Elizabeth Franz

Elizabeth Franz
Born	Betty Jean Frankovich June 18, 1941 (1941-06-18) (age 68) Akron, Ohio

Elizabeth Franz (born June 18, 1941) is an American actress of stage and television.

Life and career

Franz was born Betty Jean Frankovich in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of a factory worker.^[1][2]

On the stage, Franz has won a Tony Award, for her role as Linda Loman in the 1999 production of Death of a Salesman, as well as an Obie Award, for her role in the 1980 off-Broadway production Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You. Franz has also been nominated two other times for a Tony Award (for 1983's Brighton Beach Memoirs and 2002's Morning's at Seven). In 2004 and 2005, Franz appeared at the Royal National Theatre in London, in the Sam Shepard play Buried Child. In 2007, she appeared to critical acclaim in Julia Cho's drama The Piano Teacher at the Vineyard Theatre in New York.^[3]

On television, Franz is most notably a character actor. She became best known for her role as the villainess Alma Rudder on the soap opera Another World, which she portrayed from 1982 to 1983, while she was performing Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway. She also played the role of Helen Wendall on As the World Turns from 1994 to 1995, and guest-starred in several episodes of Roseanne, as free-spirited beauty salon owner Marsha. She also made a guest appearance in the series Gilmore Girls as the inn owner, Mia. In 2005 Ms Franz won the Best Actress Award from the NYC Home Film Festival for her appearance in the short film The Reader, written and directed by Duncan M. Rogers.

References

• Isherwood, Charles (November 19, 2007). "In a Quiet Suburb, a Quiet Life Darkened". The New York Times

External links

• Elizabeth Franz at the Internet Broadway Database
• Elizabeth Franz at the Internet Movie Database
• The New York Times" theatre Review of The Piano Teacher