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Mary Beth Peil

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Mary Beth Peil
Peil at the 2011 Peabody Awards
Born (1940-06-25) June 25, 1940 (age 84)
Davenport, Iowa, U.S.
EducationNorthwestern University
Occupations
Years active1962–present

Mary Beth Peil (born June 25, 1940) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of an Obie Award and has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Helen Hayes Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and two Tony Awards.

Early life

Peil (pronounced peel) was born in 1940 in Davenport, Iowa. She trained as an opera singer at Northwestern University under Lotte Lehmann. There she became a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. In 1964 she won both the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Career

During the 1960s, Peil toured with Boris Goldovsky's opera company and the Metropolitan Opera's national company singing such roles as Susanna in Mozart and da Ponte's The Marriage of Figaro. She also sang with the New York City Opera.

In 1971, she originated the role of Alma in the opera Summer and Smoke, based on a Tennessee Williams play, and performed it again when it was broadcast on television in 1982 (based on a 1980 performance).[1]

Peil was persuaded to take a role in Kiss Me, Kate and soon found herself on Broadway. In May 1983 she was cast in a national tour as the twelfth and final Anna Leonowens opposite Yul Brynner's monarch of Siam in a revival of The King and I. The production toured the United States, closing on Broadway shortly before Brynner's death in 1985. Peil was nominated for a 1985 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical.[2][3] She starred in the 1987 Off-Broadway musical Birds of Paradise.

She made her film debut in 1992's Jersey Girl. She appeared on TV's Law & Order in 1994. Peil won an Obie Award in 1995 for her work in three non-musical plays, The Naked Truth,[4] Missing Persons, and A Cheever Evening.[3][5]

In 1996 and 1997, Peil toured in A. R. Gurney's play, Sylvia with Charles Kimbrough and Stephanie Zimbalist. She played evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in a 1998 off-Broadway revival of the Irving Berlin - Moss Hart revue As Thousands Cheer.[6]

Between 1998 and 2003, Peil was introduced to a wider audience through her role as Evelyn 'Grams' Ryan on teen television drama Dawson's Creek. Alongside the four main young stars of that show, she was the only actress to appear as a credited regular throughout the show's six-season run, appearing in 74 of 128 episodes.

Peil was the love interest of Felix, played by Jack Lemmon, in the 1999 comedy film The Odd Couple II.

In May 1999, Peil appeared in the Yale Repertory Theatre's production of the Noël Coward play Hay Fever. She played the beggar woman in Sweeney Todd at the Kennedy Center in 2002 and in the spring of 2003 she played the mother of Antonio Banderas's character in a Broadway revival of the musical Nine. In the winter of 2003, she again appeared off-Broadway, starring in Frame 312, Keith Reddin's play about the Kennedy assassination.[7] In 2008 she appeared as the Old Lady and Blair Daniels in the Roundabout Theatre Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Sunday in the Park with George.

Peil portrayed Nancy Reagan's mother, actress Edith Luckett, in the Showtime movie The Reagans (2003). She also appeared in the thriller Mirrors (2008), filmed in Romania. From 2009 to 2016, she played Jackie Florrick, the mother of Chris Noth's character, on the CBS drama The Good Wife.

Starting in October 2010 she appeared in the original Broadway cast of the Lincoln Center Theater production of the musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which is based upon the movie of the same name.[8] The show had a limited run until January 2011. Peil appeared in Stephen Sondheim's Follies on Broadway in the role of Solange LaFitte, alongside Bernadette Peters and Elaine Paige, starting in August 2011.[9][10] In March 2012, she appeared as Erica Morini in Willy Holtzman's off-Broadway play The Morini Strad about the concert violinist.[11]

