Frances Sternhagen

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Frances Sternhagen was still in her teens when she made her first professional stage appearance as the thirtyish Laura in a 1948 summer-stock production of ~The Glass Menagerie. After graduating from Vassar with a BA degree in drama, Frances attended the Perry-Mansfield School of the Theatre and New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. She briefly worked as a teacher at Massachussett's Milton Academy before her off-Broadway debut as Juliette in Girardoux' ~Thieves' Carnival--one of the last times that this dynamic character actress would ever portray a flighty ingenue. She went on to spend several seasons at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Back in New York, Sternhagen won two Obie Awards for her performances in ~Admirable Bashville and ~The New Pinter Plays, and in 1973 received the Tony Award for her multiple characterizations in Neil Simon's ~Good Doctor 1973. She followed this personal triumph by creating two of her all-time favorite stage roles: Dora in ~Equus (1974) and Ethel Thayer in ~On Golden Pond (1979). Launching her film career in 1967, Sternhagen has been seen in an exhausting variety of movie roles; among the best of these was no-nonsense Dr. Marion Lazarus in Outland (1982), matching wits and witticisms with outer-space peacekeeper Sean Connery. On television, Frances Sternhagen enjoyed sizable roles on such daytime dramas as Love of Life, One Life to Live, Secret Storm, and was seen on a regular basis in the prime-time series Spencer (1985, as Millie Sprague), Stephen King's the Golden Years (1991, as Gina Williams) and The Road Home (1994, as Charlotte Babineaux). ~ Hal Erickson Full Biography »