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Beatrice Straight 1914 - 2001

Beatrice Straight of Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, CA was born on August 2, 1914, and died at age 86 years old on April 7, 2001.

Beatrice Straight

Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, CA 90403

August 2, 1914

April 7, 2001

Female

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Beatrice Straight Beatrice Straight (1914 - 2001)

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Beatrice Straight's History: 1914 - 2001

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08/2

1914

Birthday

August 2, 1914

Birthdate

Unknown

Birthplace

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Professional Career

Beatrice Straight Highest Rated: 91% Network (1976) Lowest Rated: 17% Two of a Kind (1983) Birthday: Aug 2, 1914 Birthplace: Old Westbury, New York, USA A classically trained actress with extensive stage experience, Beatrice Straight made her mark on film late in her career, but did so with indelible performances that made the most of her keen intelligence and aristocratic manner. A member of the now legendary Group Theater from its inception, Straight won a Tony award for Best Actress in 1953 for her performance as Elizabeth Proctor in "The Crucible." She also worked frequently in television, beginning in the medium's early live broadcast era and appearing consistently in TV movies and series until the end of the 1980s. She had appeared in just four feature films before she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Louis Schumacher in Sydney Lumet's "Network" (1975). Straight held the record for the briefest performance to win an Oscar - a scant five minutes and 40 seconds of screen time. Regardless, in a dazzling display of acting prowess, Straight portrayed the full gamut of the devastated Schumacher's emotions in a single, intense scene in which her husband, (William Holden), confesses to an affair. The Oscar win brought Straight greater recognition, but also typecast the versatile actress for the first time in her career. From that point, she predominantly played severe matriarchal roles, such as the brittle Dr. Lesh in "Poltergeist" (1982). Having honed her craft in a long and celebrated stage career, Beatrice Straight established a remarkable screen presence as a character actress with finely drawn performances that were as powerful as they were rare.
04/7

2001

Death

April 7, 2001

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Unknown
Death location

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Obituary

Beatrice Straight, Versatile Star, Dies at 86 By Mel Gussow April 11, 2001 Beatrice Straight, a graceful and versatile actress who won both an Oscar and a Tony Award, died on Saturday in North Ridge, Calif. She was 86 and lived in Beverly Hills, Calif., for most of the last 10 years. Because she came from a wealthy family, the Whitneys (her mother was Dorothy Payne Whitney), she never had to act for a living but was dedicated to the art of theater. When she became successful, she continued to choose roles for their challenges rather than for their ability to further her career. Onstage and in films, Ms. Straight projected a dignified image with strong emotional undercurrents. She was believably convincing in whatever role she undertook, acting in classics as well as contemporary plays and movies. In the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller's ''Crucible'' in 1953, she was the essence of Elizabeth Proctor. Reviewing the play in The New York Times, Brooks Atkinson said that both Ms. Straight and her co-star, Arthur Kennedy, were superb, adding that in performance, she was ''reserved, detached, above and beyond the contention.'' That role earned her a Tony as best supporting actress. In 1977, she won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Sidney Lumet's ''Network'' as the wife of William Holden's character Spurns. The role was brief but noticeable, behind the dramatic fireworks, a familiar place for Ms. Straight. She had various roles in plays by Shakespeare, Shaw, Chekhov, Ibsen and Tennessee Williams. In 1982 she scored another film success in ''Poltergeist'' as a psychologist moonlighting as a parapsychologist. Beatrice Whitney Straight was born in Old Westbury, N.Y. Her father, Willard Dickerman Straight, was a banker and former official in the State Department. She attended the Lincoln School in New York and Dartington Hall Community in Devonshire, England, a school founded by her mother and stepfather, Leonard Elmhirst. She made her Broadway debut in 1935 in ''Bitter Oleander.'' After she persuaded Michael Chekhov, Chekhov's nephew, to join her in forming an acting school and company, the Dartington Hall Players in England, they brought the troupe to the United States, where she performed in Shakespeare. Then she continued on Broadway as Olivia in ''Twelfth Night,'' Emily Dickinson in ''Eastward in Eden'' and Lady Macduff in ''Macbeth,'' with Michael Redgrave. In 1948 she succeeded Wendy Hiller as Catherine Sloper in the Broadway production of ''The Heiress,'' an adaptation of Henry James's ''Washington Square'' in which she played opposite Peter Cookson. After the run, she and Mr. Cookson married. It was a second marriage for both. In 1950 Ms. Straight played the governess in ''The Innocents,'' an adaptation of James's ''Turn of the Screw'' produced by Mr. Cookson. In his Times review, Mr. Atkinson said that Ms. Straight acted ''with force, sensitivity and old-fashioned charm, in a style that Henry James would have been compelled to applaud.'' She continued to act on and off Broadway, playing opposite Richard Kiley in Robert Ardrey's ''Sing Me No Lullabies'' and opposite Van Heflin in the Broadway version of Rod Serling's television play ''Patterns.'' She also had the title role in Racine's ''Phèdre.'' In 1967 she was in ''Everything in the Garden,'' Edward Albee's adaptation of a play by Giles Cooper. In 1973 she played Mrs. Alving in a Roundabout Theater production of Ibsen's ''Ghosts'' and in 1979 was Gertrude to William Hurt's Hamlet at the Circle Repertory Company. Among her many television appearances, she was Goneril to Orson Welles's King Lear in an abbreviated version of the play on ''Omnibus,'' and Rose Kennedy in ''Robert Kennedy and His Times.'' In 1986 she was in Mr. Lumet's film ''Power'' and in 1991 played Goldie Hawn's mother in ''Deceived.'' Throughout her life, Ms. Straight was also a producer and teacher. As a founder of Theater Incorporated, she was instrumental in bringing the Old Vic, with Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, to the United States. In 1981 she helped revive Michael Chekhov's School of Theater in New York. Ms. Straight's husband died in 1990. She is survived by her sons, Gary Cookson, an actor in New York, and Tony Cookson, a writer and director in Santa Monica, Calif.; two stepchildren, Peter Cookson Jr. of Irvington, N.Y., and Jane Coopland of Hawaii; a brother, Michael Straight of Chicago, a former deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Despite her patrician background, Ms. Straight always regarded herself as a working actress. ''I may have been born in society,'' she once said, ''but I was never part of anything but theater.''

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Beatrice Straight lived 13 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 86.

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