Eileen Brennan(1932-2013)
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
A supremely gifted, versatile player who could reach dramatic depths,
as exemplified in her weary-eyed, good-hearted waitress in
The Last Picture Show (1971),
or comedy heights, as in her sadistic drill captain in
Private Benjamin (1980), Eileen
Brennan managed to transition from lovely Broadway singing ingénue to
respected film and television character actress within a decade's time.
Her Hollywood career was hustling and bustling at the time of her
near-fatal car accident in 1982. With courage and spirit, she recovered
from her extensive facial and leg injuries, and returned to
performing... slower but wiser. On top of all this, the indomitable
Eileen survived a bout of alcoholism and became recognized as a breast
cancer survivor, having had a mastectomy in 1990. On camera, she still
tosses out those trademark barbs to the delight of all her fans, as
demonstrated by her more-recent recurring roles as the prying Mrs. Bink
on 7th Heaven (1996) and as
Zandra, the disparaging acting coach, on
Will & Grace (1998).
She was born with the highly unlikely marquee name of Verla Eileen
Regina Brennan in Los Angeles, California, the child of Irish-Catholic
parents Regina ("Jeanne") Manahan (or Menehan), a minor silent film
player, and John Gerald Brennan, a doctor. Following grade school
education, she attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and
appeared in plays with the Mask and Bauble Society during that time.
She then went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in
New York. Her lovely soprano coupled with a flair for comedy was the
winning combination that earned her the break of her budding career as
the not-so-dainty title role in the off-Broadway, tongue-in-cheek
operetta "Little Mary Sunshine". For this 1959 endeavor, Eileen not
only won an Obie Award, but was among an esteemed group of eight other
thespians who won the Theatre World Award that year for "Promising New
Personality", including
Warren Beatty,
Jane Fonda,
Carol Burnett and a very young
Patty Duke.
Unwilling to be pigeonholed as a singing comedienne, Eileen took on one
of the most arduous and demanding legit roles a young actress could ask
for when she portrayed Annie Sullivan role in a major touring
production of "The Miracle Worker" in 1961. After proving her dramatic
mettle, she returned willingly to the musical theatre fold and made a
very beguiling Anna in a production of "The King and I" (1963). She
took her first Broadway bow in another comic operetta, "The Student
Gypsy" (1963). In the musical, which was an unofficial sequel to her
"Mary Sunshine" hit, she played a similarly-styled Merry May
Glockenspiel, but the show lasted only a couple of weeks. Infinitely
more successful was her deft playing of Irene Malloy alongside
Carol Channing's Dolly Levi Gallagher in
the original Broadway production of "Hello, Dolly!" (1964). Eileen
stayed with the role for about two years.
By this time, Hollywood beckoned and Eileen never looked back... or
returned to sing on Broadway. After a support role in the film comedy
Divorce American Style (1967)
starring Debbie Reynolds and
Dick Van Dyke, Eileen's talents were
selected to be showcased on the irreverent variety show
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967).
But what seemed to be an ideal forum to show off her abilities didn't.
Overshadowed by the wackier talents of
Goldie Hawn,
Ruth Buzzi and
Jo Anne Worley, who became television
comedy stars from this, Eileen seemed out of sync with the knockabout
slapstick element. She left the cast before the show barely got off the
ground. "Laugh-In" (1968-1973) went on to become a huge cult hit.
In retrospect, this disappointment proved to be a boon to Eileen's
dramatic film career. Set in a dusty, barren town, she played up her
hard looks and earned terrific reviews for her downbeat role of
Genevieve, the careworn waitress, in
Peter Bogdanovich's
The Last Picture Show (1971).
As part of a superb ensemble cast, her hard-knocks vulnerability and
earthy sensuality added authenticity to the dreary Texas surroundings.
Following this, she scored great marks for her brothel madam/confidante
in George Roy Hill's ragtime-era Oscar
winner The Sting (1973). Bogdanovich
himself became a fan and used Eileen again and again in his subsequent
films -- the ambitious but lackluster
Daisy Miller (1974) and
At Long Last Love (1975). At
least, the latter movie allowed her to show off her singing voice. Her
comedic instincts were on full display too in the all-star mystery
spoofs Murder by Death (1976) and
The Cheap Detective (1978)
where she fared quite well playing take-it-on-the-chin dames.
