Stockard Channing

Stockard Channing (born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard; February 13, 1944) is an American actress.

She was the daughter of Mary Alice (née English), who came from a large Brooklyn Irish Catholic family, and Lester Napier Stockard (died 1960), who was in the shipping business.

Her elder sister is Lesly Stockard Smith, former mayor of Palm Beach, Florida.

Channing is an alumna of the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, a boarding school for girls, which she attended after starting at the Chapin School in New York City.

She studied history and literature at Radcliffe College of Harvard University in Massachusetts and graduated summa cum laude in 1965.

She received her acting training at HB Studio in New York City.

Channing started her acting career with the experimental Theatre Company of Boston; she performed in the group's Off-Broadway 1969 production of the Elaine May play Adaptation/Next.

She performed in a revival of Arsenic and Old Lace directed by Theodore Mann as part of the Circle in the Square at Ford's Theatre program in 1970.

In addition, during the second half of the 1970s, Channing played a mischievous car thief in Jerry Schatzberg's 1976 dramedy Sweet Revenge (which competed at the Cannes Film Festival), Joseph Bologna's love interest in the disaster film spoof The Big Bus (also 1976), Peter Falk's secretary in the 1978 Neil Simon film The Cheap Detective, and real-life deaf stuntwoman and (still current) female land speed record holder Kitty O'Neil in the TV movie Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story (1979).

In 1971, she made her Broadway debut in Two Gentlemen of Verona — The Musical, working with playwright John Guare.

She also appeared on Broadway in 1973 in a supporting role in No Hard Feelings at the Martin Beck Theatre.

Channing made her television debut on Sesame Street in the role of The Number Painter's female victim.

She landed her first leading role in the 1973 television movie The Girl Most Likely To..., a black comedy written by Joan Rivers about an ugly duckling woman, made newly beautiful by plastic surgery after an auto accident, who vows murderous revenge on all who had scorned her.

For the role, Channing went through a considerable transformation, with the syndicated column "TV Scout" reporting months later, "It was a great make-up job — at least the part that made very pretty Stockard look so ugly. She had her cheeks puffed out with cotton and her nose was wadded, too, to make it thick and off-center. Very thick eyebrows were drawn on her face and she wore padded clothes to make her look fat. Making her look beautiful was easy."

Her film appearances include The Fortune (1975), The Big Bus (1976), The Cheap Detective (1978), Heartburn (1986), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), Up Close & Personal (1996), Practical Magic (1998), and Woody Allen's Anything Else (2003).

After some small parts in feature films, Channing co-starred with Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson in Mike Nichols' The Fortune (1975).

Despite Channing being tagged "the next big thing" in cinema, and the actress herself considering this some of the best work of her career, the movie did poorly at the box office and did not prove to be the breakthrough role Channing hoped it would be.

On May 22, 1977, she, along with Ned Beatty, starred in the pilot for the short-lived TV series Lucan.

Lucan, played by Kevin Brophy, is a 20-year-old who has spent the first 10 years of his life running wild in the forest.

After being raised by wolves, Lucan strikes out on his own in search of his identity.

In 1977, at the age of 33, Channing was cast for the role of high school teenager Betty Rizzo in the hit musical Grease.

She played Betty Rizzo in the film Grease (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing (1999–2006).

The film was released in 1978 and her performance earned her the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Supporting Actress.

Channing starred in two short-lived sitcoms on CBS in 1979 and 1980: Stockard Channing in Just Friends and The Stockard Channing Show.

In both shows, she co-starred with actress Sydney Goldsmith, who played her best friend in both.

When her Hollywood career faltered after these failures, Channing returned to her theatre roots.

Channing played the female lead in the Broadway show, They're Playing Our Song (1980–81).

Channing then took the part of the mother (Sheila) in the 1981 Long Wharf Theater (New Haven) production of Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.

Nevertheless, she continued to appear in movies, often in supporting roles, including 1983's Without a Trace (alongside Kate Nelligan and Judd Hirsch), Mike Nichols' 1986 Heartburn (re-teaming with Nichols and Jack Nicholson, and co-starring Meryl Streep), The Men's Club (also 1986; featuring Roy Scheider, Harvey Keitel, and Jennifer Jason Leigh), A Time of Destiny (1988; with William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, and Melissa Leo), and Staying Together (1989; directed by Lee Grant, and co-starring Melinda Dillon and Levon Helm.)

Channing won the 1985 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the Broadway revival of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, and won Emmy Awards for The West Wing and The Matthew Shepard Story, both in 2002.

She reprised the role in the Roundabout Theater Company production, first Off-Broadway in January 1985 and then on Broadway in March 1985, and won the 1985 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Channing continued her return to the stage by teaming up again with playwright John Guare.

She received Tony Award nominations for her performances in his plays, The House of Blue Leaves (1986) and Six Degrees of Separation (1990), for which she also won an Obie Award.

The Alan Ayckbourn play Woman in Mind received its American premiere Off-Broadway in February 1988 at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

The production was directed by Lynne Meadow and the cast included Channing in the role of Susan, for which she won a Drama Desk Award for Best Actress.

She also originated the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation; the 1993 film version earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

She was also one of two comic foils of The Number Painter on Sesame Street.

She won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2004 for her role in Jack.

She also played the recurring role of Veronica Loy on the CBS drama The Good Wife (2012–16).

Channing was born in Manhattan, and she grew up on the Upper East Side.