Elizabeth Wilson

Wilson, Elizabeth (b. 1921), character actress. The versatile performer has usually been cast as mothers, aunts, or spinsters, yet she has managed to find variety and humanity in her characterizations. She was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Wilson had extensive experience in stock before she made her Broadway debut as one of the schoolteachers in Picnic (1953). Among her many outstanding performances were the hassled Manhattan mother Marjorie Newquist in Little Murders (1969), the distant mother Harriet of a damaged Vietnam War vet in Sticks and Bones (1971), the overlooked niece Sonya in Uncle Vanya (1973), the calculating Mrs. Peachum in The Threepenny Opera (1976), the interfering Aunt Helen in Taken in Marriage (1979), the disapproving spinster Aaronetta in Morning's at Seven (1980), and the retired actress Bonita Belgrave in Waiting in the Wings (1999).