Eileen hit the apex of her comic fame playing the spiky and spiteful
drill captain who mercilessly taunts and torments tenderfoot
Goldie Hawn in the huge box-office hit
Private Benjamin (1980). She
deservedly earned a "best supporting actress" Oscar nomination for her
scene-stealing contribution and was given the chance to reprise the
role on the television series that followed. Starring
Lorna Patterson in the Hawn role,
Private Benjamin (1981) was
less successful in its adaptation to the smaller screen but Eileen was
better than great and earned both Emmy and Golden Globe Awards in the
process.
During the show's run in 1982, Brennan had dinner one evening with good
friend Goldie Hawn at a Los Angeles
restaurant. They had already parted ways when Brennan was hit and
critically injured by a car while crossing a street. Replaced in the
television series (by "Alice" co-star
Polly Holliday), her recovery and
rehabilitation lasted three years, which included an addiction to
painkillers. She returned to the screen in another amusing all-star
comedy whodunit, Clue (1985), in which she
played one of the popular game board suspects, Mrs. Peacock. While
looking weaker and less mobile, she showed she had lost none of the
disarming causticity that made her a character star.
Forging ahead, Eileen went on to recreate her tough luck waitress
character in Texasville (1990), the
sequel to
The Last Picture Show (1971),
and also appeared with Bette Midler in the
overly mawkish Stella (1990). However, for
the most part, she lent herself to playing eccentric crab apples in
such lightweight fare as
Rented Lips (1987),
Sticky Fingers (1988),
Changing Habits (1997),
Pants on Fire (1998),
Jeepers Creepers (2001),
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005)
and Naked Run (2011). She has also
provided crotchety animated voices for series cartoons.
Eileen Brennan died at age 80 on July 28, 2013 at her Burbank,
California home after a battle with bladder cancer. She is survived by
her two sons, Patrick (formerly a basketball player, now an actor) and
Sam (a singer), from her first and only marriage in the late 1960s to
mid-1970s.
as exemplified in her weary-eyed, good-hearted waitress in
The Last Picture Show (1971),
or comedy heights, as in her sadistic drill captain in
Private Benjamin (1980), Eileen
Brennan managed to transition from lovely Broadway singing ingénue to
respected film and television character actress within a decade's time.
Her Hollywood career was hustling and bustling at the time of her
near-fatal car accident in 1982. With courage and spirit, she recovered
from her extensive facial and leg injuries, and returned to
performing... slower but wiser. On top of all this, the indomitable
Eileen survived a bout of alcoholism and became recognized as a breast
cancer survivor, having had a mastectomy in 1990. On camera, she still
tosses out those trademark barbs to the delight of all her fans, as
demonstrated by her more-recent recurring roles as the prying Mrs. Bink
on 7th Heaven (1996) and as
Zandra, the disparaging acting coach, on
Will & Grace (1998).
She was born with the highly unlikely marquee name of Verla Eileen
Regina Brennan in Los Angeles, California, the child of Irish-Catholic
parents Regina ("Jeanne") Manahan (or Menehan), a minor silent film
player, and John Gerald Brennan, a doctor. Following grade school
education, she attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and
appeared in plays with the Mask and Bauble Society during that time.
She then went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in
New York. Her lovely soprano coupled with a flair for comedy was the
winning combination that earned her the break of her budding career as
the not-so-dainty title role in the off-Broadway, tongue-in-cheek
operetta "Little Mary Sunshine". For this 1959 endeavor, Eileen not
only won an Obie Award, but was among an esteemed group of eight other
thespians who won the Theatre World Award that year for "Promising New
Personality", including
Warren Beatty,
Jane Fonda,
Carol Burnett and a very young
Patty Duke.
