Constance Towers facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Constance Towers
Towers in 1960
Born	(1933-05-20) May 20, 1933 (age 92) Whitefish, Montana, U.S.
Alma mater	Juilliard School
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1952–present
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Spouse(s)	Eugene McGrath ​ ​ (m. 1959; div. 1966)​ John Gavin ​ ​ (m. 1974; died 2018)​
Children	2

Constance Mary Towers (born May 20, 1933) is an American actress and singer. She has worked in movies, on stage, and on television. She became well-known in the 1950s for her movie roles. Later, she moved to theater, starring in many Broadway shows throughout the 1970s. She has also been nominated for two Emmy Awards.

Starting in 1965, Constance began her theater career. Her first Broadway show was the musical Anya. She also appeared in Show Boat in 1966. Throughout the 1970s, she starred in four other Broadway shows. Her most famous role was Anna in The King and I in 1977 and 1978. Later in her career, she mostly worked in television. She played Clarissa McCandless on the TV show Capitol from 1982 to 1987. She also played the famous villain Helena Cassadine on General Hospital, starting in 1997.

Early Life and Beginnings

Constance Towers was born on May 20, 1933, in Whitefish, Montana. She was one of two daughters. Her father, Harry J. Towers, was a pharmacist, and her mother was Ardath L. Towers. Her mother was from Nebraska and had Irish family. Her father was from Dublin, Ireland, and moved to the United States. When Constance was young, her family moved around western Montana, living in Whitefish, Missoula, and Kalispell. They also lived in Moscow, Idaho.

In 1940, when Constance was in first grade, talent scouts found her. They were visiting Montana to find child actors for radio shows. After this, her family moved to Seattle, Washington. For the next three years, she worked as a child radio actress on shows in the Pacific Northwest. When she was 11, a big movie studio, Paramount Pictures, offered her a contract. However, her parents decided not to accept it. At age 12, she worked at a small local movie theater in her hometown of Whitefish.

Later, her family moved to New York City. Her father got a job there as a leader for a medicine company. In New York, Constance went to the Juilliard School to study music. She also studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She learned to sing from a well-known voice teacher named Beverley Peck Johnson.

Constance's Career Journey

Early Film Roles (1955–1964)

Constance Towers in The Horse Soldiers (1959)

While studying at Juilliard, a film agent discovered Constance. She said she was "very lucky." An agent saw her and believed in her talent. One day, they were walking down Fifth Avenue, and the manager of the St. Regis Hotel asked if she could sing. Her agent said yes, and she was asked to perform in three weeks. She quickly learned songs, performed for critics, and got good reviews. That same night, a casting director from Columbia Pictures saw her. They flew her to Los Angeles to meet with Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia. She read lines with actor Jack Lemmon, and then they signed her to a contract.

Constance's first movie role was a smaller part in Bring Your Smile Along (1955). After that, she had another supporting role in the crime movie Over-Exposed (1956). Constance is quite tall, and at first, it was hard for her to get main roles in movies because of her height. In 1958, she got her first main role as Hannah Hunter in John Ford's Civil War movie The Horse Soldiers (1959). She starred alongside famous actors John Wayne and William Holden. The next year, she appeared in another John Ford movie, Sergeant Rutledge (1960), a Western movie that also looked at issues of race.

Constance Towers in Shock Corridor (1963)

In 1963, Constance had a supporting role in Samuel Fuller's thriller Shock Corridor (1963). This movie is about a journalist who goes undercover in a mental hospital to solve a mystery.

In 1964, Constance appeared in the thriller Fate Is the Hunter, which is about investigating a plane crash. She also worked as a model for a fashion show to help the Heart Fund. Between 1961 and 1965, she made five guest appearances on the TV show Perry Mason.

Theater Focus (1965–1990)

Constance Towers in a Broadway production of The King and I, 1977

After several roles in movies, TV, and stage shows, Constance made her Broadway debut. She played the main role in Anya, a musical that didn't run for very long in 1965.

Constance played Julie in a 1966 production of Show Boat at Lincoln Center. She also starred in Carousel in 1966 and The Sound of Music in 1967. She played the role of Maria in The Sound of Music again in 1970, 1971, and 1980 at the Jones Beach Theater in New York.

She briefly played Anna Leonowens in The King and I in 1968. Later, she starred with Yul Brynner in a long-running return of The King and I. This show toured and then played on Broadway from 1976 to 1978. Critics loved her performance, and one theater writer called her singing on the 1977 cast album "great."

In 1995, she played Phyllis in Stephen Sondheim's musical Follies.

From the mid-1960s to the 1990s, Constance mostly focused on theater. However, she still appeared in movies sometimes. In 1974, she starred in the TV movie Once in Her Life. For this role, she received a nomination for a special TV award called an Emmy. She also appeared on television as Marian Hiller in Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1971–72).

She had a main role as the kind widow Clarissa McCandless in Capitol (1982–87). She played against the tricky older woman Myrna Clegg. Clarissa tried to help her son succeed in politics and was the long-time love interest of Senator Mark Denning. For this part, she was nominated for a Soap Opera Digest Award.

Television and General Hospital (1991–Present)

Constance Towers during a visit to the set of General Hospital in 2011

Constance had a supporting role in the movie The Next Karate Kid (1994). She also appeared on TV as Audrey North on The Young and the Restless (1996). Later, she played Madame Julianna Deschanel on Sunset Beach (1997). In 1998, Constance had supporting roles in the horror movie The Relic (1997) and the thriller A Perfect Murder (1998). In A Perfect Murder, she played the mother of Gwyneth Paltrow's character.

Constance's most famous soap opera role is as the villain Helena Cassadine on General Hospital. She started playing Helena in late 1997. Even after her character's death in 2015, Constance made guest appearances in 2016, 2017, 2019, and February 2020. In October 2020, Constance briefly played Helena again in a voice-only role.

Constance also made a guest appearance in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Forsaken" in 1993. She appeared in other TV shows like Designing Women, Frasier, Baywatch, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Other TV roles include State Trooper, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, L.A. Law, The 4400, and Cold Case.

In 2008, Constance starred in a Los Angeles show called Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.

Personal Life

Constance was first married to Eugene McGrath from 1959 until they divorced in 1966. In 1974, she married actor John Gavin, who later became an ambassador to Mexico. Constance has two children from her first marriage. She also has two stepchildren from her marriage to John Gavin. John Gavin passed away on February 9, 2018.

Constance is the chairwoman of the board of directors for the Blue Ribbon group at the Los Angeles Music Center.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage Credits