Peil next joined the cast of the musical Anastasia playing the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the grandmother of the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Based on the 1997 animated film, Anastasia has music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and a book by Terrence McNally. The musical began as a workshop in 2015, it then had out of town tryouts in Hartford, CT in 2016 before eventually opening on Broadway in 2017. Peil was nominated for a Tony Award,[12] a Drama Desk Award[13] and an Outer Critics Circle Award[14] for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1992 Jersey Girl Day Care Center Teacher
1995 Reckless Bartender
1995 Comfortably Numb Emily Best
1998 Number One Lana Short film
1999 The Odd Couple II Felice
1999 Advice from a Caterpillar Homeless Woman
2004 The Stepford Wives Helen Devlin
2006 Shortbus Ann
2006 The Caretakers Olivia Short film
2006 Flags of Our Fathers Mrs. Bradley
2007 The List Daisy Stokes
2008 Old Days Lillian Short film
2008 Mirrors Anna Esseker
2010 The Locksmith Celine
2011 Small, Beautifully Moving Parts Marjorie Sparks
2012 Maladies Blind Woman
2013 Contest "Gran" Angela Maria Tucci
2016 Collateral Beauty Mrs. Yardsham, Whit's Mother
2017 The Song of Sway Lake Charlie Sway
2018 Best Day of My Life

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1994 Law & Order Dr. Emma Hiltz Episode: "Family Values"
1998–2003 Dawson's Creek Evelyn "Grams" Ryan 66 episodes
2001 The Job Mrs. Peg Bermance Episode: "Massage"
2003 The Reagans Edith Davis Television movie
2005 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Deb Boyd Episode: "Alien"
2009–2016 The Good Wife Jackie Florrick 49 episodes
2009 Fringe Jessica Warren Episode: "The No-Brainer"
2012 Submissions Only Beverly Wilcox Episode: "The Growing Interconnectedness"
2019 The Village Gwendolina Ferrari 5 Episodes
2020 Katy Keene Loretta Lacy 4 Episodes

Theatre

Year Title Role Notes
1985 The King and I Anna Leonowens Nominated—Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical
2003 Nine Guido's mother
2008 Sunday in the Park with George Old Lady / Blair Daniels
2010–11 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Pepa's concierge
2011–12 Follies Solange LaFitte
2015 The Visit Matilde Schell
2016-2017 Anastasia Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna Nominated—Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Nominated—Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical
2016–17 Les Liaisons Dangereuses Madame de Rosemonde

References

  1. ^ O'Connor, John J."TV: 'Summer And Smoke,' An Opera The New York Times, June 23, 1982
  2. ^ Mary Beth Peil - Awards and Nominations Archived 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine at Internet Broadway Database
  3. ^ a b Entertainment Awards Database at L.A. Times
  4. ^ Dyer, Richard (June 1996). "The Bold Soprano: After Leaving Opera For Stage, Mary Beth Peil Gets 'Naked'". Boston Globe.
  5. ^ 1995 Obie Awards at VillageVoice.com
  6. ^ As Thousands Cheer Archived 2015-05-30 at the Wayback Machine at Internet Off-Broadway Database
  7. ^ Frame 312 Archived 2015-05-30 at the Wayback Machine at Internet Off-Broadway Database
  8. ^ Hetrick, Adam."Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sherie Rene Scott Cast in Broadway's "Women on the Verge'" Archived 2013-11-05 at the Wayback Machine Playbill.com, July 26, 2010
  9. ^ Gans, Andrew."DIVA TALK: Chatting with 'Follies' Star Mary Beth Peil" Archived 2011-12-13 at the Wayback Machine Playbill.com, September 2, 2011
  10. ^ Gans, Andrew."The Right Girls: Kennedy Center 'Follies', With Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Elaine Paige, Begins Broadway Previews" Archived 2011-09-15 at the Wayback Machine Playbill.com, August 7, 2011
  11. ^ "The Morini Strad". Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  12. ^ Desk, BWW News. "The 2017 Tony Awards - And the Nominees Are... Complete List! NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 and HELLO, DOLLY! Lead Pack". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2018-06-26. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  13. ^ "2017 Drama Desk Awards Presented June 4 | Playbill". Playbill. Retrieved 2018-06-26.
  14. ^ Desk, BWW News. "Outer Critics Circle Nominations Announced: Hello, Dolly!, Anastasia, Groundhog Day and More!". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2018-06-26. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
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