Cloris Leachman

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Cloris Leachman (born April 30, 1926) is an Academy Award-winning American actress of stage, film and TV.

1 Biography
2 Filmography
3 Television Work
4 External link

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Biography

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Early life

Leachman, the eldest of five sisters, was born in Des Moines, Iowa to Buck and Cloris Leachman. she majored in drama at Northwestern University. She is a member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority. One of her classmates at Northwestern was future comic actor Paul Lynde. Leachman began appearing on television and in films shortly following a run for Miss America as "Miss Chicago (1946)".

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Career

Leachman has won numerous awards during her lengthy career. In 1978 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1971's The Last Picture Show, based on the bestselling book by Larry McMurtry. She has also won seven primetime and one daytime Emmy Awards and been nominated 20 times for her work in television over the years, most notably as the character of neighbor/landlady/nosy friend "Phyllis Lindstrom" on the Mary Tyler Moore. The character was a fixture on the Mary Tyler Moore program for five years; she left Minneapolis in 1975 for a spinoff series, Phyllis for which she garnered a Golden Globe. In 1986, she returned to television, replacing Charlotte Rae as the den mother on The Facts of Life. Leachman's role, playing Rae's sister, Beverly Ann Stickle, could not save the aging series and it was canceled two years later.

Currently, she plays embittered, greedy, Canadian "Grandma Ida" on the Fox series Malcolm in the Middle. Other 2005 television credits include starring in the successful Lifetime Television mini-series Beach Girls with Rob Lowe and Julia Ormond. She received two Outstanding Guest Actress primetime Emmy nominations in 2005 including a fifth nomination for Malcolm in the Middle for comedy and a nod for the CBS drama Joan of Arcadia.

In 2005, she was nominated for a SAG Award for her role as the wine-soaked, former jazz singer and grandmother "Evelyn" in the Sony feature Spanglish opposite Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni. She had replaced an ailing Anne Bancroft in the role. The same year, she appeared in the big screen features The Longest Yard, and Sky High. In 2006, she will star with Sir Ben Kingsley and Annette Bening in the HBO special Mrs. Harris.

On an episode of Family Guy, Peter Griffin imagines what he would do with a million dollars, and pictures himself legally purchasing and owning Cloris Leachman. He promptly orders her to juggle three beanbags.

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Personal life

Leachman was married for several years to Hollywood impresario George Englund, with whom she had four sons and one daughter. One of their sons died from a drug overdose in the 1980s, and another was married to the actress Sharon Stone. Leachman and Englund divorced and Leachman did not remarry. They have several grandchildren.

Leachman is a longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, California.

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