Cloris Leachman was a versatile Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning actress known for roles in films including “The Last Picture Show” and “Young Frankenstein” as well as in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
- Died: January 27, 2021 (Who else died on January 27?)
- Details of death: Died of natural causes in Encinitas, California at the age of 94.
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Oscar-winning performance
After consistent work in television throughout the 1960s, Leachman saw her career take off when she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in “The Last Picture Show” (1971). In the drama, she played a homemaker, trapped in an unhappy marriage in a small Texas town, who begins an affair with a teenage boy. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1998.
TV success
While she was receiving acclaim for serious film acting, she was making audiences laugh on TV as Mary Tyler Moore’s (1936–2017) pushy friend and neighbor Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” She won two of her eventual eight prime-time Emmy awards for her performances in the role. The character was popular enough with audiences that she starred in a spinoff series, “Phyllis,” which lasted two seasons before it was canceled in 1977.
Mel Brooks films
Leachman also worked with director Mel Brooks in three of his classic films: “Young Frankenstein” (1974), “High Anxiety” (1977) and “History of the World: Part I” (1981). She often played sinisterly comic characters such as Frankenstein’s housekeeper Frau Blücher, whose name inspired loud whinnying from horses every time it was mentioned.
Later career
Her versatility served Leachman well, and she worked continuously as she aged, balancing dramatic and comic roles with equal aplomb. In 2006, at 80, she won her second Emmy for playing Grandma Ida on the sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle,” and she was nominated for a dramatic TV role in the movie “Mrs. Harris.” In 2008, she became the oldest contestant ever on “Dancing With the Stars.” Leachman continued to be active into her 90s, with later projects including a starring role in “Raising Hope” from 2010 to 2014 as well as recurring roles in “American Gods” and the 2019 reboot of “Mad About You.”
Voice acting
In addition to appearing on screen, Leachman lent her distinctive voice to animated characters in “The Simpsons,” “The Iron Giant,” “Adventure Time,” and the English versions of Japanese films “Castle in the Sky” and “Ponyo.”
Activism
A vegetarian since she was 35, Leachman used her celebrity to promote vegetarianism and to improve the treatment of animals. In 2009, she posed for a PETA ad wearing only lettuce.
Leachman on the role she was most proud of
“There’s always one. And this one was ‘The Woman Who Willed A Miracle’ (1983). It was beautifully written. It was going to be on nighttime television but some executive from ABC said, ‘Who wants to see this on nighttime TV?’ So he put it on during the day instead. But we all won Emmys anyway. It was wonderful! That’s the thing I’m most proud of.” —from a 2017 interview with Vanessa McMahon
Tributes to Cloris Leachman
Full Obituary: Variety
