a no-nonsense, overbearing attitude and plucky fortitude. She relished roles that were off the beaten track — the odder and more eccentric, the better. 

“I must say it’s fun to play these snobby older ladies. It’s always more fun to be obnoxious,” Sternhagen said in a 2002 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “I have known women like that, and I can imitate them, I guess.”

Sternhagen received her first Tony in 1974 for her work in several stories in the original production of Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor, then won again in 1995 for playing the widowed Aunt Lavinia opposite Cherry Jones in a revival of The Heiress.

In the original 1979 Broadway production of On Golden Pond, she received a Tony nomination for originating the role of Ethel Thayer (Katharine Hepburn’s character in the movie), and when Steel Magnolias began on Broadway in 2005, she portrayed Clairee (Olympia Dukakis had the part in that film).

She was nominated again in 1996 for her turn in Equus as Dora Strang, the mother of an emotionally disturbed son (Peter Firth), as well as for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window in 1972, Angel in 1978 and Morning’s at Seven in 2002.

Sternberger arrived as Esther on the fifth season of Cheers. Like her son, the postman Cliff (John Ratzenberger), she had a propensity to spout obscure trivia facts. She also had a soft side … to a point. “You’re my pride and joy. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” Esther tells Cliff in her debut appearance in 1986, adding in amazement after a moment of reflection: “Gee, think of that.”

In Sex and the City, she was spot-on hilarious as Bunny, whose protectiveness of her son, Trey (Kyle MacLachlan), made life hell for his new bride, Charlotte (Kristin Davis). Her sense of entitlement knew no bounds, as witnessed when she barged in on the newlyweds to deliver fresh muffins, only to find them in the throes of morning sex.

“She has a sort of East Side mental breakdown when she finds them,” executive producer Michael Patrick King said about the character. “It’s my favorite scene. It’s the same episode where she sneaks into Trey’s bedroom at night when he has a cold and rubs Vicks VapoRub on his chest. Then Charlotte wakes up, and they are both rubbing VapoRub on this guy’s chest. It’s about territorialism, the son being the territory. It is both sick and erotic, and Franny was up for it.”

Sternhagen also made an impression as Millicent “Gamma” Carter, grandmother of John Carter (Noah Wyle), on NBC’s ER and as Willie Ray Johnson, the steadfast mother of LAPD Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), on TNT’s The Closer.

Francis Hussey Sternhagen was born on Jan. 13, 1930, in the District of Columbia. Her father, John M. Sternhagen, was a member of the U.S. Board of Tax Appeals before becoming a judge for the Tax Court of the U.S. Her mother, Gertrude, was a socialite who served as a nurse during World War I.

Sternhagen’s first taste of performing came when she would make her dad, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, laugh by imitating her classmates at The Potomac School. She also attended Madeira, an all-girls’ prep school in McLean, Virginia, before enrolling at Vassar College.

Sternhagen was pursuing a history degree when her history professor inquired why she wasn’t a drama major. She had rejected acting, thinking she shouldn’t study something she enjoyed so much. The teacher convinced her otherwise. “I guess I wasn’t such a good historian,” she quipped in a 1979 interview with The New York Times.

She was voted head of the college’s drama club after a rousing performance as the title character in Richard II that culminated with her smashing a mirror in the middle of the dining hall.

After graduating in 1951, Sternhagen taught drama, music and dance in Milton, Massachusetts. “The best part of the job,” she recalled, “was that it gave me a chance to show off for the kids.”

After an unsuccessful audition for Cambridge’s Brattle Theatre, she came home and landed roles at the Arena Stage in Washington in The Country Wife and Our Town.

Sternhagen made her Broadway debut in 1955 playing Miss T. Muse in a revival of the Thornton Wilder comedy The Skin of Our Teeth, starring George Abbott, Helen Hayes and Mary Martin. A year later, she got an Obie Award for her performance in The Admirable Bashville and in 1959 co-starred with Gene Hackman in The Saintliness of Margery Kempe. (She appeared in dozens of off-Broadway plays and in 2013 received an Obie for career achievement.)

