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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
March 29, 1919
Died
December 31, 2001
Place of Birth
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Eileen Heckart
0.8 Popularity
Biography
Eileen Heckart was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. Born Anna Eileen Herbert, her career spanned nearly 60 years. She first became known for her role as schoolteacher Rosemary Sydney in the original 1953 cast of William Inge's play Picnic on Broadway. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the overprotective mother of a blind adult son in Butterflies Are Free, a role she originated on Broadway before playing it in the film. She often played mothers, including Rocky Graziano's mother in Somebody Up There Likes Me; the mother of a murdered child in The Bad Seed; the elderly mother of an estranged son in the PBS production of the one-act play Save Me a Place at Forest Law; the overbearing mother of the detective portrayed by George Segal in No Way to Treat a Lady; the mother of reporter Jack Stein on the 1990s television sitcom Love & War; the mother of two separate characters on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live in the 1980s and 1990s; and the meddling mother of a jilted wife (played by Diane Keaton) in The First Wives Club, her last film role. She also had a recurring role on the 1970s sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as Mary's Aunt Flo Meredith, a famous woman reporter, which she repeated on the subsequent spin-off series, Lou Grant. In addition to her Academy Award, she also won two Emmy Awards for Save Me a Place at Forest Lawn and Love & War, and a Golden Globe Award for The Bad Seed. She also received a special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2000, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She made her final acting appearance in 2000 at age 80 in an off-Broadway production, The Waverly Gallery, in which she played the leading role of an elderly grandmother with Alzheimer's disease. Description above from the Wikipedia article Eileen Heckart, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
6.7
Catherine MacDuggan
The First Wives Club
1996
7.8
Murder One
1995
5.8
Marge
Cybill
1995
10.0
Mother Emma Buchanan
The 5 Mrs. Buchanans
1994
6.1
Grandma
Ellen
1994
7.0
Sarah McNeil
Ultimate Betrayal
1994
5.3
Mabel
Breathing Lessons
1994
0.0
Shelly
Triumph Over Disaster: The Hurricane Andrew Story
1993
0.0
Shelley
Triumph Over Disaster: The Hurricane Andrew Story
1993
4.2
Rose Pennywell
Stephen King's Golden Tales
1993
Credits
The First Wives Club
as Catherine MacDuggan
1996
6.7
Murder One
1995
7.8
Cybill
as Marge
1995
5.8
The 5 Mrs. Buchanans
as Mother Emma Buchanan
1994
10.0
Ellen
as Grandma
1994
6.1
Ultimate Betrayal
as Sarah McNeil
1994
7.0
Breathing Lessons
as Mabel
1994
5.3
Triumph Over Disaster: The Hurricane Andrew Story
as Shelly
1993
0.0
Triumph Over Disaster: The Hurricane Andrew Story
as Shelley
1993
0.0
Stephen King's Golden Tales
as Rose Pennywell
1993
4.2
Love & War
1992
6.2
Home Improvement
as Elaine Jenkins
1991
7.4
Stuck with Each Other
as Fay Cass
1989
0.0
🎬
Annie McGuire
1988
5.0
Heartbreak Ridge
as Little Mary Jackson
1986
6.9
Tales from the Darkside
as Rose Pennywell
1984
7.2
Partners in Crime
as Jeanine
1984
6.2
The Cosby Show
as Mrs. Hickson
1984
7.0
Highway to Heaven
as Helen Spencer
1984
7.4
Trauma Center
as Amy Decker
1983
5.0
Games Mother Never Taught You
as Martha Brewster
1982
0.0
Joe Dancer: The Big Black Pill
as Sister Clara
1981
5.8
F.D.R.: The Last Year
as Eleanor Roosevelt
1980
5.8
White Mama
as Three Bag Lady
1980
8.0
The Sorrows of Gin
as Rosemary
1979
10.0
Trapper John, M.D.
