Lee Remick
Lee Remick | |
|---|---|
 Remick in 1974 | |
| Born | Lee Ann Remick December 14, 1935 Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | July 2, 1991 (aged 55) Brentwood, California, U.S. |
| Education | Barnard College Actors Studio |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1953–1990 |
| Known for | |
| Spouses | Bill Colleran
(m. 1957; div. 1968)Kip Gowans
(m. 1970; death 1991) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Hollywood Walk of Fame |
Lee Ann Remick (/ˈrɛmɪk/;[1] December 14, 1935 – July 2, 1991) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in Wait Until Dark (1966) in addition to earning seven Emmy Award nominations.
Remick made her film debut in A Face in the Crowd (1957). Some of her other notable film roles include Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Wild River (1960), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), The Detective (1968), The Omen (1976), and The Europeans (1979).
Remick won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for the TV film The Blue Knight (1973), and for playing the title role in the miniseries Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill (1974). For the latter role, she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress. In April 1991, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life
[edit]Remick was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, the daughter of Gertrude Margaret (two sources say Patricia[2][3]) (née Waldo), an actress, and Francis Edwin "Frank" Remick, who owned a department store.[4][5][6] She had one older brother, Bruce.[7] One of her maternal great-grandmothers, Eliza Duffield, was a preacher born in England.[8]
Remick attended the Swoboda School of Dance and The Hewitt School.[3]
Career
[edit]Broadway and television
[edit]Remick made her Broadway theatre debut, age 18, in the 1953 production Be Your Age.[9] She began guest starring on episodes of TV anthology series such as Armstrong Circle Theatre, Studio One in Hollywood, Robert Montgomery Presents, Kraft Television Theatre and Playhouse 90.[10]
Early films
[edit]Remick made her film debut in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957). While filming the movie in Arkansas, Remick lived with a local family and practiced baton twirling so that she would be believable as the teenager who wins the attention of Lonesome Rhodes (played by Andy Griffith).
After appearing as Eula Varner, the hot-blooded daughter-in-law of Will Varner (Orson Welles) in The Long, Hot Summer (1958), she appeared in These Thousand Hills (1959) as a dance hall girl, both for 20th Century Fox.
Film stardom
[edit]
Remick came to prominence portraying a rape victim whose husband is tried for killing her attacker in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
She made a second film with Kazan, Wild River (1960), which co-starred Montgomery Clift and Jo Van Fleet. That year she played Miranda in a television version of The Tempest with Richard Burton.
Remick was top-billed in Sanctuary (1961) alongside Yves Montand. She appeared in The Farmer's Daughter (1962) on television. She starred opposite Glenn Ford in the Blake Edwards suspense-thriller Experiment in Terror (1962). The same year, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as the alcoholic wife of Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses (1962), also directed by Edwards. Bette Davis, also nominated that year for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, said "Miss Remick's performance astonished me, and I thought, if I lose the Oscar, it will be to her." They both lost to Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker.[11]
When Marilyn Monroe was fired during the filming of the comedy Something's Got to Give, the studio announced that Remick would be her replacement. Co-star Dean Martin refused to continue, however, saying that while he admired Remick, he had signed on to the picture strictly to work with Monroe.[citation needed] Remick did The Running Man (1963) with Laurence Harvey and The Wheeler Dealers (1963), with James Garner.
Return to Broadway and 1965 films
[edit]Remick next appeared in the 1964 Broadway musical Anyone Can Whistle,[9] with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book and direction by Arthur Laurents, which ran for only one week. Remick's performance is captured on the original cast recording. This began a friendship between Remick and Sondheim, and she later appeared in the 1985 concert version of his musical Follies.[12]
Remick returned to films with Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965), with Steve McQueen from a script by Horton Foote, and The Hallelujah Trail (1965) with Burt Lancaster.
In 1966, she starred in the Broadway play Wait Until Dark under the direction of Arthur Penn and co-starring Robert Duvall.[9] It was a big success, and it ran for 373 performances; Remick was nominated for a Tony award for Best Actress (Dramatic).[13] It was adapted into a successful film the following year starring Audrey Hepburn.
More films and 1970s
[edit]She performed in Damn Yankees! (1967) for TV and starred in No Way to Treat a Lady (1968) with Rod Steiger and George Segal, The Detective (1968) with Frank Sinatra, and Hard Contract (1969) with James Coburn.
