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Sada Thompson 1927 - 2011

Sada Thompson of CT was born on September 27, 1927 in Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa United States. She was married to Donald Stewart in 1949, and they were together until Sada's death on May 4, 2011. Sada Thompson had a child Liza Stewart.
Sada Thompson
Southbury in CT
September 27, 1927
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa, United States
May 4, 2011
Danbury, CT
Female
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Sada Thompson's History: 1927 - 2011

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  • Introduction

    Sada Thompson Biography Born September 27, 1927 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA Died May 4, 2011 in Danbury, Connecticut, USA (lung disease) Birth Name Sada Carolyn Thompson Mini Bio (1) Renowned and highly respected actress Sada Thompson has earned critical acclaim both on stage and TV for her noble, strong-minded matrons, but her more challenging and compelling work has come when her characters have displayed darker, more neurotic tones. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, she was the eldest of three children of magazine editor Hugh Woodruff Thompson and his wife Corlyss Gibson. After a family move to New Jersey, Sada developed an interest in acting, performing in school plays. She subsequently studied drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Upon graduating in 1949, she began to build up her resume in regional stock and with repertory companies appearing in such productions as "Hay Fever", "The Little Foxes", "Born Yesterday", "The Clandestine Marriage" and "The Cocktail Party". Making her off-Broadway debut in 1955 with the first concert reading of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood", Sada won a 1957 Drama Desk award for her work in both The Misanthrope" and "The River Line" and, thereafter, started leaning heavily toward the classics -- "Much Ado About Nothing," "Othello," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "Twelfth Night," "The Tempest" and "Richard II" to name a few. The 1970s began exceptionally well, hitting her zenith with complex, transcending performances in both "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the Moon Marigolds" (earning both Drama Desk and Obie awards) and "Twigs," in which she captured the Tony (as well as Drama Desk, Obie and Sarah Siddons awards) in which she played four roles--three sisters and their elderly mother. This renewed attention for Sada finally lent itself to film and TV work. The dark-haired, somewhat plump-figured woman with classy but slightly offbeat features was not deemed marketable for film. So, despite adding distinctive support to the dramas Desperate Characters (1971) and The Pursuit of Happiness (1971), it was television that would garner her the attention she longed for and deserved. She won her first Emmy nomination playing Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln (1974) opposite Hal Holbrook's Honest Abe. The following year, she earned another nomination as Jack Lemmon's put-upon wife in The Entertainer (1975), a TV remake of the 1960 British film. The Emmy would finally come to her for her sensible mother role in the touching dramatic series Family (1976). As the proper, intelligent, slightly remote Kate Lawrence," mother of three, Sada became a TV symbol of strength, courage and integrity during the show's four seasons. She went on to receive two more Emmy nominations as Rhea Perlman's mother on Cheers (1982) and as accused California schoolteacher Virginia McMartin, on trial for sexual abuse, in the mini-movie Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995). The quality of her performance along with those of fellow actors James Woods, Shirley Knight and Henry Thomas (of E.T. fame), lent an air of distinction to the obvious tabloid-driven material. In addition to other socially-relevant mini-movies, Sada occasionally returned to her beloved theater roots. She won a second Sarah Siddons award for the title role in "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), and enjoyed a return to Broadway after nearly 20 years with "Any Given Day" in 1993. Elsewhere, her warm, soothing voice has been used frequently in documentary narratives and books-on-tape. Ms. Thompson, who lived in Connecticut with long-time husband (since 1949) Donald Stewart, had one daughter, Liza Stewart, a costume designer. She died in a Danbury hospital of lung disease on May 4, 2011, at age 83. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / [contact link] Spouse (1) Donald Stewart (18 December 1949 - 4 May 2011) ( her death) ( 1 child) Mother of Liza Stewart, a costume designer. Won Broadway's 1972 Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for "Twigs." She was nominated for a 1988 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for "Driving Miss Daisy" in Chicago, Illinois. As of March 2007 was living quietly with her husband of 58 years in rural Connecticut. Offered the role of the mother in the TV drama Sisters (1991), but turned it down.
  • 09/27
    1927

