Marsha Mason
| Marsha Mason | |
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| Born | April 3, 1942 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress/Director |
| Years active | 1966–present |
| Spouse | Gary Campbell (1965–70) Neil Simon (1973–81) |
Marsha Mason (born April 3, 1942) is an American actress and television director.
She received four Academy Award nominations as Best Actress for her performances in Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two, and Only When I Laugh. She is also known for starring in the 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge.
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[edit] Life
Mason was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to James Joseph Mason, a printer,[1] and his wife Jacqueline Helena Mason. She and her younger sister, Linda (b. 1943), grew up on Elmont Lane in Crestwood, Missouri. Mason is a graduate of Nerinx Hall High School and Webster University, both in Webster Groves, Missouri.
She raced a Mazda RX-7 in SCCA events.[2]
She is a resident of New Mexico, where she has a farm[3] in Abiquiu that grows certified organic herbs. In the late 1990s, Mason sold herbs wholesale to companies both locally and regionally before starting a line of wellness and bath and body products called Resting in the River.[4]
[edit] Career
Marsha Mason has had a distinguished career in film and theater. Neil Simon cast her in his Broadway play The Good Doctor in 1973. Shortly afterwards, Mason and Simon, a widower, fell in love and got married. That same year, Mason co-starred opposite James Caan in the 20th Century Fox film Cinderella Liberty, which netted her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. In 1977, Mason's performance in Simon's smash hit film, The Goodbye Girl, won her a second Best Actress Academy Award nomination. In 1979, Simon successfully cast Mason as Jennie MacLaine in the screen adaptation of his hit play Chapter Two, which was based on Mason's relationship with Simon up to their marriage. The film proved to be another big hit garnering her a third Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
In 1981, Mason starred, along with Kristy McNichol, James Coco, and Joan Hackett, in Only When I Laugh, Simon's film adaptation of his Broadway comedy-drama The Gingerbread Lady and another big box-office success. For her performance as Georgia Hines, Mason was again highly praised and earned a fourth Best Actress Oscar nomination. However, Mason's 1982 film written by Simon, Max Dugan Returns, was disappointing. Despite a stellar cast led by Mason, Donald Sutherland, Jason Robards and Matthew Broderick, Simon's script was a letdown and the film failed at the box office. By this time, Mason and Simon had divorced and her film career lost momentum. However, her film career began to pick up again when she co-starred with Clint Eastwood in the 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge, which was a major critical and commercial success.
Before Heartbreak Ridge, she played in a New York production of Harold Pinter's Old Times and directed the play Juno's Swans, by E. Katherine Kerr, at the Second Stage Theatre in Los Angeles.[5]
In 1987, she directed the television film Little Miss Perfect.
In 2001, Mason appeared in the ABC-TV film, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, in which she portrayed Garland's mother, Ethel Gumm.
Mason's theater credit include Norman Mailer's "The Deer Park", Israel Horovitz's "The Indian Wants the Bronx", Neil Simon's "The Good Doctor (play)" and "King Richard III (play)" at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Mason starred on Broadway in "Night of the Iguana" in 1996, and the following year in Michael Cristofer's "Amazing Grace". Mason reunited with "Goodbye Girl" co-star Richard Dreyfuss and writer Neil Simon in Duncan Weldon and Emanuel Azenberg's production of "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" in 1999 which was performed at the L.A. Theatre Works shortly after a revival in London's West End and led to a Grammy nomination in comedy.[6] She appeared in Charles L. Mee’' "Wintertime" at the Second Stage theatre in New York. In August 2005 Mason starred as Hecuba at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and on Broadway Steel Magnolias, with Delta Burke, Frances Sternhagen, Rebecca Gayheart, Lily Rabe and Christine Ebersole. She appeared in "A Feminine Ending" at Playwrights Horizons and most recently in the Shakespeare Theater Company's performance of "All's Well That Ends Well" in Washington, D.C..[7]
Her other television work includes guest roles on Seinfeld, Lipstick Jungle, and Army Wives. Mason starred in her own series, Sibs, which ran from 1991 to 1992. In 1997 and 1998, she had a recurring role on the TV show Frasier as Sherry Dempsey.
