Leachman, Cloris,
1926-2021, American actress, b. Des Moines, Ia. Leachman began acting in
children’s theater when she was seven, and studied drama at
Northwestern Univ. (honorary degree, 2014). She competed in and won the Miss
Chicago pageant, and was a finalist in the 1946 Miss America contest before
moving to New York to study at the Actors Studio. While she appeared on
Broadway, film, and television through the ‘60s, she did not achieve
widespread recognition until winning an Oscar portraying a bored housewife
in Peter Bogdanovich’s film, The Last Picture Show
(1971). Leachman would become known for her comedic work in the ‘70s,
on television (portraying the ditzy Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary
Tyler Moore Show and its spinoff, Phyllis) and
film (including a memorable comedic turn as the equestrian-haunted Frau
Blücher in Mel
Brooks’s Young Frankenstein). Leachman
continued to appear in film and on television nearly to her death, spending
five years on the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (2001-06).
She won eight Primetime Emmy Award, tying Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s
record as most awarded actress; other honors included a Golden Globe Award,
and a Daytime Emmy Award. Leachman was inducted into the Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2010.
See her autobiography (2009).
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