Unwilling to be pigeonholed as a singing comedienne, Eileen took on one
of the most arduous and demanding legit roles a young actress could ask
for when she portrayed Annie Sullivan role in a major touring
production of "The Miracle Worker" in 1961. After proving her dramatic
mettle, she returned willingly to the musical theatre fold and made a
very beguiling Anna in a production of "The King and I" (1963). She
took her first Broadway bow in another comic operetta, "The Student
Gypsy" (1963). In the musical, which was an unofficial sequel to her
"Mary Sunshine" hit, she played a similarly-styled Merry May
Glockenspiel, but the show lasted only a couple of weeks. Infinitely
more successful was her deft playing of Irene Malloy alongside
Carol Channing's Dolly Levi Gallagher in
the original Broadway production of "Hello, Dolly!" (1964). Eileen
stayed with the role for about two years.
By this time, Hollywood beckoned and Eileen never looked back... or
returned to sing on Broadway. After a support role in the film comedy
Divorce American Style (1967)
starring Debbie Reynolds and
Dick Van Dyke, Eileen's talents were
selected to be showcased on the irreverent variety show
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967).
But what seemed to be an ideal forum to show off her abilities didn't.
Overshadowed by the wackier talents of
Goldie Hawn,
Ruth Buzzi and
Jo Anne Worley, who became television
comedy stars from this, Eileen seemed out of sync with the knockabout
slapstick element. She left the cast before the show barely got off the
ground. "Laugh-In" (1968-1973) went on to become a huge cult hit.
In retrospect, this disappointment proved to be a boon to Eileen's
dramatic film career. Set in a dusty, barren town, she played up her
hard looks and earned terrific reviews for her downbeat role of
Genevieve, the careworn waitress, in
Peter Bogdanovich's
The Last Picture Show (1971).
As part of a superb ensemble cast, her hard-knocks vulnerability and
earthy sensuality added authenticity to the dreary Texas surroundings.
Following this, she scored great marks for her brothel madam/confidante
in George Roy Hill's ragtime-era Oscar
winner The Sting (1973). Bogdanovich
himself became a fan and used Eileen again and again in his subsequent
films -- the ambitious but lackluster
Daisy Miller (1974) and
At Long Last Love (1975). At
least, the latter movie allowed her to show off her singing voice. Her
comedic instincts were on full display too in the all-star mystery
spoofs Murder by Death (1976) and
The Cheap Detective (1978)
where she fared quite well playing take-it-on-the-chin dames.
Eileen hit the apex of her comic fame playing the spiky and spiteful
drill captain who mercilessly taunts and torments tenderfoot
Goldie Hawn in the huge box-office hit
Private Benjamin (1980). She
deservedly earned a "best supporting actress" Oscar nomination for her
scene-stealing contribution and was given the chance to reprise the
role on the television series that followed. Starring
Lorna Patterson in the Hawn role,
Private Benjamin (1981) was
less successful in its adaptation to the smaller screen but Eileen was
better than great and earned both Emmy and Golden Globe Awards in the
process.
During the show's run in 1982, Brennan had dinner one evening with good
friend Goldie Hawn at a Los Angeles
restaurant. They had already parted ways when Brennan was hit and
critically injured by a car while crossing a street. Replaced in the
television series (by "Alice" co-star
Polly Holliday), her recovery and
rehabilitation lasted three years, which included an addiction to
painkillers. She returned to the screen in another amusing all-star
comedy whodunit, Clue (1985), in which she
played one of the popular game board suspects, Mrs. Peacock. While
looking weaker and less mobile, she showed she had lost none of the
disarming causticity that made her a character star.
Forging ahead, Eileen went on to recreate her tough luck waitress
character in Texasville (1990), the
sequel to
The Last Picture Show (1971),
and also appeared with Bette Midler in the
overly mawkish Stella (1990). However, for
the most part, she lent herself to playing eccentric crab apples in
such lightweight fare as
Rented Lips (1987),
Sticky Fingers (1988),
Changing Habits (1997),
Pants on Fire (1998),
Jeepers Creepers (2001),
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005)
and Naked Run (2011). She has also
provided crotchety animated voices for series cartoons.
Eileen Brennan died at age 80 on July 28, 2013 at her Burbank,
California home after a battle with bladder cancer. She is survived by
her two sons, Patrick (formerly a basketball player, now an actor) and
Sam (a singer), from her first and only marriage in the late 1960s to
mid-1970s.
Funny Women of Television
Funny Women of Television
We salute the brilliant women behind all those unforgettable laughs on the small screen.