1. Elizabeth Ann Wedgeworth was an American character actress, known for her roles as Lana Shields in Three's Company, Hilda Hensley in Sweet Dreams, and Merleen Elldridge in Evening Shade.
17 Facts About Ann Wedgeworth
1. 2.
Ann Wedgeworth won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Chapter Two.
3.
Ann Wedgeworth graduated from Highland Park High School in University Park, Texas, where she was a childhood friend and high school classmate of Jayne Mansfield.
4.
Ann Wedgeworth dropped her first name after graduating from the University of Texas in 1957, and moved to New York City.
5.
Ann Wedgeworth later had many roles on Broadway and off-Broadway productions, including Period of Adjustment, Blues for Mister Charlie, The Last Analysis, and Thieves.
6.
Ann Wedgeworth had the female leading role opposite Gene Hackman in the 1973 film Scarecrow.
7.
Ann Wedgeworth later co-starred in Bang the Drum Slowly, Law and Disorder, One Summer Love, and Thieves.
8.
Ann Wedgeworth appeared as Sissy Spacek's character's mother in the 1991 film Hard Promises.
9.
Ann Wedgeworth had her final film role in The Hawk Is Dying, with Paul Giamatti, which opened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006.
10.
In early years, Ann Wedgeworth had main roles on numerous daytime soap operas.
11.
Ann Wedgeworth played the roles of Angela Talbot on The Edge of Night from 1966 to 1967, and later joined the cast of Another World as Lahoma Vane Lucas.
12.
Ann Wedgeworth played the role from 1967 to 1970, and from 1970 to 1973 appeared on its spinoff, Somerset.
13.
In 1979, Ann Wedgeworth was cast as divorcee Lana Shields on the hit ABC sitcom Three's Company.
14.
Ann Wedgeworth claimed that she asked to be released from her contract because of Lana's dwindling role in the show.
15.
Ann Wedgeworth appeared in just nine episodes of the series before her character was written out without any explanation and never referred to again.
16.
In 1982, Ann Wedgeworth worked with Linda Bloodworth-Thomason in her first comedy series, Filthy Rich, playing ditsy, good-natured Bootsie Westchester.
17.
Ann Wedgeworth died after a long illness, at a nursing home in North Bergen, New Jersey, aged 83.