Mimi Kennedy
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Kennedy is a cousin by marriage to actress Ruth Warrick.
"Kennedy makes an excellent soulless meanie." --Ken Tucker in Entertainment Weekly.
Biography
A comic actress who also has excelled as steely, somewhat brittle women in dramas, Mimi Kennedy has been through the network TV wars, appearing in numerous short-lived series while building a reputation as a fine performer. She first won notice playing Jan in the Broadway musical "Grease" and by 1977 joined Debbie Allen and Ellen Foley as "Three Girls Three" (NBC), a critically-praised but short-lived program which was part variety, part sitcom. But it started Kennedy on the series path. She appeared in a supporting role in "Stockard Channing in Just Friends" (CBS, 1979) and was a regular on the short-lived variety program "The Big Show" (NBC, 1980). Kennedy went on to win praise as the career woman who hires Peter Cook to tidy up in the CBS series "The Two of Us" (1981-1982) and as mother to Chad Lowe's teen with tribulations "Spencer" (NBC, 1984-1985) She was married to Richard Libertini in "Family Man" (ABC, 1988) and was sister-in-law to Peter Onorati in "Joe's Life" (ABC, 1993).
Moving to drama, Kennedy had a recurring role on the CBS primetime soaps "Knots Landing," for which she was also a writer and story editor. She scored as the proper, bigoted Ruth Sloan in the cult hit "Homefront" (CBS, 1991-93) and played a variation on the role as a snobbish socialite in "Savannah" (The WB, 1996-97). Returning to sitcoms, Kennedy was cast as the mother of a free-spirited woman who marries a blueblood in the highly touted sitcom "Dharma & Greg" (ABC, 1997-2002).
While her TV-movie work began with "Thin Ice" (CBS, 1981), Kennedy is better recalled as the wife and mother of a practical joking family who finds the joke is on them in "Mr. Boggedy" (ABC, 1986), and its 1987 sequel. She also portrayed Patricia Kennedy Lawford in the miniseries "Robert Kennedy and His Times" (CBS, 1985). Her work in feature films has been limited. She did not begin appearing on the big screen until "Chances Are" (1989) and subsequently was mother to Harrison Mohr in "Immediate Family" (1989), and had small roles in "Pump Up the Volume" (1990), "Death Becomes Her" (1992) and "Buddy" (1997). In 1996, Kennedy published a memoir, "Taken to the Stage: The Education of an Actress," about working her way through casting couches and auditions to "working" status.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1972
Stage debut, "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers"
1975
Broadway debut in "Grease"
1977
TV series debut, NBC's "Three Girls Three"
1977
Off-Broadway debut, "Hot Grog"
1979
Appeared in supporting role on "Stockard Channing in Just Friends" (CBS)
1980
Cast as regular on the NBC variety series "The Big Show"
1981
Landed regular role on the CBS sitcom "The Two of Us"
1981
Made TV-movie debut in "Thin Ice" (CBS)
1984
Played mother to "Spencer" (NBC)
1986
Played the mother in "Mr. Boogedy" (ABC) and its 1987 sequel "Bride of Boogedy"
1988
Cast as series regular on "Family Man" (ABC)
1989
Feature film debut, "Chances Are"
1991
Guest starred on "Knots Landing" (CBS), also wrote episode titled "Gone Microfiching"
1991
Played steely Ruth Sloan on "Homefront" (ABC)
1993
Co-starred on "Joe's Life" (ABC)
1996
Published memoir <i>Taken to the Stage</i>
1996
Appeared as bitchy Eleanor Alexander on the primetime soap "Savannah" (The WB)
1997
Played recurring role on "Pacific Palisades" (Fox)
1997
Returned to sitcoms as regular on ABC's "Dharma & Greg"
2000
Landed featured role in "Erin Brockovich," directed by Steven Soderbergh
2006
Guest starred on "The Young and the Restless" (CBS)
2008
Cast as one of the storytellers in the biographical feature "A Single Woman"
2011
Appeared in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris"
2012
Cast opposite Jason Segel and Emily Blunt in romantic comedy "The Five-Year Engagement"
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Kennedy is a cousin by marriage to actress Ruth Warrick.
"Kennedy makes an excellent soulless meanie." --Ken Tucker in Entertainment Weekly.
"I'm passionate, and I really like intimacy and marriage." --Mimi Kennedy in Soap Opera Digest, February 1997.
