Oscar winner and several Emmy Cloris Leachman, best remembered as the delightfully neurotic Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and her own subsequent sitcom, died of natural causes on Tuesday in Encinitas, California. She was 94 years old.
“I was privileged to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time,” said her longtime agent Juliet Green. “There was no one like Cloris. With a single look, she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh until tears were streaming down your face. You never knew what Cloris was going to say or do and that unpredictable quality was part of his incomparable magic. “
The stupid, self-centered Phyllis, a character she claimed to be close to her own persona, brought the actress two Emmys as a prominent actress in a series in the mid-1970s and made Leachman a household name.
Leachman also won an Oscar for supporting actress at the beginning of the decade for a very different character, a bitter housewife from a small town on Peter Bogdanovich’s elegiac “The Last Picture Show”; later she would repeat the role in the film’s less successful sequence, “Texasville”. Both films were based on the writings of Larry McMurtry.
The actress’s overnight success, however, came only after two decades of hard work in the theater, on television and in some films. Leachman was in his 40s when stardom finally came.
Leachman’s perfect timing and ease of use in comedy and his unadorned honesty in the drama were the result of many years honing his craft and incorporating his own life experiences as a mother of five (by producer George Englund).
Her open, all-American look took her for several decades in a wide variety of roles on Broadway and the early years of television, as well as in more than 40 films, where she easily switched from leading roles to character roles.
The actress won a total of eight primetime Emmys, both drama and comedy, and a daytime Emmy.
Phyllis Lindstrom’s recurring character on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” not only made her a TV star, but also gave her time to land roles in films, including “Lovers and Other Strangers”, “The People Next Door”, “ WUSA ”and“ The Last Picture Show ”, which won him an Oscar for supporting actress in 1971, in a twist because of his nominated co-star, Ellen Burstyn. Two Emmys for the role of Phyllis were sold out next to one for drama in the ABC TV movie “A Brand New Life” (1973) and in 1975 took their own series, which lasted a few seasons.
Decades later, she was still working and flying high: Leachman was a competitor in the seventh season of “Dancing With the Stars” in 2008, becoming, at the age of 82, the oldest competitor to dance in the series, and she was the great Marshal of the 2009 New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
During the 1970s, she did well with Bogdanovich’s “Daisy Miller” and was hilarious in Mel Brooks’s “Young Frankenstein”; she also appeared on Brooks’ High Anxiety.
She received more interesting work to do on television. She won a fourth Emmy for a guest role in the variety series “Cher”, and she became a telepathic staple during the period and did TV productions for Lanford Wilson “The Migrants” and Dorothy Parker “Ladies of the Corridor” on PBS.
Emmys five and six would come to ABC’s Afterschool Special “The Woman Who Wished for a Miracle” in 1983 and to celebrate SAG’s 50th anniversary the following year.
She tried the regular work of the series again, getting along better with “The Facts of Life”.
Leachman continued to work on TV films, appearing in the miniseries “Backstairs at the White House” and “In Broad Daylight”, “Little Piece of Heaven”, “Fine Things”, “Deadly Intentions”, “The Oldest Living Graduate”, “Advice to Lovelorns”, “Miss All American Beauty”, “Dixie”, “Mrs. Daughter of R”, “Fade to Black”, “Between Love and Honor”, “Miracle Child” and “Double, Double, Labor and Trouble ”.
In 1996, she appeared on the tour version of “Showboat” in Los Angeles.
During the 1980s and 90s, Leachman worked intermittently on films, including “The History of the World Part I”, “Walk Like a Man” and the 1993 film version of “The Beverly Hillbillies” as Grandma.
She seemed to make the transition effortlessly and even embrace the grandmother roles she played in the 1990s and 2000s.
Leachman reappeared in “Malcolm in the Middle” from 2001-06 as Grandma Ida and won several Emmy nominations and two more Emmy Awards (in 2002 and 2006).
In 2003, she played her grandmother in the cinema in the romantic comedy “Alex and Emma” and in the darker comedy “Santa Claus”. She also did voice acting in animated films “Beavis and Butthead”, “A Troll in Central Park” and the 2008 English version of the Japanese anime “Ponyo”, as well as in “The Simpsons” on TV.
It was difficult to see any evidence that she was slowing down.
She was a regular on the series on Ellen DeGeneres’ brief vehicle “The Ellen Show” in 2001-02, recurring on “Touched by an Angel” and guest on “Diagnosis Murder”, “Joan of Arcadia”, “Two and a Half Men, ”“ The Office ”,“ Phineas and Ferb ”,“ Hawthorne ”and“ Blue Mountain State. ”In 2010-14, she was a regular on the Fox series“ Raising Hope ”, earning her 19th Emmy nomination. (She still appeared regularly on telepathic programs.)
On the big screen, she was much busier in the decade after 2000, when she was in the late 70s and early 80s, than in the previous decade.
His film credits during the period included (but were not restricted to) “Spanglish” (2004), “The Longest Yard” (2005), “Scary Movie 4” (2006), “Beerfest” (2006) and “The Women ( 2008). In the anthology photo (2009) “New York, I Love You”, she appeared in a touching but not sentimental segment, like an elderly woman dealing with the illnesses of her even older husband (Eli Wallach).
In 2011 and 2012, Leachman advanced on the silver screen in a wide range of photos, including “The Fields”, the comedy “Gambit”, the horror film “The Home” and action dramas like “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde” and “Timber Wolf.”
Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Leachman had work experience as a child at Des Moines Little Theater. At 15, she was appearing on local radio stations. She won a special scholarship to study drama at Northwestern, where she stayed for a while before returning to Des Moines to finish high school. She returned to Northwestern on a theater scholarship this time, but gave up and entered a beauty pageant, finally finding her way to the 1946 Miss America pageant.
Moving to New York, she landed a role in a quick movie, “Carnegie Hall”, and narrowly missed the lead role in the Broadway comedy “John Loves Mary” for Nina Foch. She studied at Actors Studio and made her Broadway debut in 1948 in the short-lived production “Sundown Beach”. She attracted attention as Cecilia in a production of the Theater Guild of “As You Like It”, with Katharine Hepburn, which lasted six months.
Her role in “A Story for Sunday Evening” brought her good news in 1950, and she starred on Broadway for eight months in the 1954 comedy Jean Kerr / Eleanor Brooke “King of Hearts”. She also played Nellie Forbush in a special “South Pacific” revival.
More constant training came on live television. She was a regular in the first series “Charlie Wild, Private Detective” (1950-52), and she excelled in bad girl roles. She also made appearances on TV series, including “Gunsmoke” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”.
During this period, she was seriously considered for the female lead in Charlie Chaplin’s bittersweet drama, Limelight, but the role went to Claire Bloom. She then got the role of a sexy ride in Robert Aldrich’s “Kiss Me Deadly”. She also landed a small role in Rod Serling’s 1956 film “The Rack”.
But television was much more conducive to motherhood, so she took on the role of a mother in the “Lassie” series. Other TV work included Tennessee Williams’ “The Migrants” and George Gershwin’s “The The I Sing”.
Leachman was included in the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011.
“Cloris: My Autobiography” was published in 2009. She wrote the best seller with George Englund, whom she divorced in 1979.
Survivors include sons Adam, George Jr. and Morgan, an actor; and a daughter, Dinah.
The family requests that any donations on their behalf be made to PETA or the Last Chance for Animals.