    Birthday

    September 27, 1927
    Birthdate
    Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa United States
    Birthplace
  • Nationality & Locations

    American
  • Professional Career

    Sada Thompson, Actress Known for Maternal Roles, Dies at 83 By BRUCE WEBERMAY 5, 2011 Sada Thompson, a Tony- and Emmy-winning actress known for her portrayals of archetypal mothers, from the loving family caretaker and the world-weary, had-it-with-the-kids older woman to the brutalizing harridan and mythical adulteress and murderess, died Wednesday in Danbury, Conn. She was 83. The cause was lung disease, said her daughter, Liza Sguaglia. Ms. Thompson had an unusual stage career in that she became a star in New York but was not often on Broadway. She made her name in the 1950s as Off Broadway came to prominence, in plays like “The Misanthrope” and Chekhov’s “Ivanov,” and throughout her career she performed in regional theater productions. But when she was on Broadway, she made an impression. She won a Tony in 1972 for playing four separate parts — three daughters and their aged mother — in the four vignettes that constitute George Furth’s “Twigs,” directed by Michael Bennett. Her tour de force performance was widely praised, but Ms. Thompson returned to Broadway only twice more, in short-lived shows. By then she had established herself as “one of the American theater’s finest actresses,” as Walter Kerr described her in The New York Times. She had distinguished herself on Broadway in Edward Albee’s sardonic “American Dream,” in which she played Mommy, the cartoonishly overwhelming wife of a spineless husband, and in Samuel Beckett’s bitterly comic “Happy Days.” Here she played Winnie, a woman facing inevitable doom — she spends the first act buried up to her waist and the second act up to her neck — with determined good cheer. “Yet beneath these bright superficials,” Clive Barnes wrote in The Times, “Miss Thompson was able to suggest something a good deal deeper, every so often permitting the enamel to crack, the brightness to darken, and letting us glimpse the piteous fears of mortality in Winnie’s heart.” Away from Broadway, her repertory expanded and her reputation grew. In 1970, in what was probably her star-making performance, she opened Off Broadway in “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” Paul Zindel’s melodrama about a slatternly, self-deluding and tormenting mother of two troubled daughters and the elderly boarder she cares for to pay the rent. In the summer of 1971 she appeared at the American Shakespeare Festival Theater in Stratford. Conn., as Christine Mannon, the Civil War-era equivalent of the vengeful Clytemnestra, in “Mourning Becomes Electra” by Eugene O’Neill. After “Twigs,” Ms. Thompson spent much of her time working in movies and especially on television. She played Mrs. Gibbs in the 1977 television film of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” with Hal Holbrook as the stage manager. Most notably, from 1976 to 1980 she starred as Kate Lawrence, the matriarch of an upper-middle-class family in Pasadena, Calif., in a landmark show, created by Jay Presson Allen, who had adapted “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” for the stage, and produced by Mike Nichols. Its title — “Family” — announced its intention: to be a simple presentation of the fundamental unit