Elizabeth Ashley

Elizabeth Ann Cole, known professionally as Elizabeth Ashley (born August 30, 1939) is an American actress of theatre, film, and television. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards, winning once in 1962 for '' Take Her, She's Mine''. Ashley was also nominated for the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for her supporting performance in '' The Carpetbaggers'' (1964), and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1991 for '' Evening Shade''. Elizabeth was a guest on '' The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson'' 24 times. She appeared in several episodes of '' In the Heat of the Night'' as Maybelle Chesboro.

Early life

Ashley was born to a music teacher and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Ashley left Louisiana State University after her freshman year and moved to New York. She studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre there, supporting herself by working as the Jell-O pudding girl on a television program and as a showroom model.

Career

Ashley won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for ''Take Her, She's Mine'', then later starred as Corie in the original Broadway production of Neil Simon's ''Barefoot in the Park'' (1963) and, later, as Maggie in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1974). She received Tony nominations for both performances. She appeared on Broadway as Dr. Livingstone in ''Agnes of God'' (1982) and was a replacement in the role of Mattie Fae during the original Broadway run of '' August: Osage County''.

She has been featured in major motion pictures over five decades, including early roles in ''The Carpetbaggers'' (1964), ''Ship of Fools'' (1965), and ''The Third Day'' (1965). Her other film credits include '' The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker'' (1971), ''Rancho Deluxe'' (1975), ''Coma'' (1978), '' Paternity'' (1981), '' Dragnet'' (1987), and ''Vampire's Kiss'' (1989), and she starred as the villain in the controversial film ''Windows'' (1980).

She first appeared with Burt Reynolds in a 1969 season episode of ''Love, American Style'', then later in the movie ''Paternity'' in 1981, as a guest star in his television series ''B.L. Stryker'' in 1989, and finally as a cast member in his final television series, '' Evening Shade'', from 1990 to 1994 as Aunt Frieda Evans.

Ashley had the role of Kate in ''Sandburg's Lincoln'', a six-part dramatization that ran on NBC in the mid-1970s. Her other television appearances include the 1987 miniseries '' The Two Mrs. Grenvilles'', and guest roles in ''Ben Casey''; '' Route 66''; '' Sam Benedict''; '' Stoney Burke''; ''The Six Million Dollar Man''; ''Family''; ''Miami Vice''; '' Caroline in the City''; '' Mission: Impossible''; ''Murder, She Wrote''; ''Dave's World''; ''Law & Order''; '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''; ''Touched by an Angel''; ''The Larry Sanders Show''; '' Homicide: Life on the Street''; ''Russian Doll''; and '' Better Things''. She was featured in 14 episodes of the HBO series '' Treme'' as Aunt Mimi.

Book

Ashley's autobiography ''Actress: Postcards from the Road'' was published in a hardcover edition on June 1, 1978 by M. Evans & Co (now part of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group). A paperback publication followed on October 12, 1979 through Fawcett Publications.

Personal life

Ashley is thrice married and divorced. Her first and second husbands were actors James Farentino and George Peppard. The latter was her leading man in her first movie, ''The Carpetbaggers'' (1964). The couple had a son, Christian. Her divorce from Peppard was the direct cause of the cancellation of his television series ''Banacek''.

At 25, Ashley retired from acting "to make a home for my husband, see that he had his dinner on time, realize myself as a woman.” She resumed her career four years later after the birth of Christian Peppard.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

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InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Elizabeth Ashley
(TV Interview)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley, Elizabeth
20th-century American actresses
Actresses from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Florida
American film actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
Living people
Louisiana State University Laboratory School alumni
Actresses from New York City
People from Ocala, Florida
Tony Award winners
American autobiographers
Women autobiographers
21st-century American women
1939 births