Vintage Images of Cloris Leachman.
Cloris Leachman won two Oscars for her performances in The Last Picture Show and Young Frankenstein. She died at her home in Encinitas, California, on January 27, 2021. Leachman was nominated for 18 Oscars. She was 94 years old.
Carol Leachman was born in Des Moines, Iowa on April 30, 1926 to Berkeley Claiborne “Buck” Leachman and Cloris Wallace. She grew up in a family that owned a lumber company, Leachman Lumber Co. Her maternal grandmother is Czech (of English descent) and her maternal grandfather is English.
Following her high school graduation, Leachman went on to study drama at both Illinois State University and Northwestern University. Before moving to New York, she acted with the Des Moines Playhouse. Winning the title of Miss Chicago 1946 (part of the Miss America contest).
Her first television credit came in 1948 with an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour (1948), and she appeared in a number of television anthologies and series before becoming a regular on The Bob & Ray Show (1951) in 1952. The role of doomed blonde femme fatale Christina Bailey in Robert Aldrich’s classic noir Kiss Me Deadly (1955) is one of her most memorable films.
Other than a role in Rod Serling’s movie The Rack (1956) in support of Paul Newman, Leachman remained a television actress throughout the 1950s and the 1960s. Appearing in only two movies during the latter decade, The Chapman Report (1962) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
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Best Supporting Actress
Her career remained in television and she was known in the 1970s and into the second decade of the new millennium due to her performance in Peter Bogdanovich’s adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show (1971).
In addition to The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) and its spin-off series Phyllis (1975), Leachman has been nominated for five Emmy Awards as Phyllis Lindstrom, Mary Tyler Moore’s landlady and self-proclaimed best friend.
She won twice as Best Supporting Actress in a comedy for her “Mary Tyler Moore” gig and won a Golden Globe Award as a leading performer in comedy for Phyllis. Leachman’s first Emmy Award came in the category Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in 1973 for the television movie A Brand New Life (1973). She also won two Emmy Awards as a supporting player for Malcolm in the Middle (2000).
As an 82-year-old actress, she made a record appearance on Dancing with the Stars (2005).
Her many qualities contributed to her becoming one of Hollywood’s most decorated and versatile performers. Silly, serious, hardworking, and very, very long in the business.
What’s Cloris Leachman’s net worth?
| Net Worth: | $10 Million |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth: | 1926-04-30 |
| Gender: | Female |
| Height: | 5 ft 5 in (1.66 m) |
| Profession: | Actor, Comedian, Voice Actor |
