Marian Seldes

Actress

Popular As Marian Hall Seldes

Birthday August 23, 1928

Birth Sign Virgo

Birthplace New York City, U.S.

DEATH DATE 2014-10-6, New York City, U.S. (86 years old)

Nationality United States

Height 5' 9" (1.75 m)

#8668 Most Popular

1928

Marian Hall Seldes (August 23, 1928 – October 6, 2014) was an American actress.

1948

Trained for the stage, Seldes made her Broadway debut in 1948 in a production of Medea.

1952

In addition to performing in live theatre, Seldes began acting in television in 1952 in a Hallmark Hall of Fame production that marked the first of many guest star roles.

She also performed in a number of movies and in radio plays.

1960

In the mid-1960s, Seldes recorded five albums for Folkways Records of famous works of literature, including two recordings of poetry by Robinson Jeffers.

1961

They were divorced in 1961.

Seldes stated that the marriage to Claman was violent.

"If I sound a little vague about that marriage, it's because I don't understand the person in it. Me. I literally didn't know that people could be abusive."

Seldes left the marriage after her father noticed marks on her face.

1967

A five-time Tony Award nominee, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for A Delicate Balance in 1967, and received subsequent nominations for Father's Day (1971), Deathtrap (1978–82), Ring Round the Moon (1999), and Dinner at Eight (2002).

She also won a Drama Desk Award for Father's Day.

She went on to an illustrious career in which she earned five Tony Award nominations, winning her first time out in 1967 for A Delicate Balance.

Seldes was a member of the drama faculty of The Juilliard School from 1967 to 1991.

Her students included Christopher Reeve, Robin Williams, Kelsey Grammer, Kevin Kline, William Hurt, Patti LuPone, Val Kilmer, and Kevin Spacey.

1974

Her other Broadway credits include Equus (1974–77), Ivanov (1997), and Deuce (2007).

Between 1974 and 1982, she appeared in 179 episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

1990

Seldes was married to screenwriter/playwright Garson Kanin from 1990 until his death in 1999.

1992

In 1992, she appeared in an episode of Murphy Brown as the title character’s eccentric Aunt Brooke.

Seldes studied with Sanford Meisner, Katharine Cornell, and Martha Graham.

Actor Laura Linney said "Marian is our touchstone to those theatrical ancestors. She provides an inspiration that makes you want to reach outside of yourself to something more potent and powerful."

1995

She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2010.

Seldes was born in Manhattan, the daughter of Alice Wadhams Hall, a socialite, and Gilbert Seldes, a journalist, author, and editor.

Her uncle was journalist George Seldes.

She had one brother, Timothy.

Seldes's paternal grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants, and her mother was from a "prominent WASP family," the "Episcopalian blue-blooded Halls."

She grew up in a creative environment, studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

Her maternal aunt, Marian Wells Hall, was a prominent interior decorator.

2002

In 2002, Seldes began teaching at Fordham University, Lincoln Center.

Seldes appeared in every one of the 1,809 Broadway performances of Ira Levin's play Deathtrap, a feat that earned her a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records as "most durable actress".

Seldes was also well known for her readings of short stories in the "Selected Shorts" series hosted by Isaiah Sheffer at New York City's Symphony Space.

2008

In December 2008, for their annual birthday celebration to "The Master", Noël Coward, the Noël Coward Society invited Seldes as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the playwright’s 109th birthday.

2010

Seldes was the recipient of a 2010 Tony Lifetime Achievement Award.

"All I've done is live my life in the theater and loved it ... If you can get an award for being happy, that's what I've got."

2012

In 2012, Seldes played the knife-wielding socialite Mabel Billingsly in the film adaptation of Wendy Mass' popular children's book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, written and directed by Tamar Halpern.

Seldes had one child, Katharine, by her first marriage to Julian Claman.

2014

Seldes died at age 86 on October 6, 2014, in Manhattan.

The cause of her death was not released.

2017

However, in 2017, it was reported that a documentary about her life, Marian, by director R.E. "Rick" Rodgers, chronicling Seldes' last years, had created "consternation in the theater world" as a "horrific, intrusive depiction of her slide into dementia".

Awards

Nominations