Sternhagen’s other Broadway credits included Great Day in the Morning in 1962, You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running in 1967, Edward Albee‘s All Over in 1971, You Can’t Take It With You in 1983 and Seascape in 2005.

She made her big-screen bow in 1967 as persnickety librarian Charlotte Wolf in Up the Down Staircase for producer Alan J. Pakula and later appeared in Starting Over (1979) and See You in the Morning (1989), both produced and directed by Pakula as well.

She was great as the off-kilter Doc Lazarus, who helped solve a series of murders in a remote outer space mining camp, in the sci-fi thriller Outland (1981), and her movie résumé also included The Tiger Makes Out (1967), The Hospital (1971), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), Misery (1990), The Mist (2007), Julie and Julia (2009), Dolphin Tale (2011) and And So It Goes (2014).

Sternhagen appeared with Thomas A. Carlin (the Scottish greenskeeper Sandy McFiddish in Caddyshack) in a 1955 off-Broadway production of Thieves’ Carnival at the Cherry Lane. They married the following year and were together until his death in 1991.

Survivors include her children, Paul, Amanda (Dr. Long on Friends), Tony, Sarah, Peter and John; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A celebration of her career and life is planned for mid-January, close to what would have been her 94th birthday.

During a 2001 return to Vassar, Sternhagen remarked that it was through “working on characters in plays that I’ve learned about myself, about how people operate.”

“Do what you love, whatever that is,” she added. “And if you’re able to make a living at what you love to do, you’re terribly lucky.”

Filmography

Film

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1967    Up the Down Staircase            Charlotte Wolf

1967    The Tiger Makes Out      Lady On Bus

1971    The Hospital            Mrs. Cushing           

1973    Two People  Mrs. McCluskey      

1978    Fedora            Miss Balfour

1979    Starting Over    Marva Potter  

1981    Outland            Dr. Marian Lazarus

1983            Independence Day            Carla Taylor 

1983            Romantic Comedy            Blanche Dailey  

1988    Bright Lights, Big City            Clara Tillinghast        

1989            Communion      Dr. Janet Duffy      

1989    See You in the Morning            Neenie

1990    Sibling Rivalry  Rose Turner 

1990    Misery            Deputy Virginia

1991    Doc Hollywood            Lillian  

1991            Walking the Dog            Antique Dealer  Short film

1992    Raising Cain     Dr. Lynn Waldheim           

1998    It All Came True            Amy    

2000            Midnight Gospel            Ruth            Short film

2001    Landfall            Emily Thornton         

2001    The Rising Place            Ruth Wilder 

2002            Highway          Mrs. Murray

2007    The Mist     Irene Reppler           

2009    Julie & Julia      Irma Rombauer       

2011    Dolphin Tale      Gloria Forrest

2014    And So It Goes Claire  

Television

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1956            Westinghouse Studio One      Betty            Episode: "The Arena"

