Constance Towers

At 91 years old, Constance Towers has this physical status:

Constance Mary Towers (born May 20, 1933) is an American film, stage, and television actress as well as a comedian.

She rose to fame in several mainstream 1950s films before going into theater, appearing in countless Broadway productions through the 1970s.

Two Emmy Award nominations are among her accolades. Towers, a Montana girl, began working as a child in the Pacific Northwest before relocating to New York City, where she studied music at the Juilliard School.

She made her film debut in Blake Edwards' debut film Bring Your Smile Along (1955) before receiving accolades for her appearances in John Ford's civil war film The Horse Soldiers (1959) and western Sergeant Rutledge (1960).

Towers later appeared in two of Samuel Fuller's hard-edged experimental thrillers Shock Corridor (1963) and The Naked Kiss (1964), respectively, beginning in 1965.

Towers appeared in four other Broadway productions in the 1970s, most notably as Anna in The King and I in 1977 and 1978.

Clarissa McCandless on the daytime drama Capitol from 1982 to 1987, as well as Helena Cassadine on GM Hospital, which she began starring in 1997.

Early life

Towers was born in Whitefish, Montana, on May 20, 1931, one of two children born to Ardath L. (née Reynolds) and Harry J. A pharmacist by the Towers. Her mother, who was born in Nebraska, was of Irish descent, while her father, an Ireland native who immigrated to the United States via Philadelphia, was of Irish descent. In her early childhood, the towers' family moved through western Montana, including Whitefish, Missoula, and Kalispell, as well as in Moscow, Idaho.

She was discovered by talent scouts visiting Montana in 1940, when Towers were in first grade looking for child actors for radio programs. The Towers' family later moved to Seattle, Washington, and she began working as a child radio actress on Pacific Northwest programs over the next three years. Towers was offered a job with Paramount Pictures at age 11, but her parents turned down the offer. She worked at a small local movie theater in Whitefish, Idaho, at age 12.

Her family immigrated to New York City after her father took up a job as an executive vice president for a pharmaceutical company in her adolescence. She studied music at Juilliard School and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles. Beverley Peck Johnson, a well-known voice coach, trained her to sing.

Personal life

Towers were first married to Eugene McGrath from 1959 until their divorce in 1966. In 1974, she married actor and former ambassador to Mexico John Gavin. She has two children from her first marriage. She also has two stepchildren from her marriage to Gavin. Gavin died on February 9, 2018, at the age of 86.

Towers is the chairwoman of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Music Center's Blue Ribbon.

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Career

A film agent discovered Towers while attending Juilliard. Towers recalled, "I was very lucky." "An agent saw me and believed in me as we were walking down Fifth Avenue, and the St. Regis Hotel's manager asked if I could sing." My agent said yes and then asked if I could open in three weeks. I learned a number of songs, wore a dress, performed to the judges, and received raves. A casting man from Columbia Pictures saw me and flew me to Los Angeles to speak with Harry Cohn, the president of Columbia. They had me read with Jack Lemmon and then agreed to a deal, and then signed me to a one."

Towers made her film debut in the film Bring Your Smile Along (1955), followed by a supporting role in the crime drama Over-Exposed (1956). Towers first attempted to land leading film roles due to her height. Hannah Hunter appeared in John Ford's Civil War film The Horse Soldiers (1959), opposite John Wayne and William Holden, in 1958. She appeared in Ford's sequel to Sergeant Rutledge (1960), a racially themed crime set in Western Europe, for the next year.

In 1963, Towers appeared in a supporting role in Samuel Fuller's thriller Shock Corridor (1963), which tells the tale of a journalist who commits himself to a mental hospital to investigate a murder. The New York Times characterized her role as a stripper in the film as "hard, driving, and realistic." Towers spent time in Los Angeles as preparations for their role.

In his sequel Film The Naked Kiss (1964), another lurid and hard-edged drama in which she plays a crazed prostitute who tries to assimilate in suburbia after being battered her pimp. Eugene Archer of The New York Times said, "While the plot may have been ridiculous, Mr. Fuller has shot it with a touch of humor, and he has given Miss Towers a slew of amusing appearances. Mr. Fuller's witty tumultuous floundering around a serious subject has a distinct edge."

Towers also appeared in Fate Is the Hunter, a thriller that chronicles an airline crash investigation. At a fashion preview held in Reno, Nevada, she also appeared as a model for the Heart Fund Benefit. She appeared in "The Case of the Prankish Professor" (1961) and Esther Metcalfe in "The Case of the Prankish Professor" (1963).

Towers made her Broadway debut in Anya, a short-lived 1965 classic, with various film, television, and stage appearances (including a West Coast tour of Guys and Dolls).

In a 1966 version of Show Boat at Lincoln Center, Julie Towers appeared as Julie. In 1966, she appeared in Carousel and The Sound of Music, and in 1967, she would reprise at the Jones Beach Theater in Long Island, New York, in 1970, 1971, and 1980.

She appeared in Anna Leonowens briefly in 1968, then appeared opposite Yul Brynner in a long-running revival of The King and I on tour and then on Broadway (1976–1978). Clive Barnes praised Towers in the role, and theatre critic John Kenrick called her performance on the 1977 cast album "high."

She appeared in Stephen Sondheim's Follies in 1995 as Phyllis.

Towers' career spanned the 1980s to the 1990s, although she did appear in films occasionally. She appeared in the 1974 television film Once in Her Life, which received an Emmy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Special Program. Marian Hiller, the wife of Dr. Sanford Hiller's Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1971–72), appeared on television.

Clarissa McCandless, the show's complete history, appeared in Capitol (1982–87), playing her role as the scheming matriarch Myrna Clegg, Marla Adams, Marj Dusay), as both a mother and her son, Mark Denning, who is also an actor in Congress (Ed Nelson). Paula (Mark's physically ill wife) was shot by her husband Baxter (Ron Harper) later discovered that she was still alive. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress by Soap Opera Digest in this segment.

Towers appeared in The Next Karate Kid (1994) and on television as John Abbott's former secretary, Audrey North, as well as The Young and the Restless (1996). Madame Julianna Deschanel on Sunset Beach (1997). Towers had supporting roles in the horror film The Relic (1998) and A Perfect Murder (1998), starring Gwyneth Paltrow's mother.

Helena Cassadine on GM, the Towers' most well-known soap role, began in 1997 and then ceased to appear on television until her character was killed off in 2015, but she made guest appearances in 2016, 2017, and most recently February 2020. Helena played Helena for a brief period of time in October 2020, though Towers did not appear on screen.

In 1993, Towers appeared in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Forsaken." She has also appeared in Designing Women, Frasier Baywatch, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. State Trooper, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, L.A., and The 4400.

In 2008, Towers appeared in Arthur Allan Seidelman's production Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks; the play premiered at the Geffen Playhouse with Uta Hagen and David Hyde Pierce in the two roles.

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