Hope Elise Ross Lange (November 28, 1933 – December 19, 2003)[1] was an American stage, film, and television actress.
Early life
A 15-year-old Hope Lange modeling the "Man-from-Mars,
Radio Hat" in 1949.
Lange was born into a theatrical family in Redding, Connecticut.[2] Her father, John George Lange (1885–1942), was a musician (cellist) and the music arranger for Florenz Ziegfeld and conductor for Henry Cohen and her mother, Minette (née Buddecke) (1898–1970), was an actress.[3] They had three daughters; Minelda L. Jiras (1922–2004), Joy L. Boardman, (1927–2007), Hope Lange and a son, David Lange.[4][5][6] John worked in New York City and the family moved to Greenwich Village when Hope was a young child.
Minette heard of a child's part in Life, Laughter and Tears and Hope sang with other children in the play that opened at the Booth Theatre in March 1942.[7] At age 9, Lange had a speaking part in the award winning Broadway play, The Patriots, that opened in January 1943.[8][9]
John Lange died in September 1942 but the family stayed in New York City.[10] Minette ran a restaurant on Macdougal Street near Washington Square Park from 1944 to 1956.[3] The name was "Minette's of Washington Square", although some sources confuse it with "Minetta Tavern", an Italian restaurant on Macdougal Street founded in 1937. The entire family worked in the restaurant, the oldest daughter, Minelda, ran the cash register while Joy and Hope waited on tables.[11][12]
While attending high school; Lange studied dance, modeled, and worked in the family restaurant. She sometimes walked the dog of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had a nearby apartment.[13] When her photo appeared in the newspaper, she received an offer to work as a New York City advertising model.[14] She appeared on the June 1949 cover of Radio-Electronics magazine wearing the "Man from Mars" Radio Hat. This portable radio built into a pith helmet was a sensation in 1949.[15]
Lange attended college for two years at Reed College in Oregon and at Barmore Junior College in New York. She met her future husband, Don Murray, at Barmore.[16]
Career
She began working in television in the 1950s with appearances on Kraft Television Theatre, which caught the eye of a Hollywood producer. Lange came to prominence in her first film role in Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray, whom she married on April 14, 1956. Murray later said that Monroe grew jealous of another blonde being hired for the movie and asked the studio producers to dye Lange's blonde hair light brown.[2]
As a result of favorable reviews, Lange landed a major role in the then-risqué 1957 film Peyton Place. Her strong performance earned her a nomination for a Golden Globe Award and another for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[17] She went on to appear in Nicholas Ray's 1957 The True Story of Jesse James as James' wife (opposite Robert Wagner) and The Young Lions opposite Montgomery Clift. She starred as Wagner's wife again in Love and War in 1958 before earning top billing in 1959's The Best of Everything, with Joan Crawford.[2]
Lange appeared as Elvis Presley's psychologist love interest in Wild in the Country in 1961. She then appeared in Frank Capra's final movie, A Pocketful of Miracles, alongside Glenn Ford. The next year, she appeared with Ford again in the romantic comedy Love Is a Ball.[2]
Lange returned to television for a 1966 role in the series The Fugitive (1963). She starred from 1968 to 1970 in the popular TV series, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir for which she earned two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award nomination. This success was followed by three seasons on The New Dick Van Dyke Show as Dick Van Dyke's wife, Jenny Preston, and 12 television movies. Lange declined to return for a fourth season of the show.[2] In 1977, she returned to the Broadway stage where her acting career had originally begun. She also played the wife of Charles Bronson in the original Death Wish. In 1985, she appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge and in 1986, she took a role as Laura Dern's mother in David Lynch's Blue Velvet. She took a Broadway role in Same Time, Next Year and then made appearances in the television movie based on Danielle Steel's Message from Nam and in 1994's Clear and Present Danger.
Lange made appearances in the Maine town in which Peyton Place had been filmed during the film's 40th anniversary celebrations in 1998.[2]
Personal life
Date of birth
Lange's year of birth is often reported as 1931, the correct year is 1933. A possible source of this error is the Reader's Digest Almanac and Yearbook.[18] It has shown the 1931 date from as early as 1980 to the 2009 issue. The 1976 and earlier editions give the year of birth as 1933.[19] Other references such as Chase's Annual Events have always shown the correct year, 1933.[1] The Social Security Death Index reports that Hope Lange was born on November 28, 1933 and died on December 19, 2003.
The 1933 year also matched the ages given in newspaper accounts of Hope Lange in her youth. The New York Times covered the annual "Young People's Concert" awards given at Carnegie Hall. In April 1945, a ribbon was awarded to Hope Lange, 11.[20] and again in April 1946 to Hope Lange, 12.[21] If Hope Lange was born in 1933 she would have turned 11 in November 1944 and this age matches the news reports.
A short feature story was published in February 1951 about Hope Lange's culinary skills. The first paragraph gives the biography of a seventeen-year-old Hope Lange of Greenwich Village, New York. Her late father was "director of music for Florenz Ziegfield" and her mother had a catering business. In addition to modeling, acting, and dancing; Hope could make "terrific" sandwiches. The article gives her recipes for "Sardine Strips" and "Cheese Ribbon" sandwiches.[22] Lange would have turned 17 in November 1950.
A September 1956 New York Times feature story tells how Don Murray and the "22-year-old blonde actress", Hope Lange, got married that April and that they were expecting a child next March.[23]
Relationships
Lange's first marriage was to actor Don Murray in 1956. She had two children with Murray:[2] actor Christopher Murray and photographer Patricia Murray. Lange left Murray in 1961 for Glenn Ford, associate producer and co-star of A Pocketful of Miracles. They had a very public long-term relationship, but they never married.[2] She left acting for three years after her October 19, 1963, marriage to producer-director Alan J. Pakula, whom she divorced in 1971.
