1. Cloris Leachman was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nearly eight decades.
49 Facts About Cloris Leachman
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Cloris Leachman won many accolades, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 22 nominations, making her the most nominated and, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, most awarded performer in Emmy history.
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Cloris Leachman won Emmys for her role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and a Golden Globe for the spinoff Phyllis, in which she starred.
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Cloris Leachman appeared in television film A Brand New Life ; the variety sketch show Cher ; the ABC Afterschool Special production The Woman Who Willed a Miracle ; and the television shows Promised Land and Malcolm in the Middle.
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Cloris Leachman acted in the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, WUSA, Yesterday, Castle in the Sky, Spanglish and Mrs Harris.
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Cloris Leachman was born on April 30,1926, in Des Moines, Iowa, the eldest of three daughters.
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Cloris Leachman's parents were Cloris and Berkeley Claiborne "Buck" Leachman.
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Cloris Leachman's father worked at the family-owned Leachman Lumber Company.
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Cloris Leachman's youngest sister, Claiborne Cary, was an actress and singer.
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Cloris Leachman began appearing on television and in films shortly after competing in Miss America in 1946 as Miss Chicago.
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Cloris Leachman had been cast as a replacement for the role of Nellie Forbush during the original run of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific.
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Cloris Leachman was slated to play the role of Abigail Williams in the original Broadway cast of Arthur Miller's seminal drama The Crucible.
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However, Cloris Leachman left the production the day before opening night in Wilmington, with Madeleine Sherwood assuming the role.
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Cloris Leachman's name was heavily publicized prior to the production's opening, and her name still appeared in the printed program; a sign appeared at the box office in Wilmington noting the change.
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Cloris Leachman appeared in many live television broadcasts in the 1950s, including such programs as Suspense and Studio One.
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Cloris Leachman made her feature-film debut as an extra in Carnegie Hall, but her first real role was in Robert Aldrich's film noir Kiss Me Deadly, released in 1955.
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Cloris Leachman was several months pregnant during the filming, and appears in one scene running down a darkened highway wearing only a trench coat.
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Cloris Leachman appeared with Newman again in a brief role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
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Cloris Leachman later appeared as Ruth Martin, Timmy Martin's adoptive mother, in the last half of season four of Lassie.
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In late 1970, Cloris Leachman starred in one episode of That Girl as Don Hollinger's sister, Sandy.
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Cloris Leachman won acclaim portraying Phyllis Lindstrom on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
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Cloris Leachman acted alongside Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper, Ed Asner, Ted Knight, and Betty White.
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Cloris Leachman played the recurring role of Mary Richards' snobbish, self-absorbed and interfering downstairs neighbor on the program for five years.
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Cloris Leachman was featured in a spinoff series, Phyllis, for which Leachman won a Golden Globe Award.
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Cloris Leachman won a record-setting eight Primetime Emmy Awards and one Daytime Emmy Award, in addition to having been nominated more than 20 times.
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Cloris Leachman appeared in three Mel Brooks films including the comedic horror satire Young Frankenstein, in which the mere mention of the name of her character, Frau Blucher, elicits the loud neighing of horses.
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Cloris Leachman acted in his thriller spoof High Anxiety as the demented villainess and psychiatric nurse Charlotte Diesel.
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Cloris Leachman appeared in Disney's The North Avenue Irregulars in 1979, playing the role of Claire.
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In 1989, Cloris Leachman starred on Brooks' short-lived NBC sitcom The Nutt House in dual roles as head hotel housekeeper Mrs Frick and Mrs Nutt, the senile owner of the hotel.
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Cloris Leachman played a reclusive but eventually friendly neighbor who regains her Christmas spirit in Prancer.
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Cloris Leachman played Ferris and Jeannie's grandmother in the one season television series Ferris Bueller, episode 9, which aired in November of 1990.
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Cloris Leachman played embittered, greedy, Slavic Canadian "Grandma Ida" on the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
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Cloris Leachman was nominated for playing the character for six consecutive years.
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Cloris Leachman took a comedic role as the wine-soaked former jazz singer and grandmother Evelyn in Spanglish opposite Adam Sandler for which she was nominated for a SAG Award.
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Cloris Leachman had replaced an ailing Anne Bancroft in the role.
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Cloris Leachman appeared in the Kurt Russell comedy Sky High as a school nurse with X-ray vision.
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Cloris Leachman auditioned to revive her role from Young Frankenstein in the 2007 Broadway production opposite Megan Mullally and Roger Bart.
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In 2008, Cloris Leachman was a contestant on the seventh season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Corky Ballas, the oldest of the professionals and father of two-time champion Mark Ballas.
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Cloris Leachman is the oldest person to have competed on the show to date.
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Cloris Leachman made guest roles in the NBC sitcom The Office, the TV Land series Hot in Cleveland, the CBS drama Hawaii Five-0, and USA Network Royal Pains.
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Cloris Leachman appears in the film Not To Forget in her final role.
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From 1953 to 1978, Cloris Leachman was married to Hollywood impresario George Englund.
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Lorna Luft stated in her memoir Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir that Cloris Leachman was "the kind of mom I'd only seen on TV".
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Cloris Leachman was a friend of Mort Sahl and Marlon Brando, whom she met while studying under Elia Kazan in the 1950s.
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Cloris Leachman introduced him to her husband, who became close to Brando, as well, directing him in The Ugly American and writing a memoir about their friendship called Marlon Brando: The Way It's Never Been Done Before.
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Cloris Leachman posed clad in a dress made of lettuce for a 2009 PETA advertisement.
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Cloris Leachman died at her home in Encinitas, California, at the age of 94.
48.
Cloris Leachman's son confirmed this date to The New York Times.
49.
Cloris Leachman co-authored the bestselling book with her ex-husband George Englund.