Stockard Channing facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Stockard Channing
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Channing in 1984
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| Born |
Susan Antonia Williams Stockard
February 13, 1944 New York City, U.S.
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| Education | Radcliffe College of Harvard University (BA) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Walter Channing Jr.
(m. 1963; div. 1967)Paul Schmidt
(m. 1970; div. 1976)David Debin
(m. 1976; div. 1980)David Rawle
(m. 1980; div. 1988) |
| Partner(s) | Daniel Gillam (1990–2014) |
Stockard Channing (born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard; February 13, 1944) is a famous American actress. She is well-known for playing Betty Rizzo in the popular movie Grease (1978). She also played First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the TV show The West Wing (1999–2006).
Stockard Channing first played the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation. She then starred in the 1993 movie version, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1985 for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. She also won Emmy Awards for her roles in The West Wing and The Matthew Shepard Story in 2002. In 2004, she won a Daytime Emmy Award for her part in the movie Jack.
Contents
About Stockard Channing
Early Life and School
Stockard Channing was born in Manhattan, New York City. She grew up in a part of the city called the Upper East Side. Her mother, Mary Alice, came from a large Irish Catholic family. Her father, Lester Napier Stockard, worked in the shipping business. Stockard also has an older sister, Lesly Stockard Smith, who used to be the mayor of Palm Beach, Florida.
Stockard Channing went to the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, which is a boarding school for girls. Before that, she attended the Chapin School in New York City. She later studied history and literature at Radcliffe College of Harvard University in Massachusetts. She graduated with high honors in 1965. She learned how to act at HB Studio in New York City.
Starting Her Acting Career
Stockard Channing began her acting journey with an experimental theater group in Boston. She performed in an Off-Broadway play called Adaptation/Next in 1969. In 1971, she made her first appearance on Broadway in a musical called Two Gentlemen of Verona — The Musical.
She also appeared on the children's TV show Sesame Street. Her first main role on TV was in the 1973 movie The Girl Most Likely To.... In this movie, she played a woman who gets plastic surgery after an accident and plans to get back at people who were mean to her. For this role, she had to look very different, with special makeup to make her look "ugly" at first.
After some smaller movie roles, Stockard Channing starred with Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson in the movie The Fortune (1975). Even though she was seen as a rising star, the movie did not do well.
Becoming a Star with Grease
In 1977, when she was 33, Stockard Channing was chosen to play Betty Rizzo in the musical movie Grease. The film came out in 1978 and became a huge hit. Her performance as the tough high school teenager earned her the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Supporting Actress.
During the late 1970s, she also played other interesting roles. She was a car thief in Sweet Revenge (1976). She also appeared in the comedy The Big Bus (1976) and The Cheap Detective (1978). In 1979, she played real-life deaf stuntwoman Kitty O'Neil in the TV movie Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story.
Acting in the 1980s
After some TV shows that didn't last long, Stockard Channing went back to her theater roots. She continued to appear in movies, often in smaller but important roles. These included Heartburn (1986) with Meryl Streep, and Staying Together (1989).
On Broadway, she starred in They're Playing Our Song (1980–81). She also won a Tony Award in 1985 for her role in the play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. She received more Tony Award nominations for her roles in the plays The House of Blue Leaves (1986) and Six Degrees of Separation (1990). For Six Degrees of Separation, she also won an Obie Award.
Stockard Channing also gained recognition for her TV work in the 1980s. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for the miniseries Echoes in the Darkness (1987). She won a CableACE Award for the TV movie Tidy Endings (1988).
Success in the 1990s
Stockard Channing played her lead role again in the movie version of Six Degrees of Separation. Her performance earned her nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She then appeared in several other films, including To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and Smoke (both 1995). She also had roles in Up Close and Personal and Moll Flanders (both 1996).
She stayed busy with movies, TV, and stage roles throughout the late 1990s. She starred in the TV films An Unexpected Family (1996) and its sequel, An Unexpected Life (1998). She also provided the voice for Barbara Gordon in the animated series Batman Beyond.
Stockard Channing was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress three times in the 1990s. These nominations were for Six Degrees of Separation (1991), Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (1992), and The Lion in Winter (1999).
The West Wing Role
In 1999, Stockard Channing took on the role of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC TV show The West Wing. She started as a recurring guest star for the first two seasons. By 2001, she became a regular cast member. In the final season of The West Wing (2005–2006), she appeared in fewer episodes because she was also starring in another TV show called Out of Practice on CBS.
Recent Work
Stockard Channing received several awards in 2002. She won an Emmy Award for her work on The West Wing. In the same year, she won another Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for playing Judy Shepard in The Matthew Shepard Story. This movie was about Matthew Shepard's life.
In 2002, she also won the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for her role in the film The Business of Strangers. In 2003, she received the Lucy Award from Women in Film.
In 2005, Channing won a Daytime Emmy Award for her role in Jack (2004). This Showtime TV movie was about a young man trying to understand why his father left the family. Channing played Jack's mother.
In 2008, she became the narrator for the TV series Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet. She returned to Broadway in 2008 in the musical Pal Joey. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 for this role.
From 2012 to 2016, Stockard Channing had a recurring role in The Good Wife. She played Veronica Loy, the mother of the main character. She also continued to perform on stage, including in the play Other Desert Cities in 2011, for which she received more Tony Award nominations. In 2023, she appeared in the ITV series “Maryland.”
Personal Life
Stockard Channing has been married four times. She does not have any children. She kept the name "Stockard Channing" after her first marriage ended in 1967. She was in a long-term relationship with cinematographer Daniel Gillham from 1990 until he passed away in 2014. In 2019, Stockard Channing was living in London.
Filmography
Discography
- 1978: Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture (RSO)
"Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" featuring Didi Conn, Dinah Manoff and Jamie Donnelly
"There Are Worse Things I Could Do"
Awards and Nominations
