On stage, on television and, finally, in cinema, there was no shortage of the irrepressible Cloris Leachman, who died on Wednesday at the age of 94. She was a multifaceted artist who became best known for her barrier-free comedy. But that same opening left room for moments of disarming the sensibility and the heart.
She was also the rare artist to reach the peak of her midlife career, with her role as Phyllis Lindstrom on the groundbreaking “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and her Oscar winner on “The Last Picture Show”. Still decades later, she proved to be durable enough to cut a rug in “Dancing With the Stars” at age 82 and continued to perform in her 90s.
Although some of Leachman’s notable roles are not available for broadcast in the United States, such as his notable appearance in the 1955 classic noir “Kiss Me Deadly”, most of his major works are easy to prove. Although she is perhaps best remembered for her collaborations with James L. Brooks, Mel Brooks and Peter Bogdanovich, Leachman also thrived on voice work for animated films, including two for Studio Ghibli, and seemed willing to go to greater comic extremes than ever. as he got older. These seven films and three TV series show their versatility and moxie.
‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ (1970-1975)
On the groundbreaking sitcom by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns about Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore), an independent single woman working behind the scenes on a Minneapolis TV news, Phyllis de Leachman is an agent of chaos, constantly invading and overthrowing Dia From Maria. Phyllis and her invisible dermatologist husband are the owners of Mary and her best friend, Rhoda (Valerie Harper), and she has a tendency to pry into her business, upsetting Rhoda especially with her fickle arrogance. Leachman’s appearances are heavily influenced by the show’s first two seasons, but his performance was enough to earn him a few Emmys and the spinoff hit “Phyllis”, which ended the same week as the main show.
Leachman won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance on “The Last Picture Show”, incorporating the sadness and quiet despair that permeates Peter Bogdanovich’s elegance for a dying city in northern Texas. Like Ruth Popper, the bored wife of an idiotic football coach, Leachman plays a southern flower that is dying on the vine until she joins Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), a senior in high school with limited sexual experience. Ruth seems to know her role in Sonny’s coming of age story, but she is not prepared for the inevitable conclusion, which Leachman notes as the latest in a series of lifelong disappointments.
Rent in Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Voodoo and Youtube.
‘Daisy Miller’ (1974)
After following “The Last Picture Show” with “What’s Up, Doc?” and “Paper Moon”, Peter Bogdanovich’s successful sequel ended with this problematic adaptation of Henry James’s novel “Daisy Miller”. But the film’s reputation has improved over time, driven by the serious-comic treatment of a cheeky American flirtation (Cybill Shepherd) in Europe and its trampling of social mores. Leachman’s role as the young woman’s mother carries some of her character’s shyness in “The Last Picture Show”, but here it is covered by a nervous conversation that is hardly less common and evident in her upper crust surroundings.
Rent in Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Voodoo and Youtube.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
The most associated running gag with Leachman in the parody of Mel Brooks’ Universal monster movie requires little acting on her part, but shows her presence as a severe German housekeeper that all horses neigh in terror whenever anyone speaks the name of Frau Blücher. Blücher’s roots at Frankenstein’s Transylvania estate are explained in hilarious and dramatic ways later, but in the meantime, his dedication to Dr. Frankenstein’s (Gene Wilder) crazy vision and his monstrous upbringing (Peter Boyle) is unparalleled. She is also ready to offer Herr Doctor a brandy before he retires to sleep. Or some warm milk. Or Ovomaltine.
A young Jonathan Demme (“Silence of the Lambs”) had not yet enrolled in Roger Corman’s film school when he agreed to direct this low-budget production of Corman in a short time. But he and a cheeky Leachman, in a rare lead role, play the material at all costs. Although it was a follow-up to “Bonnie & Clyde” “Big Bad Mama”, “Crazy Mama” emphasizes the comedy about violent chaos, while three generations of Stokes women, led by Melba Stokes (Leachman), embark on a crime continuous spree from California to his ancestral home in Arkansas. Nothing about the film (or Leachman’s performance) is underestimated, but he has an affectionately cheerful spirit, underlined by an incredible 50’s rock soundtrack.
Broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.
‘Castle in the Sky’ (1986)
Throughout the second half of his career, Leachman was a vocal talent sought after in animated films, with vocals in films such as “My Little Pony: The Movie”, “The Iron Giant” and “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. But Leachman also contributed substantive work in English dubbing of Hayao Miyazaki’s 2009 fantasy “Ponyo” and his groundbreaking film “Castle in the Sky”, a fascinating steampunk adventure about the search for a floating castle. Like Dola, the bossy leader of a band of air pirates, Leachman initially suggests a threatening opponent. However, as more is revealed about Dola’s motives, the character’s hidden nobility transforms our heroes (and the viewer).
Broadcast on HBO Max.
‘Spanish’ (2004)
More than 30 years after working together on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, Leachman and writer-director James L. Brooks rejoined for this romantic comedy about the relationship between a laid-back and rich chef (Adam Sandler) and a Mexican single mother who gets a job as a nanny and family housekeeper (Paz Vega). Leachman plays the drunk mother of Sandler’s nervous wife (Téa Leoni), which usually gives her the opportunity to throw sour jokes in the midst of a domestic breakdown. But she remains sober long enough at the end of the film to give her daughter urgent advice, and Leachman’s maternal seriousness at this point is as moving as it is unexpected.
Broadcast on To snap. Rent in Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Voodoo and Youtube.
‘Malcolm in the middle’ (2000-2006)
There are nuances of Frau Blücher in the recurring, Emmy-winning role of Leachman as Ida Welker, a totally evil grandmother of vaguely Eastern descent who occasionally appears to visit the Wilkersons, irritating and embarrassing them with her malice and intolerance. Leachman appeared periodically in episodes of the second season until the end of the series in the seventh, and she brought with her an air of toxic and manipulative narcissism that rivals that of Livia Soprano. In one episode, she sues her own daughter and son-in-law after slipping on a sheet in her garage; in another, she reveals all the Christmas presents she decided to take from her family for minor offenses. His cartoon villainy fits the tone of this fun comedy.
Throughout her career, Leachman was willing to do absolutely anything to laugh, so she felt right at home in this sassy comedy from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe (“Super Troopers”) about a secret Oktoberfest competition where teams compete for supremacy of the beer game. Dressed as a crazed Heidi, Leachman plays Great Gam Gam Wolfhouse, who is not ashamed to talk about her past as a prostitute or use a piece of summer sausage to demonstrate some tricks of the trade. It is a small part destined for shock, but Leachman’s lack of shame is totally disarming, a sharp contrast to the rudeness of the fraternity that surrounds him.
Broadcast on Hulu. Rent in Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Voodoo and Youtube.
‘Raising Hope’ (2010-2014)
While dementia “Maw Maw” in this eccentric working-class comedy, Leachman comes and goes from the bottom, smoking one cigarette after another, eating pickles from the pot and sometimes confusing her great-grandson Jimmy (Lucas Neff) with her dead husband. Only occasionally does Maw Maw become lucid enough to notice that his granddaughter Virginia (Martha Plimpton) and Virginia’s messy family are living in their dilapidated home without paying rent, raising the daughter Jimmy won from a one-night stand with a murderer in series. The paper calls Leachman as a primary source of his sitcom surrealism, counting on his willingness to represent embarrassing flourishes to the fullest.
Broadcast on Hulu. Buy in Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play and Voodoo.