Pat Carroll
About
Biography
Filmography
Notes
"To play someone mean is heavenly." --Pat Carroll in the press materials for "The Little Mermaid"
"I think every time you start doing a play, it's like a ship cruise. We all book passage together. And each sailing is never the same. It can be the same ports of call, the same boat, the same cabin. But the people make the difference. People always make the difference. Different personalities, different inputs. We're all trying to discover this play at the same time." --Pat Carroll in LOS ANGELES TIMES, January 22, 1989
Biography
With her short white-blond hair, gregarious laugh, and hulky frame, Pat Carroll has been delighting audiences for more than 50 years. But, truth be told, her TV work has merely been a means of financing a lifestyle that allowed her to pursue a regular career as a theater performer and director. She is perhaps best remembered as Bunny Halper, wife of nightclub owner Sid Melton, on "The Danny Thomas Show" (CBS, 1961-1964) and as the inveterate matchmaker to Doris Day in the feature "With Six You Get Eggroll" (1968). Younger audiences might recognized Carroll for her stage turn in "Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein," which she played on Broadway and at colleges around the USA, or, more likely, as the voice of the villainous Ursula in Disney's "The Little Mermaid" (1989).
Born in Louisiana and raised in Los Angeles, Carroll made her professional stage debut in 1947 alongside Gloria Swanson in "A Goose for the Gander." Heading East, she hit the nightclub circuit, debuting in the revue at Le Ruban Bleu in 1950. By the time she made her Broadway debut in "Catch a Star" in 1955, she was a recognized TV performer; Carroll was a sketch performer on "The Red Buttons Show" (CBS, 1952-1953), and "Saturday Night Revue" (NBC, 1954). "Caesar's Hour" (NBC, 1956-1957), on which she is best recalled for playing Carl Reiner's wife in ongoing sketches, earned her a Supporting Actress Emmy Award. For much of the decade, Carroll also appeared on many of the proliferating quiz and panel shows, including "Masquerade Party" (CBS, 1958) and "Keep Talking" (CBS, 1958-1959). Among her later small screen credits were turns as a motherly landlady to Bobby Sherman in the short-lived "Getting Together" (ABC, 1971-72), the overprotective mother of Adam Arkin in "Busting Loose" (CBS, 1977), a newspaper publisher and foil for the star in the syndicated "The Ted Knight Show" (1986) and Suzanne Somers' mother on the syndicated sitcom "She's the Sheriff" (1987). As a guest performer, she was particularly memorable on a 1971 episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (CBS) playing an unpleasant woman with whom Mary Richards shares a hospital room and a generation recalled her as the Wicked Stepmother to Lesley Ann Warren's "Cinderella" (CBS, 1966). More recently, Carroll was utterly charming as a talkative ticket seller at an old movie palace with dreams of dancing on stage one more time in the American Movie Classics original drama "The Royale" (1997).
For much of the 80s and 90s, Carroll has been performing onstage, notably at Washington, DC's The Shakespeare Theatre. After a well-received turn as the Nurse in "Romeo and Juliet" the veteran actress made theatrical history playing Sir John Falstaff in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in 1990. Carroll tackled Brecht's "Mother Courage" in 1993 and then donned trousers again for a go at the title role of Ben Jonson's "Volpone" in 1996.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1947
Made professional stage debut in "A Goose For the Gander"
1950
Made New York cabaret debut at Le Ruban Bleu
1952
Appeared as regular on first series, "The Red Buttons Show" (CBS)
1954
Was regular on NBC's "Saturday Night Revue"
1955
Broadway debut, "Catch a Star"
1958
Made appearances as a panelist on "Masquerade Party" (CBS)
1961
Appeared as a panelist on CBS' "You're in the Picture"
1966
Cast as the Wicked Stepmother in "Cinderella" (CBS)
1968
Had memorable feature role in "With Six You Get Eggroll"
1972
TV-movie debut, "Second Chance" (ABC)
1977
Cast as Adam Arkin's overprotective mother on teh short-lived CBS sitcom "Busting Loose"
1986
Did voices for animated series "Galaxy High" and "Foofur"
1986
Returned to series TV as foil to Ted Knight in the syndicated sitcom "The Ted Knight Show"
1989
Voiced the character of Ursula in Disney's "The Little Mermaid"
1990
Played Falstaff in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" at The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC
1992
Did character voices for the animated series "Disney's The Little Mermaid" (CBS)
1996
Played title role in Washington, DC, production of "Volpone"
1997
Starred in the original American Movie Classics (AMC) drama "The Royale"
1998
Returned to Broadway as the Chorus in a revival of Sophocles' "Electra"
2000
Had supporting role as a mountain woman in the Sundance-screened "Songcatcher"
Family
Bibliography
Notes
"To play someone mean is heavenly." --Pat Carroll in the press materials for "The Little Mermaid"
"I think every time you start doing a play, it's like a ship cruise. We all book passage together. And each sailing is never the same. It can be the same ports of call, the same boat, the same cabin. But the people make the difference. People always make the difference. Different personalities, different inputs. We're all trying to discover this play at the same time." --Pat Carroll in LOS ANGELES TIMES, January 22, 1989
"I'm very grateful for TV because it's allowed me to do my theatre. I'm very honest about the TV work; I try not to bite the hand that feeds me so nicely. Well, not too much." --Carroll to LOS ANGELES TIMES, January 22, 1989
