Today is the 97th birthday of the actress Cloris Leachman. She has had a life and is still grinding. You have to love and appreciate longevity. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.
NAME: Cloris Leachman
OCCUPATION: Actor
BIRTH DATE: April 30, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH: Des Moines, Iowa
DATE OF DEATH: January 27, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH: Encinitas, CA
EDUCATION: Roosevelt High School, Northwestern University, The Actors Studio, Illinois State University
OSCAR for Best Supporting Actress 1972 for The Last Picture Show
GOLDEN GLOBE 1976 for Phyllis (television)
EMMY 1973 for A Brand New Life (single performance)
EMMY 1974 for Mary Tyler Moore (episode “The Lars Affair”)
EMMY 1975 for Cher (single performance)
EMMY 1984 for Screen Actors Guild 50th Anniversary Celebration
EMMY 1998 for Promised Land (guest)
EMMY 2002 for Malcolm in the Middle (guest)
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 6435 Hollywood Blvd. (television)
Father: Berkeley Leachman (“Buck”)
Mother: Cloris Wallace
Sister: Claiborne Cary (actress)
Husband: George Englund (film director, m. 19-Apr-1953, div. 1979)
Son: Adam Englund
Son: Bryan Englund (b. 1956, d. 25-Feb-1986 accidental overdose)
Son: George Englund, Jr.
Son: Morgan Englund (actor, b. 1964)
Daughter: Dinah Englund
BEST KNOWN FOR: American actress Cloris Leachman has had a long, successful career in television and film, playing a range of dramatic and comedic roles.
Cloris Leachman was born on April 30, 1926, in Des Moines, Iowa. She is the oldest of three daughters of Cloris (Wallace) and Berkeley Claiborne Leachman. Her father worked in the family lumber business, and her mother encouraged Cloris’s early interest in entertaining.
In 1946, while attending Northwestern University, Leachman competed in the Miss America pageant as Miss Chicago. She didn’t win the Miss America title, but she used her pageant winnings to move to New York City and begin an acting career. She attended the Actors Studio in its earliest years, studying with famous director Elia Kazan. She was successful in landing theater roles on Broadway: she performed in Shakespeare’s As You Like It (with Katherine Hepburn) and the original run of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, among other productions.
Leachman also proved herself as a versatile television actor, working consistently in bit parts on many popular series. In the 1950s and 1960s, she added shows such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables, Gunsmoke and Lassie to her resumé. She also took roles in motion pictures, including the film noir drama Kiss Me Deadly in 1955.
Leachman gained greater recognition in her film career in the late 1960s and 1970s as she continued to play a variety of roles. She took the small but memorable part of a prostitute in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), appearing alongside Paul Newman. Two years later, her performance as a frustrated, adulterous housewife in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show earned her an Academy Award (best supporting actress) in 1971.
This success was followed by a supporting role in another film directed by Bogdanovich, the literary adaptation Daisy Miller (1974). Leachman went on to act in three comedies directed by Mel Brooks, showcasing her signature combination of willowy, blonde good looks and zany comedic delivery in Young Frankenstein in 1974; High Anxiety in 1977; and History of the World, Part I in 1982.
Meanwhile, Leachman’s television career also continued to accelerate. From 1970 to 1975, Leachman appeared on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Mary’s hilariously self-centered landlady Phyllis Lindstrom. After the close of the series, Leachman starred in the spin-off sitcom Phyllis from 1975 to 1977. She reinvented herself each decade with parts on popular sitcoms, including The Facts of Life, from 1986 to 1988, and Malcolm in the Middle, on which she played a grandmother from 2001 to 2006. Leachman has won eight Emmy awards for television performances throughout her career.
Leachman continues to act in film and television. She performed on Dancing with the Stars in 2008, and landed a part on the comedy-drama series Raising Hope in 2010. Leachman published a memoir Cloris: My Autobiography, in 2009.
Leachman has been married once, to film producer and director George Englund, from 1953 to 1979. The couple had five children together: Bryan (deceased), Morgan, Adam, Dinah and George Jr.