In February 2010, she co-starred in California Suite at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.[8]
In April of that year, Mason co-starred with actors Keir Dullea and Matt Servitto in an Off-Broadway production of the Robert Anderson play I Never Sang for My Father.[9] For her performance as Margaret Garrison, Mason received gratifying reviews.[10][11][12]
Marsha Mason has received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Hot Rod Hullabaloo | Marcia Hamden | |
| 1968 | Beyond the Law | Marcia Stillwell | (as Marcia Mason) |
| 1969 | Dark Shadows | Audrey | |
| Where the Heart Is | Laura Blackburn | (Television) | |
| 1971–1972 | Love of Life | Judith Cole | (TV) |
| 1972 | Cyrano de Bergerac | Roxane | (Television) |
| Young Dr. Kildare | Nurse Marsha Lord | (TV series) | |
| 1973 | Blume in Love | Arlene | |
| Cinderella Liberty | Maggie Paul | Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress |
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| 1977 | Audrey Rose | Janice Templeton | Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actress |
| The Goodbye Girl | Paula McFadden | Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role |
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| 1978 | The Cheap Detective | Georgia Merkle | |
| The Good Doctor | Various roles | (Television) | |
| 1979 | Promises in the Dark | Dr. Alexandra Kendall | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama |
| Chapter Two | Jennie MacLaine | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
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| 1981 | Only When I Laugh | Georgia | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress |
| 1982 | Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal | Lois Gibbs | (Television) |
| 1983 | Max Dugan Returns | Nora McPhee | |
| 1985 | Surviving: A Family in Crisis | Lois | (Television) |
| 1986 | Trapped in Silence | Jennifer Hubbell | (Television) |
| Heartbreak Ridge | Aggie | ||
| 1988 | Hothouse | ||
| 1989 | Dinner at Eight | Millicent Jordan | (Television) |
| 1990 | The Image | Jean Cromwell | (Television) |
| Stella | Janice Morrison | ||
| 1991 | Drop Dead Fred | Polly Cronin | |
| Sibs | Nora Ruscio | (TV series) | |
| 1993 | One Life to Live | Sabrina | Episode dated 1 December 1993 |
| 1994 | I Love Trouble | Senator Gayle Robbins | |
| 1995 | Broken Trust | Ruth | (Television) |
| Nick of Time | Governor Eleanor Grant | ||
| 1996 | 2 Days in the Valley | Audrey Hopper | |
| 1997–1998 | Frasier | Sherry Dempsey | 6 episodes Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Comedy Series |
| 1999 | Dead Aviators | Lydia | (Television) |
| 2001 | Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows | Ethel Gumm | (Television) |
| 2002 | The Education of Max Bickford | Lilith Bigelow | Episode "The Egg and I" |
| 2004 | The Long Shot | Mary Lou O'Brian | (Television) |
| Bride & Prejudice | Catherine Darcy | ||
| Bereft | Helen | (Television) | |
| 2006 | Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King | Aunt Trudy | Episode "The Road Virus Heads North" |
| 2008 | Lipstick Jungle | Episode "Chapter Seven: Carpe Threesome" | |
| Army Wives | Charlotte Meade | (2 episodes) | |
| 2010-2011 | The Middle | Pat Spence | (4 episodes: "Mother's Day" - Season 1, "A Simple Christmas" - Season 2, "Major Changes" & "Thanksgiving III" - Season 3) |
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ hubpages.com/hub/Marsha-Mason-Academy-Award-Nominee-Golden-Globe-Winner-and-Race-Driver-and-Team-Owner
- ^ See the article, "Marsha Mason's Organic Farm and Estate."
- ^ [2]
- ^ "Marsha Mason Finds Joy In The Work Ethic", The Los Angeles Times, RODERICK MANN, February 16, 1986
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ "Actress Marsha Mason on Neil Simon, young actors, state of theater", KPCC, Feb. 17, 2010, Steve Julian
- ^ PATRICK HEALY (February 18, 2010). "Up Close With Keir Dullea and Marsha Mason". The New York Times. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/up-close-with-keir-dullea-and-marsha-mason/?scp=1&sq=Marsha%20Mason&st=cse.
- ^ KEN JAWOROWSKI (April 6, 2010). "That Old Equation: Dad + Son = Clash". The New York Times. http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/theater/reviews/06never.html?scp=3&sq=Marsha%20Mason&st=cse.
- ^ http://www.curtainup.com/ineversangformyfather
- ^ www.examiner.com/x-1598-NY-Broadway-Theater-Examiner~y2010m4d12-I-Never-Sang-for-my-Father-exposes-the-FatherSon-relationship
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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. It includes attribution to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2008) |
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marsha Mason |
- Marsha Mason at the Internet Movie Database
- Marsha Mason at the Internet Broadway Database
- Marsha Mason at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Marsha Mason at the Notable Names Database
- St. Louis Walk of Fame
- "Marsha Mason: A Conversation for Women's History Month", Broadway World, March 29, 2010
- "With: Marsha Mason", American Theatre Wing, March 31, 2010
- "SURVIVAL KIT: MARSHA MASON", WNYC, March 28, 2004
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