Remick went to the UK to make Loot (1970) and A Severed Head (1971). Back in the U.S., she was in Sometimes a Great Notion (1971).
She appeared in Hennessy (1975), with Rod Steiger. She co-starred with Gregory Peck in the 1976 horror film The Omen. The film was a commercial success.
Remick followed it up with leading actress roles in Telefon (1977), with Charles Bronson; The Medusa Touch (1978) with Richard Burton; the television miniseries Wheels (1979) with Rock Hudson; Ike: The War Years (1979) portraying Kay Summersby; and The Europeans (1979) for director James Ivory.[14]
Remick starred in many TV movies beginning with The Man Who Came to Dinner (1972) with Orson Welles. She followed it with Summer and Smoke (1972) for British TV; And No One Could Save Her (1973); Of Men and Women (1973), an unsuccessful pilot; The Blue Knight (1973) with William Holden; A Delicate Balance (1973) with Katharine Hepburn; QB VII (1974); Touch Me Not, a.k.a. The Hunted (1974); Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill (1975), playing the title role, which earned her an Emmy nomination; Hustling (1975) with Jill Clayburgh; A Girl Named Sooner (1975); Breaking Up (1978); and Torn Between Two Lovers (1979) with George Peppard.
1980s
[edit]Remick played Margaret Sullavan in Haywire (1980) and earned an Emmy nomination (as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Special). She had the lead in The Women's Room (1980) and supporting roles in The Competition (1980) and Tribute (1980), the latter with Lemmon.
Remick starred in The Letter (1982), The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story (1983) and a TV adaptation of I Do! I Do! (1984). She had a role in the miniseries Mistral's Daughter (1984), adapted from the novel by Judith Krantz. The reviewer of The New York Times praised Remick for portraying Kate "to fresh-faced clawing perfection".[15]
Remick was in Rearview Mirror (1984), Toughlove (1985), Of Pure Blood (1986), and Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder (1987), earning another Emmy nomination (as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special). She went to Australia to make Emma's War (1987).
Remick's later performances include The Vision (1987) with Dirk Bogarde, Jesse (1988), Bridge to Silence (1989) and playing Sarah Bernhardt in Around the World in 80 Days (1989). Her last performance was the lead in the TV movie Dark Holiday (1989).
Personal life
[edit]
Remick married producer Bill Colleran, whose credits include Your Hit Parade, The Dean Martin Show and The Judy Garland Show on August 3, 1957. They had two children, Katherine Lee Colleran (b. January 27, 1959) and Matthew Remick Colleran (b. June 7, 1961).[2] Remick and Colleran divorced in 1968.
Remick married British producer William Rory "Kip" Gowans on December 18, 1970. He was an assistant director on films such as Darling (1965), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) and The Lion in Winter (1968) before they married, and afterward worked on Sleuth (1972), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and The Human Factor (1979). She moved with Gowans to England and remained married to him until her death.[3] She starred in four telefilms he produced, The Women's Room (1980), The Letter (1982), Rearview Mirror (1984) and Of Pure Blood (1986). Remick and Gowans spent time in both England and Osterville, Massachusetts, which she considered her "true home".[16]
In the spring of 1989, Remick was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Treatments at first seemed to be successful.[17] However, this proved not to be true, and she died on July 2, 1991, at the age of 55.[18][19]
Recognition and legacy
[edit] |
Remick was the subject of "Lee Remick", the 1978 debut single by the Australian indie rock band The Go-Betweens. Songwriter Robert Forster mistakenly thought Remick was from Ireland, and he makes references to this idea in the song. In reality, Remick was American-born and raised (as were her parents); after 1970, she divided her time between England (where she had family ancestry) and the U.S.[20]
The English indie rock band Hefner recorded a song titled "Lee Remick" in 1998, unrelated to the Go-Betweens' single.