TELEVISION
Raising Hope Maw Maw (2010-)
Dancing with the Stars Contestant (2008)
Malcolm in the Middle Ida (Lois’s mother, 2001-06)
The Ellen Show Dot Richmond (2001-02)
Touched by an Angel Ruth (1997-2003)
Walter & Emily Emily Collins (1991-92)
The Nutt House Ms. Frick (1989)
The Facts of Life Beverly Ann Stickle (1986-88)
Phyllis Phyllis Lindstrom (1975-77)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show Phyllis Lindstrom (1970-75)
Dr. Kildare Rhoda Kirsh (1965)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
I Can Only Imagine (16-Mar-2018)
Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? (24-Feb-2016)
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (23-Oct-2015)
The Wedding Ringer (14-Jan-2015)
Adult World (18-Apr-2013)
The Croods (15-Feb-2013) [VOICE]
Gambit (7-Nov-2012)
The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure (29-Aug-2012)
Foodfight! (3-May-2012) [VOICE]
The Fields (24-Sep-2011)
American Cowslip (24-Jul-2009) as Sandy
Love Takes Wing (4-Apr-2009)
New York, I Love You (5-Feb-2009) as Mitzie
The Women (12-Sep-2008)
Lake Placid 2 (28-Apr-2007)
Beerfest (25-Aug-2006)
Scary Movie 4 (12-Apr-2006)
Mrs. Harris (16-Sep-2005)
Sky High (29-Jul-2005)
The Longest Yard (27-May-2005) as Lynette
Spanglish (17-Dec-2004) as Evelyn
Alex and Emma (16-Jun-2003) as Grandmother
Manna From Heaven (17-Jan-2003)
The Amati Girls (Oct-2000)
Hanging Up (16-Feb-2000) as Pat
Music of the Heart (6-Sep-1999)
The Iron Giant (31-Jul-1999) as Mrs. Tensedge [VOICE]
Annabelle’s Wish (21-Oct-1997) [VOICE]
Beavis and Butthead Do America (20-Dec-1996) as Old Woman on Plane and Bus [VOICE]
Now and Then (20-Oct-1995)
A Troll in Central Park (7-Oct-1994) as Queen Gnorga [VOICE]
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (30-Oct-1993) as Aunts Agatha and Sofia
The Beverly Hillbillies (15-Oct-1993) as Granny
My Boyfriend’s Back (6-Aug-1993)
Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas (7-Sep-1991) as Herself
The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1-Mar-1991)
In Broad Daylight (3-Feb-1991)
Love Hurts (9-Nov-1990)
Fine Things (16-Oct-1990)
Texasville (28-Sep-1990)
Prancer (17-Nov-1989)
Hansel and Gretel (May-1987) as The Witch
Walk Like a Man (17-Apr-1987) as Margaret Shand
My Little Pony: The Movie (20-Jun-1986) [VOICE]
Shadow Play (1986)
Deadly Intentions (19-May-1985)
Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter (14-May-1984)
The Demon Murder Case (6-Mar-1983)
History of the World: Part I (12-Jun-1981)
This Time Forever (1981)
Foolin’ Around (17-Oct-1980)
Herbie Goes Bananas (25-Jun-1980)
The Oldest Living Graduate (7-Apr-1980) as Maureen
Scavenger Hunt (21-Dec-1979)
S.O.S. Titanic (23-Sep-1979)
The Muppet Movie (22-Jun-1979)
The North Avenue Irregulars (9-Feb-1979)
Backstairs at the White House (29-Jan-1979)
High Anxiety (25-Dec-1977) as Nurse Diesel
It Happened One Christmas (11-Dec-1977)
The Mouse and His Child (18-Nov-1977) [VOICE]
Death Scream (26-Sep-1975)
A Girl Named Sooner (18-Jun-1975)
Crazy Mama (Jun-1975) as Melba
Young Frankenstein (15-Dec-1974) as Frau Blücher
Death Sentence (2-Oct-1974)
Daisy Miller (22-May-1974)
Thursday’s Game (14-Apr-1974)
The Migrants (3-Feb-1974)
Happy Mother’s Day, Love George (17-Aug-1973)
Charley and the Angel (23-Mar-1973)
A Brand New Life (20-Feb-1973)
Dillinger (2-Feb-1973) as Anna Sage
The Last Picture Show (3-Oct-1971) as Ruth Popper
The Steagle (15-Sep-1971)
The People Next Door (26-Aug-1970)
WUSA (19-Aug-1970)
Lovers and Other Strangers (12-Aug-1970)
Silent Night, Lonely Night (16-Dec-1969)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (23-Sep-1969) as Agnes
The Chapman Report (5-Oct-1962) as Miss Selby
The Rack (2-Nov-1956)
Kiss Me Deadly (18-May-1955) as Christina
Waldina 