of American life. It largely succeeded, melding ordinary daily conflicts with the heightened drama necessary for television entertainment. “Family” dealt straightforwardly with issues like the marital problems of the Lawrences’ eldest daughter (played at the time by Meredith Baxter Birney); the discovery by the teenage son (Gary Frank) that his long-time best friend was gay; and the distress of the youngest daughter (Kristy McNichol) on overhearing her mother saying that she sometimes wished she hadn’t had her. “ ‘Family’ represents an extremely difficult television project in that it is trying to salvage the familiar stuff of soap opera for the less superficial probings of the contemporary drama,” John J. O’Connor wrote in The Times during its first season, adding that Ms. Thompson and James Broderick, who played her husband, “achieved a remarkable combination of low-keyed intensity and powerful impact.” Sada Thompson, center, with the cast of the show “Family.” Credit Everett Collection Ms. Thompson was nominated for an Emmy four times in the show’s five seasons, winning in 1978. Sada Carolyn Thompson was born in Des Moines on Sept. 27, 1927. When she was a girl, her family moved to Fanwood, N.J., where her father, Hugh, became an editor of Turkey World and other farm journals. Sada discovered the power of storytelling when her mother, Corlyss, took her to the movie “The Man Who Played God,” and she was turned toward acting when her parents took her to the Cole Porter musical “Red, Hot and Blue.” “That was it,” Ms. Thompson recalled in 1971. “To me it was total enchantment. I had to be part of it.” She graduated with a drama degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh (now Carnegie Mellon University), and she and some fellow students started a summer stock company in Mashpee, Mass. Eventually she and Donald Stewart, whom she met at school and married, moved to New York, where her first professional credit was in 1953, in the original reading of “Under Milkwood,” Dylan Thomas’s poetic rendering of life in a Welsh town, directed by Thomas himself. “His idea of rehearsals was to hear one reading and say, ‘Perfect, let’s go out for a beer,’ but he was a kind, courteous gentleman,” she once said. Ms. Thompson lived in Southbury, Conn. In addition to her daughter, of Burbank, Calif., her survivors include her husband, a former executive for Pan American Airlines, and a brother, David, of Gloversville, N.Y. Her career was peppered with performances in classic works in far-flung theaters. She starred with Elizabeth Taylor in Lillian Hellman’s “Little Foxes” in London, toured Scandinavia with the Scandinavian Theater Company in Wilder’s “Skin of Our Teeth” and played Lady Macbeth at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. “I’d miss not being able to tell a story every night,” she once said, describing why she was loath to give up the stage or the screen. “That really thrills me, that is the greatest! Thousands of years ago, when some caveman told his family about the fight he had that day with a dinosaur, and, in the telling, became the dinosaur, and became himself in the fight — well, there’s your first actor.” An obituary on Friday about the actress Sada Thompson misidentified the character she played in a 1977 television production of “Our Town.” It was Mrs. Gibbs, not Mrs. Webb.
  • Personal Life & Family