Filmography
[edit]Film
[edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | A Face in the Crowd | Betty Lou Fleckum | Film debut |
| 1958 | The Long, Hot Summer | Eula Varner | |
| 1959 | These Thousand Hills | Callie | |
| 1959 | Anatomy of a Murder | Laura Manion | |
| 1960 | Wild River | Carol Garth Baldwin | |
| 1961 | Sanctuary | Temple Drake | |
| 1962 | Experiment in Terror | Kelly Sherwood | |
| 1962 | Days of Wine and Roses | Kirsten Arnesen Clay | |
| 1963 | The Running Man | Stella Black | |
| 1963 | The Wheeler Dealers | Molly Thatcher | |
| 1965 | Baby the Rain Must Fall | Georgette Thomas | |
| 1965 | The Hallelujah Trail | Cora Templeton Massingale | |
| 1965 | The Satan Bug | Cocktail Waitress | Uncredited |
| 1968 | No Way to Treat a Lady | Kate Palmer | |
| 1968 | The Detective | Karen Leland | |
| 1969 | Hard Contract | Sheila Metcalfe | |
| 1970 | Loot | Nurse Fay McMahon | |
| 1970 | A Severed Head | Antonia Lynch-Gibbon | |
| 1971 | Sometimes a Great Notion | Viv Stamper | |
| 1973 | A Delicate Balance | Julia | |
| 1974 | Touch Me Not | Elanor | |
| 1975 | Hennessy | Kate Brooke | |
| 1976 | The Omen | Katherine Thorn | |
| 1977 | Telefon | Barbara | |
| 1978 | The Medusa Touch | Doctor Zonfeld | |
| 1979 | The Europeans | Baroness Eugenia Young Munster | |
| 1980 | The Competition | Greta Vandemann | |
| 1980 | Tribute | Maggie Stratton | |
| 1988 | Emma's War | Anne Grange | |
| 2024 | The First Omen | Katherine Thorn | Archival footage |
Television
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Studio One | Jessie Benson | Episode: "The Death and Life of Larry Benson" |
| 1956 | Studio One | Elaine Baylee | Episode: "The Landlady's Daughter" |
| 1960 | The Tempest | Miranda | TV movie |
| 1962 | The Farmer's Daughter | Katrin Holstrom | TV movie |
| 1967 | Damn Yankees! | Lola | TV movie |
| 1972 | The Man Who Came to Dinner | Maggie Cutler | TV movie |
| 1972 | BBC Play of the Month | Alma Winemiller | Episode: "Summer and Smoke" |
| 1973 | And No One Could Save Her | Fern O'Neil | TV movie |
| 1973 | The Blue Knight | Cassie Walters | TV movie |
| 1974 | QB VII | Lady Margaret | 2 episodes |
| 1974 | Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill | Lady Randolph Churchill | 7 episodes |
| 1975 | Hustling | Fran Morrison | TV movie |
| 1975 | A Girl Named Sooner | Elizabeth McHenry | TV movie |
| 1977 | The Ambassadors | Maria Gostrey | TV movie |
| 1978 | Breaking Up | Joann Hammil | TV movie |
| 1978 | Wheels | Erica Trenton | TV movie |
| 1979 | Torn Between Two Lovers | Diana Conti | TV movie |
| 1979 | Ike: The War Years | Kay Summersby | 3 episodes |
| 1980 | Haywire | Margaret Sullavan | TV movie |
| 1980 | The Women's Room | Mira Adams | TV movie |
| 1982 | I Do! I Do! | She | TV movie |
| 1982 | The Letter | Leslie Crosbie | TV movie |
| 1983 | The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story | Janet Broderick | TV movie |
| 1984 | Mistral's Daughter | Kate Browning | TV miniseries |
| 1984 | A Good Sport | Michelle Tenney | TV movie |
| 1984 | Rearview Mirror | Terry Seton | TV movie |
| 1985 | Toughlove | Jan Charters | TV movie |
| 1985 | Faerie Tale Theatre | The Snow Queen | Episode: "The Snow Queen" |
| 1986 | American Playhouse | Eleanor Roosevelt | Episode: "Eleanor: In Her Own Words" |
| 1986 | Of Pure Blood | Alicia Browning | TV movie |
| 1987 | Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder | Frances Schreuder | TV movie |
| 1988 | Jesse | Jesse Maloney | TV movie |
| 1988 | The Vision | Grace Gardner | TV movie |
| 1989 | Bridge to Silence | Marge Duffield | TV movie |
| 1989 | Around the World in 80 Days | Sarah Bernhardt | 3 episodes |
| 1989 | Dark Holiday | Gene LePere | TV movie a.k.a. Passport to Terror[21] |
Awards and nominations
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Skinner, Jerry (26 May 2017). "Lee Remick: Her Life Story (Jerry Skinner Documentary)". YouTube. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