1957            Westinghouse Studio One      Mary            Episode: "My Mother and How She Undid Me"

1957            Goodyear Television Playhouse            Elizabeth Barnes            Episode: "The House"

1959    Play of the Week            Eva            Episode: "Thieves Carnival"

1961    Play of the Week            Unknown            Episode: "In a Garden"

1962    The Broadway of Lerner and Loewe            Theatre-Goer   TV movie

1962    The Nurses Mrs. Harris            Episode: "The Lady Made of Stone"

1964    The Defenders            Louise Kiley            Episode: "May Day! May Day!"

1964    Profiles in Courage            Miss Koeller            Episode: "Mary S. McDowell"

1967    NET Playhouse            Unknown            Episode: "Infancy and Childhood"

1967            Hallmark Hall of Fame            Abigail            Episode: "Soldier in Love"

1967–1968            Love of Life      Toni Prentiss Davis            TV series

1970    The Doctors            Phyllis Corrigan            TV series

1971    NET Playhouse            Unknown            Segment: "Foul!"

1971            Another World            Jane Overstreet            TV series

1972    Great Performances            Wilma Atkins            Episode: "The Rimers of Eldritch"

1974    The Secret Storm            Jessie Reddin TV series

1974    Great Performances            Paulina            Episode: "Enemies"

1977    The Andros Targets            Mrs. Mason            Episode: "In the Event of My Death"

1978    Who'll Save Our Children?            Nellie Henderson            TV movie

1980    Mother and Daughter: The Loving War     Mrs. Lloyd   TV movie

1980    The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg            Mary Richards            TV short

1983            Prototype            Dorothy Forrester            TV movie

1984    The Dining Room            Various            TV movie

1985            Spencer           Millie Sprague            7 episodes

1986    Resting Place    Eudora McCallister            TV movie

1986–1993            Cheers            Esther Clavin   7 episodes

1987    At Mother's Request            Berenice Bradshaw            TV movie

1987    Once Again   Esther            TV movie

1990    Follow Your Heart            Cloe Sixbury TV movie

1991            American Experience            (voice)            Episode: "Coney Island"

1991    The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd   Dora            Episode: "Here's a High Dive Into a Shallow Pool"

1991    Golden Years   Gina Williams            7 episodes

1991    Law & Order            Margaret Langdon            Episode: "The Serpent's Tooth"

1992    She Woke Up            Noelle            TV movie

1992    Tales from the Crypt            Effie Gluckman            Episode: "None But the Lonely Heart"

1993    Labor of Love: The Arlette Schweitzer Story    Mary Rafferty            TV movie

1994    Vault of Horror I            Unknown        TV movie

1994    The Road Home            Charlotte Babineaux            6 episodes

1994            Reunion          Tobie Yates   TV movie

1995    The Outer Limits            Jean Anderson            Episode: "The Choice"

1997    Law & Order   Estelle Muller            Episode: "Legacy"

1997–2003            ER            Millicent Carter            19 episodes

1998    The Con            Hadabelle         TV movie

1998    To Live Again            Constance Holmes            TV movie

2000–2002            Sex and the City            Bunny MacDougal            10 episodes

2002    The Laramie Project Marge Murray TV movie

2002    The Simpsons            Mrs. Bellamy (voice)            Episode: "The Frying Game"

2004    Becker            Naomi            Episode: "Subway Story"

2006–2012            The Closer  Willie Ray Johnson            15 episodes

2012            Parenthood      Blanche Braverman            Episode: "Road Trip"

Theatre

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1955    The Skin of Our Teeth    Miss T. Muse   

1955    The Carefree Tree            Widow Yang   

1960    Viva Madison Avenue!            Dee Jones   

1962    Great Day in the Morning            Alice McAnany        

1965–1966            The Right Honourable Gentleman            Mrs. Ashton Dilke   

1967    A Doll's House            Nora Helmer

1967–1969            You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running            Harriet / Edith / Muriel (standby)         

1968–1969            The Cocktail Party            Lavinia Chamberlayne 

1969    Cock-A-Doodle Dandy            Loreleen         

1970    Blood Red Roses            Various (standby)         

1971    The Playboy of the Western World            Widow Quin    

1971    All Over    The Daughter / The Mistress (standby)         

1971    Mary Stuart   Mary Stuart / Queen Elizabeth (understudy)    

1972    The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window            Mavis Parodus Bryson

1972            Enemies           Paulina

1973–1974            The Good Doctor            Performer     

1974–1977            Equus            Dora Strang 

1978    Angel            Eliza Gant    

1979–1980            On Golden Pond            Ethel Thayer 

1981    The Father  Laura  

1981–1982            Grown Ups      Helen  

1983–1984            You Can't Take It with You            Penelope Sycamore   

1985    Home Front            Maurine         

1993    A Perfect Ganesh            Margaret        

1995    The Heiress Lavinia Penniman         

1998    Long Day's Journey into Night            Mary Cavan Tyrone  

1999    The Exact Center of the Universe            Vada Love Powell    

2002            Morning's at Seven            Ida Bolton 

2004    Echoes of the War            Mrs. Dowey

2005    Steel Magnolias            Clairee

2005–2006            Seascape        Nancy 

2013    The Madrid Rose