Sex and the City Cheers Actress Toni Weiner Was 93 – The Hollywood Reporter

Frances Sternhagen, the multi-talented actress whose half-century on Broadway includes two Tony Awards, seven nominations and memorable roles in Equus, On the golden pond And The heiress, He died. She was 93 years old.

Sternhagen died peacefully on Monday of natural causes, according to her family.

“We continue to be inspired by her love and life,” the family statement obtained by the website said. Hollywood Reporter He said partly.

For all her success on stage, Sternhagen is perhaps best known for playing two mothers on television: HBO’s Blue-Blooded Rabbit McDougal; Sex and the City and NBC’s swashbuckling Esther Clavin Cheers. She received Emmy nominations for both shows.

Sternhagen specialized in portraying characters with an arrogant, courageous, and steadfast attitude. I enjoyed roles that were off the beaten track, and the more unusual and outlandish, the better.

“I have to say it’s fun to play these snobby older ladies. It’s always fun to be obnoxious,” Sternhagen said in a 2002 interview with The Sun. Los Angeles Times. “I have known women like that, and I think I can emulate them.”

Sternhagen received her first Tony in 1974 for her work on several stories in the original production of Neil Simon’s novel. The good doctorHe then won again in 1995 for his role as the widowed Aunt Lavinia opposite Cherry Jones in the revival of The heiress.

In the original 1979 Broadway production of On the golden pondShe received a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Ethel Thayer (Katherine Hepburn’s character in the film), and when Steel magnolia She debuted on Broadway in 2005, playing Cleary (Olympia Dukakis had the role in this film).

She was nominated again in 1996 for her role Equus Like Dora Strange, mother of an emotionally disturbed son (Peter Firth), as well The sign in Sidney Brustein’s window In 1972, angel In 1978 and Morning at seven In 2002.

Sternberger arrived as Esther Clavin in the series’ fifth season Cheers. Like her son, the mailman Cliff (John Ratzenberger), she has a tendency to uncover trivial, obscure facts. She also had a soft side… somewhat. “You are my pride and my joy. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me,” Esther told Cliff in her 1986 debut, adding in astonishment after a moment’s thought: “Oh my God, think about that.”

in Sex and the CityShe was hilarious as Bunny, whose protectiveness of her son Trey (Kyle MacLachlan) makes life hell for his new bride, Charlotte (Kristin Davis). Her sense of entitlement knows no bounds, as witnessed when she storms in on the newlyweds to deliver fresh cookies, only to find them in the midst of morning sex.

Executive producer Michael Patrick King said of the character: “She’s having an East Side kind of mental breakdown when she finds them.” “It’s my favorite scene. It’s the same episode where she sneaks into Trey’s bedroom at night when he’s got a cold and rubs Vicks VapoRub on his chest. Then Charlotte wakes up, and they’re both rubbing VapoRub on this guy’s chest. It’s about territoriality. Son is territory. It’s about Both sick and interesting, and Franny was ready for it.

Sternhagen also made an impression as Millicent “Gamma” Carter, the grandmother of John Carter (Noah Wyle), on NBC’s hit series. er and as Willie Ray Johnson, the steadfast mother of Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), on TNT. the closest.

Francis Hussey Sternhagen was born on January 13, 1930 in the District of Columbia. Her father, John M. Sternhagen, was a member of the U.S. Board of Tax Appeals before becoming a judge on the U.S. Tax Court. Her mother, Gertrude, was a socialite who worked as a nurse during World War I.

Sternhagen’s first taste of performing came when she made her father, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, laugh by imitating her classmates at the Potomac School. She also attended Madera, an all-girls prep school in McLean, Virginia, before attending Vassar College.

Sternhagen was pursuing a degree in history when her history professor asked her why she didn’t major in drama. She refused acting, believing that she should not study something she enjoyed so much. The teacher convinced her otherwise. “I guess I wasn’t a good historian,” she joked in a 1979 interview. New York times.

She is voted president of the college drama club after a thrilling performance as the main character in Richard II This culminated in her smashing a mirror in the middle of the dining hall.

After graduating in 1951, Sternhagen taught drama, music, and dance in Milton, Massachusetts. “The best part of the job was that it gave me a chance to show off to the kids,” she recalled.

After an unsuccessful audition for the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, she returned home and landed roles at the Arena Theater in Washington, DC Country wife And Our city.

Sternhagen made her Broadway debut in 1955 playing Miss T. Muse in a revival of the Thornton Wilder comedy. The skin of our teethStarring George Abbott, Helen Hayes and Mary Martin. A year later, she won an Obie Award for her performance in the film Wonderful Bashville In 1959, he co-starred with Gene Hackman in the film His Holiness Margery Kempe. (She has appeared in dozens of Off-Broadway plays, and in 2013 she received an Obie Award for her professional achievements.)

Sternhagen’s other Broadway credits include Great day in the morning In 1962, You know I can’t hear you when the water is running In 1967, Edward Albee all over In 1971, You can’t take it with you In 1983 and Seascapes In 2005.

She appeared on the big screen in 1967 as librarian Charlotte Wolfe Top of the bottom stairs Produced by Alan J. Pakula and later appeared in Starting over (1979) and See you in the morning (1989) also produced and directed by Pakula.

She was great as Doc Lazarus, who helped solve a series of murders at a remote outer space mining camp, in the sci-fi thriller. the outside (1981), which also includes her autobiography in the film The tiger comes out (1967), the hospital (1971), Bright lights, big city (1988), misery (1990), the fog (2007), Julie and Julia (2009), Dolphin tail (2011) and And so it is (2014).

Sternhagen appeared with Thomas A. Carlin (Scottish Greens goalkeeper Sandy McFedish in Caddyshack) in the 1955 Off-Broadway production Thieves’ carnival In Cherry Lane. They married the following year and were together until his death in 1991.

Survivors include her children, Paul and Amanda (Dr. Long On friends), Tony, Sarah, Peter and John.

During his return to Vassar in 2001, Sternhagen noted that by “working on the characters in the plays, I learned about myself, and about how people work.”

“Do what you love, whatever it is,” she added. “And if you’re able to make a living doing what you love to do, you’re very lucky.”

Her career and life are scheduled to be celebrated in mid-January, close to her 94th birthday.