Stockard Channing was born Susan Williams Antonia Stockard on February 13, 1944, in New York. She acted on the stage and in a few movies before she made her career-making hit movie, Grease in 1978. She was 32 years old when she played teenage bad-girl, Betty Rizzo. Though she was passed over for the same role on Broadway, Channing made dozens of movies and television shows. Some of the most famous among the movies are: Heartburn, The First Wives' Club, Moll Flanders, and Practical Magic.
Channing won both an Oscar and a Tony award for her role in the screen and stage adaptations of Six Degrees of Separation. She has won other theatre awards for roles on Broadway and off-Broadway, as well as several Emmy awards, most recently for her portrayal of First Lady Abigail Bartlett on TV's The West Wing, and for her performance in The Matthew Shepard Story. She has also appeared in the TV series, Out of Practice, and in the films Jack (2004), Red Mercury, Must Love Dogs and 3 Needles (all made in 2005), and Sparkle (2007).
Channing, Stockard [née Susan Stockard] (b. 1944), actress. The New Yorker was educated at Harvard and made her acting debut in Boston in 1966. She came to Broadway in 1971 in the chorus of the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona, then after performing for several seasons in California, she replaced the leading lady in They're Playing Our Song. By the 1980s Channing was one of the most lauded actresses in New York, giving such memorable performances as the tormented mother Sheila in Joe Egg (1985), the flaky Bunny in The House of Blue Leaves (1986), the depressed Susan in Woman in Mind (1988), the upper‐class Ouisa in Six Degrees of Separation (1990), the mastermind Elizabeth in Hapgood (1994), the scheming Regina in The Little Foxes (1997), and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (1999). Times critic Frank Rich commented that her Ouisa “steadily gained gravity as she journeys flawlessly from the daffy comedy of a fatuous dinner party to the harrowing internal drama of her own rebirth.”
Career Highlights: Six Degrees of Separation, Grease, Twilight
First Major Screen Credit: The Girl Most Likely To... (1973)
Biography
Born Susan Williams Antonia Stockard Channing Schmidt on February 13, 1944, Channing is the daughter of a wealthy shipping executive, and became interested in the dramatic arts while attending college at Radcliffe. After graduating in the mid-sixties, Channing joined Boston's experimental Theater Company. Several unsuccessful Broadway auditions later, she landed a lead role in a Los Angeles production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. Eventually, Channing made it to Broadway, and won a Tony for her performance in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
In the early '70s, Channing appeared in several small television roles, and made her big screen debut in 1971's The Hospital. In 1973, the actress starred in the Joan Rivers-penned black comedy The Girl Most Likely To..., a TV movie about an overweight college girl who loses weight, gets cosmetic surgery, and sets off in hopes of getting even. Channing's first major film role came two years later, when she starred in Mike Nichols' The Fortune with Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. It wasn't until 1978, however, that Channing would win her most memorable role to date -- tough gal Rizzo in the retro-musical Grease. Interestingly enough, although she was cast as a teenager, the actress was in her early thirties when she was chosen for the film. Around the same time, Channing starred in two similar and short-lived sitcoms: Stockard Channing in Just Friends and The Stockard Channing Show.
Channing was born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard in New York City, the daughter of Mary Alice (née English), who came from a large Brooklyn-based Irish Catholic family, and Lester Napier Stockard, who was in the shipping business and died in 1960.[1][2] She grew up on the Upper East Side.[3] She is an alumna of The Madeira School, a Virginia boarding school for girls, after starting out at The Chapin School in New York City. Then, she studied history and literature at Radcliffe College, and graduated in 1965. She married her first husband, Walter Channing, in 1963 when she was 19 and kept the amalgamated name "Stockard Channing" after they divorced in 1967.[4]
Channing starred in two short-lived sitcoms on CBS in 1979 and 1980: Stockard Channing in Just Friends and The Stockard Channing Show. In both shows, she co-starred with actress Sydney Goldsmith, who played her best friend in both. Her Hollywood career faltered after these failures, so Channing returned to her theatre roots. After a run as the female lead in the Broadway show, They're Playing Our Song (1980-81), she landed the part of the mother in the 1982 New Haven production of Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. She reprised the role on Broadway and won the 1985 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.[3]
Channing continued her successful return to the stage by teaming up again with playwright John Guare. She received Tony nominations for her performances in his plays, The House of Blue Leaves (1986) and Six Degrees of Separation (1990) (for which she also won an Obie). Woman in Mind received its American premiere in New York on 17 February 1988 at the Manhattan Theatre Club. The production was directed by Lynne Meadow and the cast included Stockard Channing in the role of Susan, for which she won a Drama Desk Award for best actress. Channing also garnered recognition for her work in television during this time. She was nominated for an Emmy for the CBS miniseries Echoes in the Darkness (1987) and won a CableACE Award for the Harvey Fierstein-scripted Tidy Endings (HBO, 1988).[3]
Channing kept busy with film, television and stage roles throughout the late 1990s.[3] She starred in the USA Network film An Unexpected Family in 1996 and in its sequel, An Unexpected Life, in 1998. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Supporting Female for her performance as one-half of an infertile couple in The Baby Dance (also 1998). On stage, she performed at Lincoln Center in Tom Stoppard's Hapgood (1995) and in the 1997 revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. During this period, Channing even dabbled in voice-over work, voicing Barbara Gordon in the animated series, Batman Beyond, and appearing on an episode of King of the Hill.
Channing was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress three times in the 1990s: in 1991, for Six Degrees of Separation; in 1992, for Four Baboons Adoring the Sun; and in 1999, for The Lion in Winter.
The West Wing and beyond
In 1999, Channing took on the role of First LadyAbbey Bartlet in the NBCtelevision seriesThe West Wing. She was a recurring guest star for the show's first two seasons; she became a regular cast member in 2001. In the seventh and final season of The West Wing (2005-2006), Channing appeared in only six episodes (including the series finale) because she was co-starring (with Henry Winkler) in the CBSsitcomOut of Practice at the same time. Out of Practice was cancelled by CBS after one season.
Channing is currently appearing at the Westport County Playhouse, Westport, CT in The Breath of Life.
Personal life
Channing has been married and divorced four times; she has no children.[6] Her second husband was Paul Schmidt, a professor of Slavic languages (1970-76), and her third was writer-producer David Debin (1976-80).[7] Her fourth husband was businessman David Rawle (1980-88).[8] She has been in a relationship with cinematographer Daniel Gillham for more than 20 years;[9] they met on the set of A Time of Destiny.[3] The couple reside in Maine when not working.[6]