- ^ a b Mead, Mimi (April 6, 1967). "She Prefers Musicals". The Daily Reporter. Dover, Ohio. p. 7. Retrieved September 26, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Shearer, Lloyd (January 11, 1976). "Lee Remick: From Baton Twirler to 'Jennie'". The San Bernardino County Sun. pp. 99–100. Retrieved September 26, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Playing Jennie The Churchill Centre[dead link]
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 3, 2007. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Lee Remick: From A Face To A Firm Place In The Hollywood Crowd". The Philadelphia Inquirer. July 3, 1991. Archived from the original on October 26, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
- ^ Andrew L. Yarrow (July 3, 1991). "Lee Remick, 55, Actress in Roles From Enticing to Tormented, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ^ Champlin, Charles (March 6, 1990). "Remick Endures Despite Personal Ordeal: Profile: Actress waged a 'drastic and horrible and successful' fight against kidney cancer. Now, she prepares for a role in the miniseries 'The Young Catherine.'". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ a b c "Lee Remick". Playbill. Archived from the original on January 9, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
- ^ Anderson, Robert (22 August 1959). "TV Saw Her First!" Chicago Daily Tribune: B5.
- ^ "The 35th Academy Awards (1963) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
- ^ Smith, Cecil (15 October 1963). "Lee Is Singing and She's Glad". Los Angeles Times: D8.
- ^ "Search Results: Lee Remick". Tony Awards. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
- ^ Smith, Cecil (30 April 1979). "A Rush of Lee Remick on Television" Los Angeles Times: E1.
- ^ O'Connor, John J. (September 24, 1984). "TV REVIEW; 'Mistral's Daughter' Starts Tonight". The New York Times. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
- ^ Lambert, Lane (December 14, 2010). "Lee Remick at 75: Some in Quincy still remember the city's other famous actress". The Patriot Ledger. Quincy, Massachusetts. Retrieved August 20, 2024.
- ^ "Remick Endures Despite Personal Ordeal : Profile: Actress waged a 'drastic and horrible and successful' fight against kidney cancer. Now, she prepares for a role in the miniseries 'The Young Catherine.'". Los Angeles Times. 6 March 1990.
- ^ "Actress Lee Remick Dead of Cancer at Age 55". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
- ^ Yarrow, Andrew L. (July 3, 1991). "Lee Remick, 55, Actress in Roles From Enticing to Tormented, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 12, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
- ^ rockportraits (2014-09-29). "The Go-Betweens". rockportraits. Retrieved 2025-09-17.
- ^ decades on CBS
- ^ a b c d e f "Lee Remick". Golden Globes. Retrieved 2025-10-20.
- ^ "The 35th Academy Awards | 1963". www.oscars.org. 2014-10-05. Retrieved 2025-10-20.
- ^ "San Sebastian Film Festival 1963 Awards". sansebastianfestival. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
- ^ a b "Lee Remick". Bafta. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
- ^ a b c d e f "Lee Remick". Television Academy. Retrieved 2025-10-20.
- ^ "Past Recipients: Crystal Award". Women In Film. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
- ^ Chad (2019-10-25). "Lee Remick". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
External links
[edit]
- Lee Remick at IMDb
- Lee Remick at Theatricalia
- Lee Remick at Playbill Vault
- Lee Remick at Film Reference
- Lee Remick discography at Discogs
- Lee Remick at the TCM Movie Database
- Lee Remick at the Internet Broadway Database
- 1935 births
- 1991 deaths
- 20th-century American actresses
- Actresses from Los Angeles
- Actresses from Norfolk County, Massachusetts
- American expatriates in England
- American film actresses
- American stage actresses
- American musical theatre actresses
- American people of English descent
- American television actresses
- Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
- Barnard College alumni
- Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (television) winners
- Deaths from kidney cancer in California
- Actors from Quincy, Massachusetts
- 20th-century American singers
- People from Osterville, Massachusetts
- 20th-century American women singers
- Hewitt School alumni