Stockard Channing

One of Broadway and Hollywood's cleverer talents who tends to shine a smart, cynical light on her surroundings, 'Stockard Channing' (qv) was born Susan Williams Antonia Stockard on February 13, 1944 in New York City, to a Catholic family with English and Irish ancestry. Her parents were Mary Alice (nee English) and well-to-do shipping executive Lester Napier Stockard; the latter died when his daughter was 16 and left her a sizable estate.Channing grew up in Brooklyn and attended the eminent Chapin School in NYC, then later attended the Madeira School, a girls' boarding school in Virginia. She majored in both literature and history at Radcliffe College, from which she graduated summa cum laude in 1965. In 1964 she married Walter Channing Jr., a businessman whose surname she kept for part of her own stage moniker after their divorce four years later.Interested in acting, Stockard made her stage debut in a production of "The Investigation" at the experimental Theatre Company of Boston in 1966. She went on to play a number of offbeat roles with the company. She eventually migrated to New York where she took her first Broadway bow as a chorus member and understudy in the musical version of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" in 1971. Two years later she would take over the prime role of Julia in the L.A. national company. Other theater roles during this time included "Adaptation/Next" (1970) "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1970), "Play Strindberg" (1971) and "No Hard Feelings" (1973).Somewhat plaintive yet magnetic and unique-looking, the dark-haired actress began first appearing in pictures with small parts in the dark comedy _The Hospital (1971)_ (qv) and the edgy 'Barbra Streisand' (qv) fantasy-drama _Up the Sandbox (1972)_ (qv). Taking on the top female lead as an heiress and potential victim of shysters 'Jack Nicholson' (qv) and 'Warren Beatty' (qv) in 'Mike Nichols' (qv)' comedy _The Fortune (1975)_ (qv), the film, despite its male star power and her Golden Globe nomination, would not become the star-making hit for Channing as initially predicted.While her next two films, (_The Big Bus (1976)_ (qv) and _Sweet Revenge (1976)_ (qv)), didn't get her to first base with the public either, Channing hit a major home run with the TV-movie _The Girl Most Likely to... (1973)_ (qv), a clever black comedy written by 'Joan Rivers' (qv) wherein she played a former ugly duckling-turned-beauty (à la plastic surgery) who decides to attract and knock off the men who cruelly cast her aside earlier. Channing found her niche with this smart, sardonic character and it would take her quite far in Hollywood.At age 33(!), Stockard was handed the feisty role of high-school teen snob Betty Rizzo in the box-office film version of the hit musical _Grease (1978)_ (qv), starring 'Olivia Newton-John' (qv) and 'John Travolta' (qv). While long in the tooth for such a role (as were others in the cast), her sly performance earned her a People's Choice Award for "Favorite Motion Picture Supporting Actress." This enormously popular blockbuster clinched her place as a top-ranking star contender.Handed two sitcom vehicles of her own within a year on CBS, 'Stockard Channing' (qv) in Just Friends (1979) had her playing a newly-separated wife starting life anew in another city (L.A.) while The 'Stockard Channing' (qv) Show (1980) starred her as a divorced lady again trying to find herself in L.A. Neither caught on and lasted but a few months.Stalled at a critical juncture in her career, Stockard decided to return to her first love -- the theater. With "Vanities", "Absurd Person Singular" and "As You Like It" (as Rosalind) already on her resume, she earned fine notices on Broadway with the musical "They're Playing Our Song" replacing 'Lucie Arnaz' (qv) in 1980, then garnered rave reviews in the part of the mother of a developmentally disabled child in the New Haven production of 'Peter Nichols' (qv)' "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" in 1982. The actress repeated her role on Broadway a few years later (the title now shortened to "Joe Egg") and copped the 1985 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Subsequent Tony nominations came her way for her offbeat work in "The House of Blue Leaves" (1986); "Six Degrees of Separation"(for which she also won an Off-Broadway Obie), "Four Baboons Adoring the Sun" (1992); and for her Eleanor of Aquitaine in "The Lion in Winter" in 1999.Award-worthy projects again came her way on TV. Nominated for an Emmy for the CBS miniseries _Echoes in the Darkness (1987)_ (qv), she also won a CableACE Award for her work in _Tidy Endings (1988)_ (qv). In film, she received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations when her stage triumph, _Six Degrees of Separation (1993)_ (qv), was turned into a film. This was followed by a rare vulnerable role as an abused, small-town housewife in the popular drag queen dramedy _To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)_ (qv), a co-star role alongside 'Jennifer Tilly' (qv) as two divorce-bound women who meet in Reno in _Edie & Pen (1996)_ (qv), a prime role in the remake of _Moll Flanders (1996)_ (qv) and as an eccentric aunt in the comedy/fantasy _Practical Magic (1998)_ (qv). She also provided the voice of Barbara Gordon in several episodes of the animated TV series _Batman Beyond (1999)_ (qv).Channing has remained a highly productive, award-winning presence into the millennium on film, TV and the occasional stage. Beginning with a London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in the film _The Business of Strangers (2001)_ (qv), her other movies have included co-star or featured roles in _Life or Something Like It (2002)_ (qv), _Behind the Red Door (2003)_ (qv), _The Divorce (2003)_ (qv), _Must Love Dogs (2005)_ (qv), _Sparkle (2007)_ (qv), _Multiple Sarcasms (2010)_ (qv) and _Pulling Strings (2013)_ (qv).As part of the acclaimed cast of _The West Wing (1999)_ (qv) as "First Lady" Abigail ("Abbey") Bartlet, audiences were so drawn to her shrewd, classy character that producers wisely started featuring her regularly into the third season, winning both Emmy and SAG awards and a slew of nominations for this long-running role. Other awards came for social dramas. She received a second Emmy for her supporting turn as mother Judy Sheppard in _The Matthew Shepard Story (2002)_ (qv), a TV docudrama about the gay-bashing murder of young Matthew Shepard, a Daytime Emmy for her role in the TV movie _Jack (2004)_ (qv) in which she plays a wife who finds out her husband is gay, and a SAG nomination as a mother who discovers her teenage daughter is lesbian in _The Truth About Jane (2000)_ (qv).Stockard thought she finally found sitcom success with the series _Out of Practice (2005)_ (qv) and was even Emmy-nominated for her role as a sharp-tongued but caring doctor. As luck would have it, however, a core audience was not to be found and the show lasted but a mere season. She fared better in a recurring part as 'Julianna Margulies' (qv)' mother on the popular dramatic series _The Good Wife (2009)_ (qv).Returning to the stage, Stockard played "Lady Bracknell" in a 2010 Dublin production of "The Importance of Being Earnest," and the following year was nominated for a Tony and Drama Desk for "Other Desert Cities." In 2018, she appeared in the play "Apologia" co-starring 'Hugh Dancy' (qv) in London.Divorced four times, including ones to actor 'Paul Schmidt' (qv) and writer/producer 'David Debin' (qv), Stockard has no children. She has been in a three-decade-long relationship with cinematographer/gaffer 'Dan Gillham' (qv).::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net