Marian Seldes(1928-2014)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Tony Award-winner Marian Hall Seldes, one of the premier stage actresses in
America, was born on August 23, 1928 in Manhattan, New York, to writer and journalist Gilbert Seldes, and his socialite wife, the former Alice Wadhams Hall. Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and her mother was from an Episcopalian family with deep roots in the United States.
Marian studied drama at the Neighborhood
Playhouse with Sanford Meisner and dance
with Martha Graham. She honed her craft
with the legendary Broadway diva,
Katharine Cornell, with whom she
appeared in the play, "That Lady", in the 1949-50 season.
Seldes, herself, taught acting at The Juilliard School from 1967 to
1991 and at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus since 2002. Her
students include Oscar-winners
William Hurt,
Kevin Kline and
Robin Williams, Emmy
Award-winners Kelsey Grammer and
Laura Linney, and Tony Award-winner
Patti LuPone.
She made her Broadway debut, in 1948, in
Robinson Jeffers' adaptation of
"Medea", with acting great
Judith Anderson giving a
legendary performance as Euripides' scorned heroine in a production
directed by John Gielgud, who also played
"Jason". It began a career that lasted 59 years: She last appeared on
Broadway in 2007 in Terrence McNally's
"Deuce". Along the way, she was nominated for a Tony Award five times,
winning on her first nod for Edward Albee's
A Delicate Balance (1973).
Seldes has long been associated with Albee, appearing in three of his
plays, starting with "Tiny Alice" in 1962. (Albee's Pulitzer
Prize-winning "Three Tall Women", which starred Seldes, did not play
the Great White Way but appeared off-Broadway.)
Seldes also has had an extensive career in movies, television and
radio, playing everything from Emily Brontë
in the 1952 TV movie,
Our Sister Emily (1952),
to Lucas McCain's dead wife in
The Rifleman (1958) episode,
The Vision (1960)
in 1960, to First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt in
Truman (1995) to Mr. Big's
mother on
Sex and the City (1998). She
also has done extensive work as a radio actress, appearing on the CBS
Radio Mystery Theater, from 1974 to 1982.
Her first marriage to Julian Claman, by
whom she had a daughter, ended in divorce in 1961. She was married to
screenwriter Garson Kanin from 1990 until
his death in 1999.
In 2010, Marian Seldes received a Tony Lifetime Achievement Award for
her great career in the theater as befits her reputation as one of
America's greatest stage performers.
America, was born on August 23, 1928 in Manhattan, New York, to writer and journalist Gilbert Seldes, and his socialite wife, the former Alice Wadhams Hall. Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and her mother was from an Episcopalian family with deep roots in the United States.
Marian studied drama at the Neighborhood
Playhouse with Sanford Meisner and dance
with Martha Graham. She honed her craft
with the legendary Broadway diva,
Katharine Cornell, with whom she
appeared in the play, "That Lady", in the 1949-50 season.
Seldes, herself, taught acting at The Juilliard School from 1967 to
1991 and at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus since 2002. Her
students include Oscar-winners
William Hurt,
Kevin Kline and
Robin Williams, Emmy
Award-winners Kelsey Grammer and
Laura Linney, and Tony Award-winner
Patti LuPone.
She made her Broadway debut, in 1948, in
Robinson Jeffers' adaptation of
"Medea", with acting great
Judith Anderson giving a
legendary performance as Euripides' scorned heroine in a production
directed by John Gielgud, who also played
"Jason". It began a career that lasted 59 years: She last appeared on
Broadway in 2007 in Terrence McNally's
"Deuce". Along the way, she was nominated for a Tony Award five times,
winning on her first nod for Edward Albee's
A Delicate Balance (1973).
Seldes has long been associated with Albee, appearing in three of his
plays, starting with "Tiny Alice" in 1962. (Albee's Pulitzer
Prize-winning "Three Tall Women", which starred Seldes, did not play
the Great White Way but appeared off-Broadway.)
Seldes also has had an extensive career in movies, television and
radio, playing everything from Emily Brontë
in the 1952 TV movie,
Our Sister Emily (1952),
to Lucas McCain's dead wife in
The Rifleman (1958) episode,
The Vision (1960)
in 1960, to First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt in
Truman (1995) to Mr. Big's
mother on
Sex and the City (1998). She
also has done extensive work as a radio actress, appearing on the CBS
Radio Mystery Theater, from 1974 to 1982.
Her first marriage to Julian Claman, by
whom she had a daughter, ended in divorce in 1961. She was married to
screenwriter Garson Kanin from 1990 until
his death in 1999.
In 2010, Marian Seldes received a Tony Lifetime Achievement Award for
her great career in the theater as befits her reputation as one of
America's greatest stage performers.