Maryann Plunkett (born c. 1953) is an American

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and singer. Plunkett has performed on the stage both on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

. She has appeared in the entire play cycle of Richard Nelson's ''Apple Family Plays''. In 1987, she won the

Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical is awarded to the best actress in a Musical theatre, musical, whether a new production or a revival. The award has been given since 1948, but the nominees who did not win have o ...

for her performance as Sally Smith in '' Me and My Girl''."'Me and My Girl' Broadway"
Playbill, accessed February 27, 2016.

Career

Plunkett graduated from the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College ...

, and was a founding member of Portland Stage repertory company in Maine.Kilian, Michael
"Stage-struck"
''Chicago Tribune'', March 21, 1993. She played on Broadway as Bernadette Peters's replacement in the role of "Dot" in ''

Sunday in the Park with George ''Sunday in the Park with George'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It was inspired by the French pointillist painter Georges Seurat's painting ''A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande J ...

'' in 1985. In 1987, she won the

for her performance as "Sally Smith" in '' Me and My Girl''. She appeared in the 1991 Broadway revival of

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

's ''

The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as ...

'', in which she played Elizabeth Proctor opposite

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...

as John Proctor, in an all-star cast including

Michael York Michael York OBE (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television and stage actor. After performing on-stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Ro ...

and

Fritz Weaver Fritz William Weaver (January 19, 1926 − November 26, 2016) was an American actor in television, stage, and motion pictures. He portrayed Dr. Josef Weiss in the 1978 epic television drama, ''Holocaust'' for which he was nominated for a Primetime ...

. She was part of the

Tony Randall Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play '' The Odd Couple'' by Neil Si ...

National Actors Theatre The National Actors Theatre (NAT) was a theatre company founded in 1991 by Tony Randall, whose dream it was to create such an organization. He was chairman until his death in 2004, when the theatre also subsequently closed down. At first the company ...

company, and performed in their production of ''Saint Joan'' by Shaw in 1993 on Broadway. She performed in the National Actors Theatre productions of ''A Little Hotel on the Side'' by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières on Broadway in 1992, and in ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises ...

'' by Anton Chekov in 1992. Plunkett appeared in the television movies '' The Littlest Victims'' and ''Breaking the Silence'', and in feature films including '' Claire Dolan'' and '' The Company Men''. She guest-starred on episodes of '' Matlock'', '' L.A. Law'', '' Murder She Wrote'', ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...

'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', and ''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering ...

''. ;Richard Nelson "Apple Family Plays" She and her husband Jay O. Sanders appeared together in the Richard Nelson play ''Sorry'' in 2012 at the

Public Theatre The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...

. She was nominated for the 2013

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. F ...

, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her role as "Barbara Apple". Plunkett played the role of "Barbara Apple" in the other Nelson "Apple Family" plays as well. They appeared together in the Off-Broadway production of ''That Hopey Changey Thing'' in October 2010 at the Public Theatre. Plunkett and Sanders appeared in ''Sweet and Sad'' in September 2011 at the Public Theatre. ''Sweet and Sad'' won the 2012 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble Performance and the 2012 Obie Award, Ensemble Performance. She appeared in ''The Apple Family Plays'' in repertory at the Public Theatre, from October 22, 2013 to December 15. ;Richard Nelson election trilogy Plunkett and Sanders appear in all three of Nelson's new play cycle, with the overall title of ''The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family''. The first play, ''Hungry'', premiered in March 2016 at the Public Theatre. The second play, ''What Did You Expect?'' ran at the Public Theatre from September 10, 2016 to October 9. The third and final play, ''Women of a Certain Age'', opened on election night, November 8, 2016 and runs to December 4, at the Public Theatre.

Personal life

She and Jay O. Sanders were married in 1991. They met while acting on the television series ''

A Man Called Hawk ''A Man Called Hawk'' is an American action drama series, starring Avery Brooks, that ran on ABC from January 28 to May 13, 1989. The series is a spin-off of the crime drama series '' Spenser: For Hire'', and features the character Hawk, who f ...

''. They have a son named Jamie born in 1994.

Work

Stage productions

* 1982: ''

Agnes of God ''Agnes of God'' is a 1979 play by American playwright John Pielmeier which tells the story of a novice nun who gives birth and insists that the child was the result of a virgin conception. A psychiatrist and the mother superior of the convent ...

'' * 1985: ''

'' * 1986: '' Me and My Girl'' * 1991: ''

'' * 1992: ''A Little Hotel on the Side'' * 1992: ''

The Master Builder ''The Master Builder'' ( no, Bygmester Solness) is a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was first published in December 1892 and is regarded as one of Ibsen's more significant and revealing works. Performance The play was published ...

'' * 1992: ''

'' * 1993: '' Saint Joan'' * 2008: '' A Man for All Seasons'' * 2013: ''The Apple Family Plays'' (in repertory) * 2016: ''The Gabriels'' (trilogy) * 2019: ''The O'Casey Cycle'' (''

Juno and the Paycock ''Juno and the Paycock'' is a play by Seán O'Casey. Highly regarded and often performed in Ireland, it was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924. It is set in the working-class tenements of Dublin in the early 1920s, during the ...

'', ''

The Plough and the Stars ''The Plough and the Stars'' is a four-act play by the Irish writer Seán O'Casey that was first performed on 8 February 1926 at the Abbey Theatre. It is set in Dublin and addresses the 1916 Easter Rising. The play's title references the Sta ...

'')

Filmography

* 1989: '' The Littlest Victims'' (TV Movie) * 1990: '' Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV series)'', episode "

Identity Crisis In psychology, identity crisis is a stage theory of identity development where it involves resolution of a conflict over the 8 stages of the lifespan.(Schultz, 216) The term was coined by German psychologist Erik Erikson. The stage of psychosoci ...

" * 1991: ''Deceptions: A Mother's Secret'' * 1992: ''Breaking the Silence'' (TV Movie) * 1998: '' Claire Dolan'' * 2005: ''

The Squid and the Whale ''The Squid and the Whale'' is a 2005 American independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of two boys in Brooklyn dealing with their parents' divorc ...

'' * 2010: '' The Company Men'' * 2010: '' Blue Valentine'' * 2013: House of Cards Evelyn Baxter (season 1). * 2015: '' True Story'' * 2015: ''

The Family Fang ''The Family Fang'' is a bestselling novel written by Kevin Wilson and published by Ecco in 2011. Plot Annie and Buster Fang are the children of famous performance artists who, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, perform public interactive pi ...

'' * 2019: ''

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ''A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood'' is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed by Marielle Heller and written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, inspired by the 1998 article "Can You Say... Hero?" by Tom Junod, published in ...

'' * 2019: ''

Manifest (TV series) ''Manifest'' is an American supernatural drama television series created by Jeff Rake that premiered on September 24, 2018, on NBC. It centers on the passengers and crew of a commercial airliner who suddenly reappear after being presumed dead ...

'' as Priscilla Landon * 2021: '' Dr. Death'' as Madeline Beyer

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Plunkett, Maryann 1950s births 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Massachusetts American film actresses American musical theatre actresses American stage actresses American television actresses Living people Actors from Lowell, Massachusetts Singers from Massachusetts Tony Award winners University of New Hampshire alumni