Eileen Heckart

Eileen Heckart
Eileen Heckart in Bus Stop (1956)
Born	Anna Eileen Herbert (adopted shortly afterwards by her grandfather) (1919-03-29)March 29, 1919 Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Died	December 31, 2001(2001-12-31) (aged 82) Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1943–2000
Spouse(s)	John Harrison Yankee, Jr. (m. 1942–1997)

Eileen Heckart (March 29, 1919 – December 31, 2001) was an American actress of film, stage, and television.

Early life

Heckart was born Anna Eileen Herbert in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Esther Stark, who wed Leo Herbert at her own mother's insistence so her child would not be born with the stigma of illegitimacy. The child was soon after legally adopted by her German American grandfather, J.W. Heckart, the surname by which she was known for her whole life. She had two stepsisters, Anne and Marilyn. She graduated from Ohio State University with a B.A. in drama.

Career

Heckart began her Broadway career as the assistant stage manager and an understudy for The Voice of the Turtle in 1943. Her many credits include Picnic, The Bad Seed, A View from the Bridge, A Memory of Two Mondays, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, A Family Affair, Barefoot in the Park, Butterflies Are Free, You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running, Ladies at the Alamo and The Cemetery Club. In 2000, at the age of 81, she appeared Off Broadway in Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery and received more awards for a single performance in a single season than any actress in theatre history, including The Drama Desk Award, The Lucille Lortel Award, The Drama League Award and The Outer Critics Circle Award. That same year, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and received an honorary Tony Award for lifetime achievement. Her other awards include the 1953 Theatre World Award for Picnic. Her nominations include a 1996 Drama Desk Award for Northeast Local and Tony nominations for Butterflies Are Free (play), Invitation to a March, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. She was granted three honorary doctorates by Sacred Heart University, Niagara University and Ohio State University.

Heckart won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1972 movie adaptation of Butterflies Are Free and was nominated in 1956 for her performance as the bereaved, besotted Mrs. Daigle in The Bad Seed. She also appeared as a Vietnam War widow with Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge. Heckart played Diane Keaton's meddling mother in the 1996 comedy film The First Wives Club.

She appeared in the Saturn Award-winning horror film Burnt Offerings in 1976 alongside Bette Davis (although they shared no scenes).

Heckart was familiar to television audiences with starring roles in The Five Mrs. Buchanans, Annie McGuire, Out of the Blue, Trauma Center, Partners in Crime, Backstairs at the White House (Emmy nomination as Eleanor Roosevelt), and guest spots on The Fugitive, The Mary Tyler Moore Show (two Emmy nominations as journalist Flo Meredith, a role she carried over to a guest appearance on MTM's spinoff Lou Grant), Rhoda, Alice, Murder One, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Cybill, The Cosby Show, and many other shows.

Heckart played two unrelated characters on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. During the 1980s, she played Ruth Perkins, the mother of Allison Perkins, who had kidnapped the newborn baby of heroine Viki Lord Buchanan under orders from phony evangelist and mastermind criminal Mitch Laurence. During the early 1990s, she played the role of Wilma Bern, mother of upstate Pennsylvania mob boss Carlo Hesser and his meek twin, Mortimer Bern.

She appeared in the 1954 NBC legal drama Justice, based on case files of the Legal Aid Society of New York. She also appeared in an episode of the NBC medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour, "There Should Be an Outfit Called 'Families Anonymous!'" (1963).

Personal life

Heckart was married to John Harrison Yankee, Jr. from 1942 until his death in 1997. Her son Luke Yankee is the author of Just Outside the Spotlight: Growing Up with Eileen Heckart (ISBN 0-8230-7888-4), published by Back Stage Books in 2006.

Death

On December 31, 2001, Heckart died of lung cancer at her home in Norwalk, Connecticut at the age of 82. She was survived by her three children and her two stepsisters.

Legacy

She established the "Eileen Heckart Collection" at Ohio State University's Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, with her notes, copies of scripts, and personal papers. In 2005, the Eileen Heckart Drama for Seniors Competition was established in her memory by Ohio State's Department of Theatre. Her sons also established a scholarship at Ohio State in her name.

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Heckart has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6162 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	Miracle in the Rain	Grace Ullman
1956	Somebody Up There Likes Me	Ma Barbella
1956	Bus Stop	Vera
1956	Bad Seed, TheThe Bad Seed	Hortense Daigle	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1958	Hot Spell	Alma's Friend
1960	Heller in Pink Tights	Mrs. Lorna Hathaway
1967	Up the Down Staircase	Henrietta Pastorfield
1968	No Way to Treat a Lady	Mrs. Brummel
1969	Tree, TheThe Tree	Sally Dunning
1972	Butterflies Are Free	Mrs. Baker	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1974	Zandy's Bride	Ma Allan
1975	Hiding Place, TheThe Hiding Place	Katje
1976	Burnt Offerings	Roz Allardyce
1986	Seize the Day	Funeral Woman #1
1986	Heartbreak Ridge	Little Mary Jackson
1994	5 Mrs. Buchanans, TheThe 5 Mrs. Buchanans	Emma Buchanan
1996	First Wives Club, TheThe First Wives Club	Catherine MacDuggan	National Board of Review Award for Best Cast

See also

• Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

 The Hiding Place      (1975)

External links

• Eileen Heckart at the Internet Movie Database
• Eileen Heckart at the Internet Broadway Database
• Eileen Heckart at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Classic Images