    Sada Thompson Born Sada Carolyn Thompson September 27, 1927, Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. Died May 4, 2011 (aged 83) Danbury, Connecticut, U.S. Education Carnegie Mellon University (BFA) Occupation Actress Years active 1955–2000 Spouse Donald Stewart (1949–2011; her death) Children 1 Sada Carolyn Thompson (September 27, 1927 – May 4, 2011) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She was known to television audiences as Kate Lawrence in Family (1976-1980). Life and career She was born Sada Carolyn Thompson in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1927 to Hugh Woodruff Thompson and his wife Corlyss (née Gibson). The family moved to Fanwood, New Jersey a few years later. where she attended Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, graduating in the class of 1945. Thompson earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now known as Carnegie Mellon University), after which she worked steadily in regional theatre in such plays as The Seagull, Pygmalion, Our Town, Arms and the Man, and Blithe Spirit. She received training at Pittsburgh Playhouse, where she appeared in numerous productions. She made her Off-Broadway debut in a 1955 production of Under Milkwood, and the following year she appeared on television in a Goodyear Television Playhouse production. She made her Broadway debut in the 1959 musical Juno. Her additional New York City stage credits include The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Tartuffe, and Twigs. Her stage performances won her an Obie Award, a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (for "Twigs"), three Drama Desk Awards, and two Sarah Siddons Awards (the last presented for outstanding performances in Chicago theatre). She was elected to the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2005. On the strength of her success in Twigs, Thompson was signed to play neighbor Irene Lorenzo on All in the Family. After taping her first episode, however, she was replaced by Betty Garrett, when it became obvious that she and producer Norman Lear had different opinions about how the character should be played. She was subsequently cast as matriarch Kate Lawrence on Family. Thompson's portrayal of Kate was lauded for its realism. She won the 1978 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the role, which also garnered three nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama. She was nominated for the Emmy Award nine times, including a nomination for her portrayal of Carla's mother on Cheers. Thompson's additional television credits included Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, The Love Boat, Father Dowling Mysteries, Andre's Mother, Indictment: The McMartin Trial, ER, and Law & Order. Her feature films included The Pursuit of Happiness, Desperate Characters, and Pollock. Personal life Thompson was married to Donald E. Stewart from December 18, 1949, until her death. She and her husband lived in Jackson heights for many years and later in Southbury, Connecticut. Their daughter, Liza Stewart, is a costume designer. Death Thompson died on May 4, 2011, in Danbury, Connecticut, of lung disease, aged 83. Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1971 The Pursuit of Happiness Ruth Lawrence 1971 Desperate Characters Claire 1976 The Entertainer Phoebe Rice Television movie 1977 Our Town Mrs. Gibbs Television movie 1983 Princess Daisy Masha Television movie 1986 My Two Loves Dorothea 1987 Father Dowling Mysteries Maria Pello Television movie 1989 Home Fires Burning Pastine Tibbetts 1989 Fear Stalk Pearl 1990 Andre's Mother Katharine Gerard Television movie 1995 Indictment: The McMartin Trial Virginia McMartin Television movie 1997 Any Mother's Son Gertie Television movie 1998 The Patron Saint of Liars Sister Evangeline Television movie 2000 Pollock Stella Pollock Television Year Title Role Notes 1961 Camera Three Rosalyn Episode: "The Cracked Looking Glass" 1963 The Nurses Mrs. Mitchell Episode: "The Helping Hand" 1964 The DuPont Show of the Week Judy Episode: "The Missing Bank of Rupert X. Humperdinck" 1973 Love Story Mamma Cassalini Episode: "Joie" 1974–76 Lincoln Mary Todd Lincoln 5 episodes 1976–80 Family Kate Lawrence 86 episodes 1982 Marco Polo Aunt Flora 2 episodes 1986 The Love Boat Laura Jameson 2 episodes 1991 Cheers Mama Lozupone Episode: "Honor Thy Mother" 1993 Alex Haley's Queen Miss Mandy 3 episodes 1995 Law & Order Elaine Nicodos Episode: "Jeopardy" Awards and nominations Year Association Category Nominated work Result 1976 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Lincoln Nominated 1976 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie The Entertainer Nominated 1977 Golden Globe Awards Best Actress – Television Series Drama Family Nominated 1977 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Nominated 1978 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Won 1979 Golden Globe Awards Best Actress – Television Series Drama Nominated 1979 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Nominated 1980 Golden Globe Awards Best Actress – Television Series Drama Nominated 1980 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Nominated 1991 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series Cheers Nominated 1995 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Indictment: The McMartin Trial Nominated
  • 05/4
    2011

