Sandy dennis biography

American actress (–)

Sandra Dale Dennis (April 27, – March 2, ) was an American actress. She made her film debut in the drama Splendor in the Grass (). For her performance in the comedy-drama film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (), she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Dennis appeared in the films Up the Down Staircase (), The Fox (), Sweet November (), That Cold Day in the Park (), The Out-of-Towners (), God Told Me To (), The Four Seasons (), Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (), and Another Woman (). Her final film appearance came in the crime drama film The Indian Runner ().

Dennis had a successful career on stage, appearing in the original stage production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. For her performance in the play A Thousand Clowns, she received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. For her performance in the play Any Wednesday, she received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Dennis was a renowned animal activist. She rescued stray cats from the bowels of Grand Central Terminal. At the time of her death in Westport, Connecticut, she lived with more than 20 cats, who were adopted out by longtime friends to new homes.

Early life

Dennis was born in Hastings, Nebraska, the daughter of Yvonne (née Hudson), a secretary, and Jack Dennis, a postal clerk. Her parents divorced in after 38 years of marriage. She had one brother, Frank, who was eight years older. Dennis grew up in Kenesaw, Nebraska, and Lincoln, Nebraska, graduating from Lincoln High School in ; one of her classmates was writer and comedian Dick Cavett. She attended Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Nebraska, appearing in the Lincoln Community Theater Group before moving to New York City at age She studied acting at HB Studio in New York City.

Career

“Sandy was a marvelous actress. She was so gifted she made every part look easy…and she didn’t choose easy parts. It was a great pleasure to work with her.”– Gena Rowlands

“Sandy Dennis is so special, so unique – an incredible woman and artist.”– Elliott Gould

“Sandy was the most amazing actress: spellbinding. The audience would hang on her every pause. And as we all acknowledge, her characterizations were miraculous; no one can say then nor now from where her profound inspirations came. But there they were, for herself and for all of the world, forever.” – Karen Black

&#;A truly unique visionary of an actor graced with an undeniable charisma and presence that was solely her own, once you’ve seen her in action — you will not be able to forget her. At times her instinctively odd take on realism and her characters could be grating. A good example of this for me would be her odd turn in Alan Alda’s The Four Seasons or Mark Rydell’s The Fox. Other times her work was truly transformative as in Mike Nichol’s cinematic masterpiece, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or Robert Altman’s slow-burn human psyche horror show, That Cold Day in the Park or his off-beat film of Ed Graczyk’s Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.

&#;Film and Stage critics adored her as much as they often scorned her. Often their darling, Roger Ebert famously summed up his respect for Sandy Dennis when he reviewed her performance in ’s Up The Down Staircase:

&#;“We need more films that might be concerned, even remotely, with real experiences that might once have happened to real people. And we need more actresses like Sandy Dennis.”

&#;The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther would write:

&#;“Sandy Dennis is engagingly natural, sensitive, literate, and thoroughly moving vivid performance…”

&#;It is rare to run across many negative reviews of her stage craft. Having studied under Uta Hagen and a strict Method Actor, Sandy Dennis’ stage work is a thing

Dennis, Sandy ()

Sandra Dale Dennis

The actress Sandy Dennis, whose nervous and fragile screen persona had very little to do with the real person, was born in Hastings, Nebraska, on April 17, Her father was a postal clerk. At the age of fourteen, after watching Kim Stanley and Joanne Woodward in the television production A Lady of Property, she realized that her calling was acting. Her talent quickly became evident. She played leading roles in high school plays and in the Lincoln Community Theater; at the age of nineteen she left Nebraska for New York City and a distinguished career in acting.

Within three months Dennis had won her first professional role as a thirteen-year-old in Henrik Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea. She studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and secured major roles in Broadway plays in the early s. By she had collected two Tonys and a New York Drama Critics Poll Award.

Dennis's movie breakthrough came in , when she played Honey, the whimpering wife of the young faculty member in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance. Other critically acclaimed performances in comedies and dramas on stage and screen followed, but her popularity declined in the s and s, partly because she refused to glamorize her appearance. Her final film role was in in Sean Penn's The Indian Runner, fittingly set in Dennis's home state of Nebraska.

Dennis was briefly married to her longtime companion, jazz musician Gerry Mulligan, from to However, a self-described "solitary person," she seemed to be more comfortable in the company of cats and dogs than of people. Sandy Dennis lived the final years of her life with her mother in Westport, Connecticut, where she died of ovarian cancer on March 2,

David J. Wishart University of Nebraska-Lincoln