Eileen Heckart

At 82 years old, Eileen Heckart has this physical status:

Eileen Heckart (born Anna Eileen Herbert, 1919–2001) was an American actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years.

Rosemary Sydney, a schoolteacher who appeared in William Inge's original 1953 cast of Picnic on Broadway, was first known for her role as schoolteacher Rosemary Sydney.

She received the Academy Award for her role as the overprotective mother of a blind adult son in Butterflies Are Free (1972), a role she originated on Broadway before appearing in the film. Somebody Likes Me (1956), Rocky Graziano's mother in Somebody Down There Likes Me (1956); the elderly mother of an estranged son in PBS' One Life to Live's one-act play Save Me a Place at Forest (1966); and the meddling mother of a jilted wife (played by Diane Keaton) in The First Wives Club (1996), her last film appearance.

In addition, she appeared on the 1970s sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Mary's Aunt Flo Meredith, a well-known woman reporter who appeared on the new spin-off series Lou Grant. In addition to her Academy Award, she received two Emmy Awards for Save Me a Place at Forest Lawn and Love & War, as well as a coveted Golden Globe Award for The Bad Seed.

She was also recognized for her lifetime achievement in 2000 and is a member of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She appeared in The Waverly Gallery, an off-Broadway play in which she appeared in the leading role of an elderly grandmother with Alzheimer's disease in 2000.

Early life

Anna Eileen Herbert was born in Columbus, Ohio, and she died. Esther (née Stark), the daughter of Leo Herbert (not the child's father), was able to secure Leo Herbert (not the child's father), but her child would not be born with the stigma of illegitimacy. Eileen was legally adopted by her maternal grandmother's wealthy second husband, J.W., within a few years. Heckart, the surname by which she would be identified her whole life. Anne and Marilyn were her two older sisters. She earned a Bachelor's degree from Ohio State University. drama is a drama. She also studied drama at HB Studio in New York City.

Personal life

Heckart married insurance broker John Harrison Yankee, Jr., who was her college sweetheart in 1942. They had three sons. Luke Yankee, her son, is the author of her 2006 book Just Outside the Spotlight: Growing Up with Eileen Heckart.

Heckart was a Democrat. In 1967, she met President Lyndon B. Johnson at The White House.

Heckart was a Roman Catholicist adherent.

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Career

Heckart began her Broadway career as the assistant stage manager and an understudy for The Voice of the Turtle in 1943. Her many credits include Picnic, The Bad Seed, A View from the Bridge, A Memory of Two Mondays, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, A Family Affair, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, Barefoot in the Park, Butterflies Are Free, You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running, and The Cemetery Club.

Heckart won the 1953 Theatre World Award for Picnic. Her nominations include Tony Award nominations for Butterflies Are Free, Invitation to a March, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

In 2000, at age 81, she appeared off-Broadway in Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery. For this performance, she won several awards, including the Drama Desk Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Drama League Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award. That same year, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame and received an honorary Tony Award for lifetime achievement.

She was granted three honorary doctorates by Sacred Heart University, Niagara University, and Ohio State University.

Heckart won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1972 movie adaptation of Butterflies Are Free and was nominated in 1956 for her performance as the bereaved, besotted Mrs. Daigle in The Bad Seed (1956), both of which were roles Heckart originated on Broadway. Heckart appeared in the Hiding Place (1976) as a nurse working inside the concentration camp and later appeared as a Vietnam War widow in the Clint Eastwood film Heartbreak Ridge (1986). She played Diane Keaton's meddling mother in the 1996 comedy film The First Wives Club.

On television, Heckart had starring roles in The Five Mrs. Buchanans, Out of the Blue, Partners in Crime, and Backstairs at the White House (Emmy nomination as Eleanor Roosevelt). In 1994, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance as Rose Stein on Love & War. In 1988, she appeared as Ruth in the Tales from the Darkside episode "Do Not Open This Box". Her other guest roles included The Fugitive (where she appeared in three episodes as a nun, "Sister Veronica"), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (two Emmy nominations as journalist Flo Meredith, a role she carried over to a guest appearance on MTM's spinoff Lou Grant), Love Story, Rhoda, Alice, Murder One, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Cybill, The Cosby Show (one Emmy nomination as Mrs. Hickson), and many others.

Heckart played two unrelated characters on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. During the 1980s, she played Ruth Perkins, the mother of Allison Perkins, who had kidnapped the newborn baby of heroine Viki Lord Buchanan under orders from phony evangelist and mastermind criminal Mitch Laurence. During the early 1990s, she played the role of Wilma Bern, mother of upstate Pennsylvania mob boss Carlo Hesser and his meek twin, Mortimer Bern. She appeared in the 1954 legal drama Justice, based on case files of New York's Legal Aid Society. She appeared in an episode of the medical drama The Eleventh Hour, titled "There Should Be an Outfit Called 'Families Anonymous!'" (1963), and an episode of Home Improvement, titled "Losing My Religion". She also played the role of Amanda Cooper on the Little House on the Prairie episode "Dance With Me".

Heckart has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6162 Hollywood Blvd.

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