1979
6.5
Out of the Blue
as The Boss Angel
1979
6.0
Backstairs at the White House
as Eleanor Roosevelt
1979
5.9
The Honeymooners Christmas Special
as Mildred
1978
7.0
Suddenly, Love
as Mrs. Malloy
1978
9.0
Flying High
1978
4.5
Sunshine Christmas
as Bertha Hayden
1977
0.0
Lou Grant
1977
7.3
Burnt Offerings
as Roz Allardyce
1976
6.5
Alice
1976
7.1
Switch
as Annie Warren
1975
6.7
The Hiding Place
as Katje
1975
6.8
The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One
as Ma Barker
1974
0.0
Rhoda
as Aunt Lillian Fiedler
1974
6.2
Zandy's Bride
as Ma Allan
1974
6.2
Wedding Band
as Herman's Mother
1974
0.0
Barnaby Jones
as Virginia Lennox / Steele
1973
6.9
The Victim
as Mrs. Hawkes
1972
6.2
The Streets of San Francisco
as Stella 'Stell' Charnovski
1972
7.0
Banyon
as Mrs. Shaw
1972
7.0
Butterflies Are Free
as Mrs. Florence Baker
1972
6.7
All the Way Home
as Aunt Hannah Lynch
1971
0.0
🎬
The Tree
as Sally Dunning
1969
0.0
Hawaii Five-O
as Agatha Henderson
1968
7.1
No Way to Treat a Lady
as Mrs. Brummel
1968
6.6
Up the Down Staircase
as Henrietta Pastorfield
1967
7.0
🎬
CBS Playhouse
1966
7.0
Felony Squad
1966
6.4
The F.B.I.
as Mrs. Creighton
1965
5.4
The Fugitive
as Sister Veronica
1963
7.2
My Six Loves
as Ethel
1963
5.6
The Mike Douglas Show
as Self
1961
5.4
The New Breed
as Harriet Dawson
1961
7.0
Ben Casey
1961
5.6
Dr. Kildare
as Nurse Jenny Freesmith
1961
5.5
Heller in Pink Tights
as Mrs. Lorna Hathaway
1960
5.7
A Doll's House
as Kristine
1959
10.0
Play of the Week
as Myrtle
1959
0.0
Naked City
as Mildred Pepper
1958
5.5
Naked City
as Virginia Cort
1958
5.5
Hot Spell
as Fan
1958
5.4
The Little Foxes
as Birdie
1956
0.0
The Bad Seed
as Hortense Daigle
1956
7.1
Bus Stop
as Vera
1956
6.1
Somebody Up There Likes Me
as Ma Barbella
1956
7.3
Tony Awards
as Self - Winner
1956
5.9
Tony Awards
as Self - Nominee
1956
5.9
Miracle in the Rain
as Grace Ullman
1956
6.7
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Lucy Baldwin
1955
7.8
Gunsmoke
as Hattie Silks
1955
6.6
Gunsmoke
as Athena Partridge Royce
1955
6.6
🎬
Kraft Television Theatre
1953
0.0
🎬
The Trip to Bountiful
as Jessie Mae Watts
1953
0.0
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Birdie
1951
8.6
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Mabel
1951
8.6
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Kristine Linde
1951
8.6
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Aunt Hannah Lynch
1951
8.6
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Florie
1950
6.3
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Miss Green
1950
6.3
Suspense
as Mollie
1949
4.9
Suspense
as Margaret Quartermain
1949
4.9
Suspense
as Mrs. Haskell
1949
4.9
Suspense
1949
4.9
Studio One
1948
5.0
Studio One
as Evie Jackson
1948
5.0
The Ford Theatre Hour
as Carrie
1948
0.0
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
6.3
The Philco Television Playhouse
as Jessie Mae
1948
6.3
The Philco Television Playhouse
as Ruthie
1948
6.3
The Ed Sullivan Show
as Self
1948
6.8