In 1972, she also dated Frank Sinatra and began a relationship with married novelist John Cheever.[24] In 1986, she married theatrical producer Charles Hollerith, with whom she remained the rest of her life.[2]
Death
Lange died on December 19, 2003, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, as a result of an ischemic colitis infection at the age of 70.[25]
Filmography
Awards and nominations
References
- ^ a b Chase, William D.; Helen M. Chase (1988). Chase's Annual Events: Special Days, Weeks and Months in 1988. McGraw-Hill. p. 263. ISBN 9780809246670. "Hope Lange, actress, born at Reading Ridge, CT, Nov 28, 1933"
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Hope Lange". The Independent. 23 December 2003. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hope-lange-549138.html. Retrieved March 3, 2009.
- ^ a b "Mrs. John G. Lange". The New York Times. October 31, 1970. "Mrs. Minette Buddecke Lange, who ran Minette's restaurant in Macdougal Street from 1944 to 1956, died Oct. 23 in a nursing home in Hanover, N. H. Her age was 71. She was the widow of John George Lange, composer and conductor."
- ^ "Jiras-Lange". The New York Times: p. 70. August 28, 1949. Minelda Lange, daughter of Mrs. John G. Lange married Robert Jiras. Minelda attended American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
- ^ "Harry Boardman 1920-2009". Whetstone Inn, Inc. http://whetstoneinn.com/harry/. Retrieved September 12, 2009. "During this time [1949–1954], he met and married Joy Lange, for whose family he had worked as a waiter at their Macdougal Street restaurant—Minette’s of Washington Square—and whose sister, Hope, was beginning to make a name as a Hollywood star in movies such as Bus Stop and Peyton Place."
- ^ Birth and death years for Minelda and Joy are from the Social Security Death Index.
- ^ "News of the Stage". The New York Times: p. 14. February 21, 1942. "Life, Laughter and Tears arrives at the Booth on March 11. Mildred Dunnock, Gene Ross, Mervin Taylor, Hope Lange and Joan Shepherd are recent additions to the cast."
- ^ Nathan, George Jean; Charles Angoff (1972). The Theatre Book of the Year, 1942-1943. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 225. ISBN 9780838679463. http://books.google.com/books?id=mMYVBiogCVsC&pg=PA225. The Patriots opened January 29, 1943. Hope Lange played Anne Randolph.
- ^ Corry, John (July 1, 1977). "Broadway". The New York Times: p. 41. "Miss Lange was on Broadway at the age of 9, appearing in something called The Patriot"
- ^ "Deaths". The New York Times: p. 23. September 15 , 1942. John George Lange, September 13, 1942.
- ^ Scott, Vernon (January 5, 1972). "Hope Lange is a divorcee off of stage". Boca Raton News (Boca Raton, Florida): pp. 5B. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19720105&id=0MwPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CY0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5351,367454.
- ^ Gehman, Richard (May 1959). "Moveland marriage with a mission". Coronet 45 (38): pp. 38-40.
- ^ Beasley, Henry R.; Holly Cowan Shulman (2001). The Eleanor Roosevelt encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 382. ISBN 9780313301810. Eleanor Roosevelt lived at 29 Washington Square West from 1945 to 1949
- ^ Polgreen, Lydia (December 22, 2003). "Hope Lange, Versatile Actress And Emmy Winner, Dies at 70". The New York Times: p. 7. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EFD8133FF931A15751C1A9659C8B63.
- ^ "The Radio Hat". Radio Electronics 20 (9): pp. 4, 32-33. June 1949. Cover description: The Radio Hat, posed by Hope Lange. page 4
- ^ Stone, Judy (February 16, 1969). "Nothing Haunted About Hope". The New York Times: p. D19.
- ^ Oliver, Myrna (December 22, 2003). "Hope Lange, 70; Drew an Oscar Nomination for 'Peyton Place'". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/dec/22/local/me-lange22. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
- ^ Reader's Digest Almanac and Yearbook, 1980. Reader's Digest Association. 1980. p. 277. http://books.google.com/books?id=LCAwAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Hope+Lange%22&pgis=1. "Hope Lange (1931- ) actress"
- ^ Reader's Digest Almanac and Yearbook, 1976. Reader's Digest Association. 1976. p. 262. http://books.google.com/books?id=MhwwAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Hope+Lange%22&pgis=1. "Hope Lange (1933- ) actress"
- ^ "Ganz Plays Works By Girl, 13, Boy, 14". The New York Times: p. 36. April 8, 1945. Annual "Young People's Concerts" awards. A ribbon was given to Hope Lange, 11
- ^ "Youth Awards Given For Music Notebooks". The New York Times: p. 40. April 7, 1946. A ribbon was given to Hope Lange, 12.
- ^ "Versatile Greenwich Villager, 17, Tells Her Sprightly Buffet Recipes". The Lowell Sun: p. 4. February 20, 1951. This wire service story was published in several newspapers.
- ^ Nason, Richard W. (September 2, 1956). "'Bus Stop' Buckaroo: Don Murray, Marilyn Monroe's Co-Star Outlines His Career Up to Date". The New York Times: p. X5. "He met the 22-year-old blonde actress several years ago…" "When Bus Stop moved from locations as Phoenix, Ariz., back to Hollywood in April, Mr. Murray and Miss Lange decided to get married.
- ^ Donaldson, Scott (2001). John Cheever: A Biography. iUniverse. p. 237. ISBN 9780595211388. http://books.google.com/books?id=1DecfKQ6vU0C&pg=PA237. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
- ^ "Hope Lange, actress in 'Peyton Place,' dies". Deseret News (Salt Lake City). 2003-12-22. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20031222/ai_n11418924/. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
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