    Death

    May 4, 2011
    Death date
    Lung Disease
    Cause of death
    Danbury, CT
    Death location
  • Obituary

    Filmography Jump to: Actress | Thanks | Self | Archive footage Hide HideActress (29 credits) 2000 Pollock Stella Pollock 1998 The Patron Saint of Liars (TV Movie) Sister Evangeline 1997 Any Mother's Son (TV Movie) Gertie 1995 Law & Order (TV Series) Elaine Nicodos - Jeopardy (1995) ... Elaine Nicodos 1995 Indictment: The McMartin Trial (TV Movie) Virginia McMartin 1993 Queen (TV Mini-Series) - Episode #1.3 (1993) - Episode #1.2 (1993) - Episode #1.1 (1993) 1991 Cheers (TV Series) Mama Lozupone - Honor Thy Mother (1991) ... Mama Lozupone 1983-1990 American Playhouse (TV Series) Katherine Gerard - Andre's Mother / Fanny Church / Widow Douglas / ... - Andre's Mother (1990) ... Katherine Gerard - Andre's Mother - Painting Churches (1986) ... Fanny Church - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part I (1986) ... Widow Douglas - The Skin of Our Teeth (1983) ... Mrs. Antrobus 1989 Fear Stalk (TV Movie) Pearl 1989 Home Fires Burning (TV Movie) Pastine Tibbetts 1987 Fatal Confession: A Father Dowling Mystery (TV Movie) Maria Pello 1986 The Love Boat (TV Series) Laura Jameson - Spain Cruise: The Matadors/Mrs. Jameson Comes Out/Love's Labors Found/Marry Me, Marry Me: Part 2 (1986) ... Laura Jameson - Spain Cruise: The Matadors/Mrs. Jameson Comes Out/Love's Labors Found/Marry Me, Marry Me: Part 1 (1986) ... Laura Jameson 1986 My Two Loves (TV Movie) Dorothea 1983 Princess Daisy (TV Movie) Masha 1982 Marco Polo (TV Mini-Series) Aunt Flora - Episode #1.2 (1982) ... Aunt Flora - Episode #1.1 (1982) ... Aunt Flora 1976-1980 Family (TV Series) Kate Lawrence - Letting Go (1980) ... Kate Lawrence - Smarts (1980) ... Kate Lawrence - Just Like Old Times (1980) ... Kate Lawrence - The Ties That Bind (1980) ... Kate Lawrence - Such a Fine Line (1980) ... Kate Lawrence Show all 86 episodes 1977 Our Town (TV Movie) Mrs. Gibbs 1974-1976 Lincoln (TV Series) Mary Todd Lincoln - The Last Days (1976) ... Mary Todd Lincoln - Crossing Fox River (1976) ... Mary Todd Lincoln - The Unwilling Warrior (1975) ... Mary Todd Lincoln - Sad Figure, Laughing (1975) ... Mary Todd Lincoln - Mrs. Lincoln's Husband (1974) ... Mary Todd Lincoln 1975 The Entertainer (TV Movie) Phoebe Rice 1973 Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (TV Series) - The Second Victim (1973) 1973 Love Story (TV Series) Mamma Cassalini - Joie (1973) ... Mamma Cassalini 1971 Desperate Characters Claire 1971 The Pursuit of Happiness Ruth Lawrence 1965-1966 New York Television Theatre (TV Series) She (segment: "Bedlam Galore for Two or More") - Eh, Joe?/Bedlam Galore for Two or More (1966) ... She (segment: "Bedlam Galore for Two or More") - Gallows Humor (1965) 1964 The DuPont Show of the Week (TV Series) Judy - The Missing Bank of Rupert X. Humperdink (1964) ... Judy 1963 The Doctors and the Nurses (TV Series) Mrs. Mitchell - The Helping Hand (1963) ... Mrs. Mitchell 1961 Camera Three (TV Series) Rosaleen - The Cracked Looking Glass (1961) ... Rosaleen 1956 Playwrights '56 (TV Series) Nurse - Lost (1956) ... Nurse 1954 Goodyear Playhouse (TV Series) - Old Tasselfoot (1954)Sada Thompson dead at 83 Sada Carolyn Thompson was born in Des Moines, though her family moved to Fanwood, N.J. when she was a girl. She received a degree in drama from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, and she and some fellow students started a summer stock troupe. Eventually she and Donald Stewart, whom she met at school and married, moved to New York, Her first professional credit was the 1953 original reading of Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milkwood,” directed by Thomas himself. Thompson is survived by her husband; a daughter; and a brother.
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Sada Thompson's Family Tree & Friends

Sada Thompson's Family Tree

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Donald Stewart

&

Sada Thompson

1949
Marriage date
May 4, 2011
Sada's death date
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