Beatrice Straight

Infobox Actor
name = Beatrice Straight


caption = Straight as Dr. Martha Lesh in the 1982 film "Poltergeist"
birthname = Beatrice Whitney Straight
birthdate = August 2, 1914
location = Old Westbury, New York, American
deathdate = death date and age|2001|4|7|1914|8|2
deathplace = Los Angeles, California, American
spouse = Louis Dolivet (div. 1949)
Peter Cookson (1949-1990)
academyawards = Best Supporting Actress
1976 "Network"
tonyawards = Best Featured Actress in a Play
1953 "The Crucible"

Beatrice Whitney Straight (August 2, 1914 – April 7, 2001) was an American Academy Award-winning theatre, film, and television actress.

Biography

Born in Old Westbury, New York, Straight is the daughter of investment banker Willard Dickerman Straight and Dorothy Payne Whitney. She was four years old when her father died in France of influenza during the great epidemic while serving with the United States Army during World War I.

Following her mother's remarriage to British agronomist Leonard K. Elmhirst in 1925, the family moved to England. It was there that Straight was educated and began acting in amateur theater productions.

Returning to the United States, she made her Broadway debut in 1939 in the play "The Possessed". Most of her theatre work was in the classics, including "Twelfth Night" (1941), "Macbeth", and "The Crucible" (1953), for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Straight was active in the early days of television, appearing in anthology series such as "Armstrong Circle Theatre", "Hallmark Hall of Fame", "Kraft Television Theatre", "Studio One", "The United States Steel Hour", "Playhouse 90", and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and dramatic series like "Dr. Kildare", "Ben Casey", "The Defenders", "Route 66", "", and "St. Elsewhere".

Straight worked infrequently in film, and is remembered best for her role as a devastated wife confronting husband William Holden's infidelity in "Network" (1976). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance which, at five minutes and forty seconds, remains the shortest ever to win an Oscar. [cite news | author=Tim Dirks | title=Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor | url=http://www.filmsite.org/bestsuppactor.html | work=filmsite.org | date=20 May 2008 | accessdate=2008-05-21]

Further film and television performances include the role of the mother of Lynda Carter's title character in the "Wonder Woman" series, and Marion Hillyard, the icy, controlling mother of Stephen Collins in "The Promise". She also played the role of the paranormal investigator Dr. Martha Lesh in the film "Poltergeist" (1982), the most widely seen role of her film career.

Personal life

Straight was married twice, first to Frenchman Louis Dolivet, a left-wing activist who became editor of "United Nations World" magazine and later a film producer. They divorced in 1949, and she immediately married film and Broadway actor/producer Peter Cookson, with whom she had two sons.

She suffered from Alzheimer's disease in her later years. Straight died from pneumonia in Los Angeles, California at age 86 and was cremated. [cite news | url=http://www.einsiders.com/features/columns/apr01obituaries.php | title=Immortalized in Film: April 2001 Film World Obituaries | last=White | first=Rusty | date=2001-02-15| work=Entertainment Insiders |accessdate=2008-05-04]

Filmography

References

External links

*
*
*
*

Persondata
NAME= Straight, Beatrice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Straight, Beatrice Whitney
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress
DATE OF BIRTH= August 2, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH= Old Westbury, New York
DATE OF DEATH= April 7, 2001
PLACE OF DEATH= Los Angeles, California