Elizabeth Ashley
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Appointed to the President's first National Council on the Arts (1965-69).
On "Evening Shade": "I liked the series. Working with Charles Durning and Ossie Davis and such. We'd all been in the theatre so long, we'd done our Moliere, our Shakespeare. But when I'm in Los Angeles, I just tell myself I'm on location--a really long location." --Elizabeth Ashley in Daily News, October 10, 1995.
Biography
A gifted, spirited Broadway lead of the early 1960s ("Take Her She's Mine" 1961, "Barefoot in the Park" 1963), Elizabeth Ashley has also proven popular on talk shows where she has become a quick-talking raconteur with the edge of someone fraught, wrought and distraught.
Ashley spent more than two decades as a Broadway star before becoming known to TV audiences playing the eccentric Aunt Frieda on "Evening Shade" (CBS, 1990-94). While still a teen-ager when she made her Broadway debut in 1959 in "The Highest Tree," she was a mere 22 when she won a Tony for "Take Her, She's Mine." A nervous breakdown, about which she later wrote in her book, "Postcards From the Road" (1978), almost derailed her career, but she bounced back, starring on Broadway as the idealistic young bride to Robert Redford's slightly stuffy groom in Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" and has since gone on to shine as Maggie in the 1974 revival of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," the chain-smoking psychiatrist in "Agnes of God" and in revivals of "The Skin of Our Teeth" and "Caesar and Cleopatra." In 1995, she returned once again to Broadway (and Williams) portraying Violet Venable in "Suddenly Last Summer."
Ashley made her screen debut in "The Carpetbaggers" (1964), as the second of the women George Peppard loves and leaves on his way up the ladder. (They subsequently married after meeting on the film). In "Ship of Fools" (1965), she was a young married woman taking guidance from Vivien Leigh. Subsequent roles have been sporadic and decidedly supporting, including "The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday" (1976), "Paternity" (1981), and even "Dragnet" (1987).
Ashley first appeared on TV in a 1960 episode of "The Dupont Show of the Month" and appeared in numerous episodics during the decade, as well as doing celebrity player turns on such game shows as "Password." She even guest hosted NBC's "Saturday Night Live" in 1982. Ashley made her TV-movie debut "Harpy" (CBS, 1971) and has occasionally participated in the genre. She also appeared on the NBC soap opera "Another World" for a short period in 1990, but her most extensive TV work was the four seasons she was a member of the ensemble of "Evening Shade," alongside her "Paternity" co-star Burt Reynolds. In 1996, she was cast as the eccentric romantic novelist with whom Brooke Shield must contend on the NBC sitcom pilot "Suddenly Susan." It was later announced, however, that the show would be completely overhauled and taken in a new direction, and Ashley's character was dropped.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Producer (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1959
Off-Broadway debut (as Elizabeth Cole) in "Dirty Hands"
1959
Broadway debut (as Elizabeth Cole), "The Highest Tree"
1960
Made TV debut in "Dupont Show of the Month"
1961
Became Broadway star in "Take Her, She's Mine"; won Tony Award
1964
Film acting debut in "The Carpetbaggers"
1965
Temporarily retired from acting
1971
Made TV-movie debut in "Harpy" (CBS)
1971
Returned to films in "Marriage of a Young Stockbroker"
1972
Co-starred in the TV thriller "When Michael Calls" (ABC)
1974
Acted in "Rancho Deluxe", directed by Thomas McGuane
1974
Starred as Maggie in revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway
1977
Starred opposite Richard Crenna in the NBC movie "The War Between the Tates"
1978
Cast opposite Joel Fabiani in "Tom & Joanne" (CBS)
1981
Had supporting role in "Paternity", starring Burt Reynolds
1983
Portrayed a former lover of Peter O'Toole's titular "Svengali" (CBS)
1986
Acted in the loose remake of "Stagecoach" (CBS)
1987
Played the police commissioner in the film version of "Dragnet"
1989
Last major film for almost a decade "Vampire's Kiss"
1989
Acted in "Blues for Buder", a segment of ABC's "B.L. Stryker" starring Reynolds
1990
Had role as Emma Frame Ordway on the NBC daytime serial "Another World"
1995
Returned to Broadway in revival of "Suddenly Last Summer"
1998
Resumed film career in the role of a divorcee chasing after the unhappily married Ben Gazzara in "Happiness", directed by Todd Solondz
2000
Co-starred in the stage revival of Gore Vidal's "The Best Man"
2001
Portrayed Amanda Wingfield in the Hartford Stage revival of "The Glass Menagerie"; reprised role with slightly different cast at Houston's Alley Theatre
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Appointed to the President's first National Council on the Arts (1965-69).
On "Evening Shade": "I liked the series. Working with Charles Durning and Ossie Davis and such. We'd all been in the theatre so long, we'd done our Moliere, our Shakespeare. But when I'm in Los Angeles, I just tell myself I'm on location--a really long location." --Elizabeth Ashley in Daily News, October 10, 1995.
"I know most American girls grow up wanting to be movie stars. I grew up wanting to be 'a lady of the stage', whatever that was. But that's what I wanted to be. I'm not a guy so I can't become a wide receiver for the Raiders, but I like team sports. Competition frightens me. I like knowing what someone wants from me." --Ashley in Daily News, October 10, 1995.
"And then there's the theatre gossip, and I don't know who they're talking about. I'm a journeyman. I don't go out. I go to work. I don't go to restaurants. I've never understood the lure of voluntarily going out. In the night. Voluntarily submitting to imprisonment at a small table on an upright chair, and either the other people are too loud or else you are." --Elizabeth Ashley in The New York Times, October 8, 1995.
