Sandy Dennis
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Sandy Dennis (April 27, 1937 – March 2, 1992) was an Academy Award and Tony-winning American theater and film actress.
Born Sandra Dale Dennis in Hastings, Nebraska, and a high-school classmate of Dick Cavett, Dennis made her television debut in 1956 in The Guiding Light and her film debut in Splendor in the Grass (1961). However she was more committed to following a career in the theater.
She won consecutive Tony Awards for her performances in A Thousand Clowns and Any Wednesday, and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). She followed this with well-received performances in Up the Down Staircase (1967), The Fox (1967), Sweet November (1968) and The Out-of-Towners (1970).
An advocate of method acting, Dennis was often described as neurotic and mannered in her performances; her signature style included running words together and oddly stopping and starting sentences, suddenly going up and down octaves as she spoke, and fluttering her hands. Walter Kerr famously remarked that she treated sentences as "weak, injured things" that needed to be slowly helped "across the street." Nonetheless, William Goldman, in his book The Season, referred to her as a quintessential "critics' darling" who got rave reviews no matter how unusual her acting and questionable her choice of material.
Her last significant film role was in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). Dennis lived for many years with jazz great Gerry Mulligan until they split up in 1976. Although Mulligan often referred to Dennis as his second wife, Dennis later revealed that they had never married. She also lived with actor Eric Roberts from 1980 to 1985.
There have been persistent rumors that she was lesbian (more accurately bisexual) -- possibly as a result of her playing a lesbian character in the 1967 movie The Fox. She does not seem to have publicly acknowledged being a lesbian.
She died from ovarian cancer in Westport, Connecticut, aged 54.
[edit] Filmography
- Splendor in the Grass (1961)
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
- Up the Down Staircase (1967)
- The Fox (1968)
- Sweet November (1968)
- Thank You All Very Much (1969)
- That Cold Day in the Park (1969)
- The Out-of-Towners (1970)
- Mr. Sycamore (1974)
- God Told Me To (1976)
- Nasty Habits (1976)
- The Animals Film (1981)
- The Four Seasons (1981)
- Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)
- Another Woman (1988)
- Parents (1989)
- 976-Evil (1989)
- The Indian Runner (1991).
| Preceded by Shelley Winters for A Patch of Blue |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1966 for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
Succeeded by Estelle Parsons for Bonnie and Clyde |
