Ann Wedgeworth

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Elizabeth Ann Wedgeworth (January 21, 1934 – November 16, 2017) was an American character actress, known for her roles as Lana Shields in Three's Company, Hilda Hensley in Sweet Dreams, and Merleen Elldridge in Evening Shade.

She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Chapter Two (1978).

Early life

Elizabeth Ann Wedgeworth was born in Abilene, Texas. She graduated from Highland Park High School in University Park, Texas, where she was a childhood friend and high school classmate of Jayne Mansfield. She dropped her first name after graduating from the University of Texas in 1957, and moved to New York City. After auditioning several times, she was admitted to The Actors Studio.

Personal life

Wedgeworth married Rip Torn in 1955. They had a daughter, actress Danae Torn. The couple divorced in 1961. In 1970, she married acting teacher and director Ernie Martin, and, in 1972, had a daughter, actress/acting teacher/writer Diánna Martin.

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Career

In 1958, Wedgeworth appeared in the play Make a Million. She appeared on Broadway and off-Broadway productions, including Period of Adjustment, Blues for Mister Charlie, The Last Analysis, and Thieves. In 1978, she received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Chapter Two.

In Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, co-starring Harvey Keitel and Geraldine Page, Wedgeworth appeared off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre in New York from December 5, 1985, to June 1, 1986; coincidently, Page, a decade Wedgeworth's senior, had married actor Rip Torn after his separation from Wedgeworth. At the time, Page and Torn were married, but they were disconcerted at the time of Page's death in 1987. Wedgeworth was nominated for the Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her role in A Lie of the Mind.

In several films, Wedgeworth had supporting roles. In the 1973 film Scarecrow, she appeared opposite Gene Hackman in the female leading role. She appeared in Bang the Drum Tilted, Law and Disorder, One Summer Love, and Thieves later. In 1977, she received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Handle with Care.

Wedgeworth had numerous supporting roles during the 1980s, including in No Small Affair as Jon Cryer's mother, as Patsy Cline's mother, and then to Made in Heaven as one who reunited with her deceased son. She portrayed Aunt Fern in Steel Magnolias in 1989. In the 1991 film Hard Promises, Sissy Spacek's mother appeared as her daughter. Renée Zellweger's Love and a.45 and The Whole Wide World were two of her actress appearances. In The Hawk Is Dying, with Paul Giamatti, which opened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, Wedgeworth had her last film appearance.

In the early years, Wedgeworth played a key part in several daytime soap operas. Angela Talbot appeared on The Edge of Night from 1966 to 1967, and later joined the cast of Another World as Lahoma Vane Lucas. She appeared on television from 1967 to 1970, and Somerset from 1970 to 1973 appeared on its spinoff, Somerset.

Lana Shields, a divorcée on ABC sitcom Three's Company in 1979, was cast as Wedgeworth. Producers filled the void left by Audra Lindley, who had been left to act in the show's spin-off, The Ropers, until her. According to behind-the-scenes reports, Lana's addition to the cast caused tensions between series star John Ritter and the show's writers. Ritter felt that it would be out of character for his character, the womanizing Jack Tripper, to inexplicably refuse Lana's advances, a sexually fond older woman. Lana was older than Jack, so the writers believed he'd be turned off because he was older than Jack. Ritter was surprised that Lana, a middle-aged woman who was only supposed to be in her 40s, would annoy Jack, although Jack was in his late 20s/early 30s. Wedgeworth claimed that she had requested to be released from her employment due to Lana's fading presence on the program.

Prior to being formally written out without any explanation and never referred to again, Wedgeworth appeared in only nine episodes of the series before her character was simply written out without explanation and never referred to again.

In 1982, Wedgeworth appeared in Filthy Rich's first comedy film, playing ditsy, good-natured Bootsie Westchester. After two seasons in 1983, the series was cancelled. Audrey Conner, Dan Conner's emotionally fragile mother (played by John Goodman) on ABC sitcom Roseanne in 1989, she appeared as Audrey Conner, the emotionally fragile mother of Dan Conner. Merleen Eldridge appeared on CBS sitcom Evening Shade as Merleen Eldridge for his longest time. The series ran from 1990 to 1994. Wedgeworth appeared in Harlan & Merleen, the disappointing Evening Shade spin-off.

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