Eileen Heckart (born Anna Eileen Herbert; March 29, 1919 â€" December
31, 2001) was an American actress whose 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 (1972), 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 (1956); the mother of
a murdered child in The Bad Seed (1956); the elderly mother of an
estranged son in the PBS production of the one-act play Save Me a
Place at Forest Lawn (1966); the overbearing mother of the detective
portrayed by George Segal in No Way to Treat a Lady (1968); 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 (1996), 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 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.
31, 2001) was an American actress whose 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 (1972), 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 (1956); the mother of
a murdered child in The Bad Seed (1956); the elderly mother of an
estranged son in the PBS production of the one-act play Save Me a
Place at Forest Lawn (1966); the overbearing mother of the detective
portrayed by George Segal in No Way to Treat a Lady (1968); 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 (1996), 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 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.
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