Lois Maureen Stapleton (June 21, 1925 – March 13, 2006) was an American actress. She received numerous accolades, becoming one of the few actors to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. She also received a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award.
Stapleton started her career in theater with her Broadway debut in The Playboy of the Western World (1946). She went on to receive two Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Rose Tattoo (1951) and for Best Actress in a Play for The Gingerbread Lady (1971). She was Tony-nominated for her roles in The Cold Wind And The Warm (1959), Toys in the Attic (1960), Plaza Suite (1971) and The Little Foxes (1981).
For her portrayal of Emma Goldman in the historical epic film Reds (1981), she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was also Oscar-nominated for her roles in Lonelyhearts (1958), Airport (1970) and Interiors (1978). During her career, Stapleton acted in films such as Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Plaza Suite (1971), The Fan (1981), Cocoon (1985), The Money Pit (1986) and Nuts (1987).
On television, Stapleton played a variety of roles including in the television film Among the Paths to Eden (1967), for which she won Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama. She was Emmy-nominated for her roles in Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975), The Gathering (1977), B.L. Stryker (1989), Miss Rose White (1992) and Road to Avonlea (1995). She received a Grammy Award nomination for narrating To Kill a Mockingbird in 1975. For her life achievement, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.
Early life Stapleton was born in Troy, New York, the daughter of John P. Stapleton and Irene (née Walsh), and grew up in a strict Irish American Catholic family. Her father was an alcoholic and her parents separated during her childhood.
Career
Stapleton moved to New York City at the age of 18, and worked as a salesgirl, hotel clerk, and modeled to pay the bills, including for artist Raphael Soyer. She once said that it was her infatuation with the Hollywood actor Joel McCrea which led her into acting. She made her Broadway debut in the production featuring Burgess Meredith of The Playboy of the Western World in 1946. That same year, she played the role of "Iras" in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in a touring production by actress and producer Katharine Cornell.Mosel, "Leading Lady: The World and Theatre of Katharine Cornell Stepping in because Anna Magnani refused the role due to her limited English, Stapleton won a Tony Award for her role in Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo in 1951 (Magnani's English improved, however, and she was able to play the role in the film version, winning an Oscar).
Stapleton played in other Williams' productions, including Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton and Orpheus Descending (and its film adaptation, The Fugitive Kind, co-starring her friend Marlon Brando), as well as in The Cold Wind and the Warm (Tony nomination, 1959) and Lillian Hellman's Toys in the Attic (1960), for which she received another Tony Award nomination. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Neil Simon's Plaza Suite in 1968 and won a second Tony Award for Simon's The Gingerbread Lady, which was written especially for her, in 1971. Later Broadway roles included a Tony-nominated turn as "Birdie" in The Little Foxes, opposite Elizabeth Taylor, and as a replacement for Jessica Tandy in The Gin Game.
Stapleton's film career, though limited, brought her immediate success, with her debut in Lonelyhearts (1958) earning nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award. She appeared in the 1963 film version of Bye Bye Birdie, in the role of Mama Mae Peterson, with Dick Van Dyke, Janet Leigh, Paul Lynde, and Ann-Margret. Stapleton played the role of Dick Van Dyke's mother, even though she was only five months and 22 days older than Van Dyke. She was nominated again for an Oscar for Airport (Golden Globe Award nomination, 1970) and Woody Allen's Interiors (Golden Globe Award nomination, 1978). She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Reds (1981), directed by Warren Beatty, in which she portrayed the Lithuanian-born anarchist, Emma Goldman. In her acceptance speech, she stated, "I would like to thank everyone I've ever met in my entire life."The Oscar Acceptance Speech: By and Large, It's a Lost Art Washington Post. March 21, 1999. Her later appearances included Johnny Dangerously (1984), Cocoon (1985), and its sequel Cocoon: The Return (1988).
Stapleton won a 1968 Emmy Award for her performance in Among the Paths of Eden and was nominated for six more, for Avonlea (1996), Miss Rose White (1992), B.L. Stryker (1989), the television version of All the King's Men (1959), Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975), and The Gathering (1977), and Kraft Theatre (1959). She also appeared opposite Laurence Olivier and Natalie Wood in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976).
She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981."26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame." The New York Times, March 3, 1981. She was an alumna of the famous Actors Studio in New York City, led by Lee Strasberg, where she became friends with Marilyn Monroe, who was only one year younger than Stapleton. She was impressed with Monroe's talent, and always thought it was a shame that Monroe was rarely allowed to play roles beyond the ditzy blonde. By comparison, Stapleton thought herself lucky: "I never had that problem. People looked at me on stage and said, 'Jesus, that broad better be able to act.'" One of the most famously remembered scenes at the studio was when Stapleton and Monroe acted in Anna Christie together.
Despite her association with Strasberg, Stapleton cited Mira Rostova as her most influential acting teacher. She appeared with Rostova and another of Rostova's pupils, Montgomery Clift, Off-Broadway in The Seagull (1954). Additionally, in his book Sanford Meisner on Acting, Meisner cites Stapleton as being "a wonderful actress." The pair starred together on Broadway in The Cold Wind and the Warm.
She was nominated for a 1975 Grammy Award for the spoken word recording of To Kill a Mockingbird.
She hosted the 19th episode of Season 4 of NBC's Saturday Night Live in 1979.
Personal life and death Stapleton's first husband was Max Allentuck, general manager to the producer Kermit Bloomgarden, and her second was playwright David Rayfiel, from whom she divorced in 1966. She had a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Katharine, by her first husband. Her daughter, Katharine Allentuck, played a single movie role, that of "Aggie" in Summer of '42 (Stapleton herself also had a minor, uncredited role in the film as the protagonist's mother, though only her voice is heard; she does not appear on camera). Her son, Daniel Allentuck, is a documentary filmmaker.
Stapleton suffered from anxiety and alcoholism for many years, and once told an interviewer, "The curtain came down, and I went into the vodka." She also said that her unhappy childhood contributed to her insecurities, which included a fear of flying, airplanes, and elevators.
Stapleton was a member of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. In 1984, she signed a letter protesting German arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Stapleton died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2006 at her home in Lenox, Massachusetts.
In 1981 Hudson Valley Community College in Stapleton's childhood city of Troy, New York, dedicated a theater in her name.
Acting credits
Film Year Title Role Notes1955Main Street to BroadwayMaureen Stapleton - First Nighter Uncredited1958LonelyheartsFay Doyle 1960The Fugitive KindVee Talbot1961A View from the BridgeBeatrice Carbone1963Bye Bye BirdieMama Mae Peterson1969TrilogyMary O'MeaghanSegment: "Among the Paths to Eden"1970AirportInez Guerrero1971Summer of '42Hermie's motherVoice, UncreditedPlaza SuiteKaren Nash1978InteriorsPearl1979Lost and FoundJemmyThe Runner StumblesMrs. Shandig1981On the Right TrackMary the Bag LadyThe FanBelle GoldmanRedsEmma Goldman1984Johnny DangerouslyMa Kelly1985CocoonMarilyn Luckett1986The Money PitEstelleThe Cosmic EyeMother Earth VoiceHeartburnVera1987Sweet LorraineLillian GarberMade in HeavenAunt LisaNutsRose Kirk1988Cocoon: The ReturnMarilyn 'Mary' LuckettDoin' Time on Planet EarthHelium Balloon Saleslady1992Passed AwayMary Scanlan1994The Last Good TimeIda CutlerTrading MomMrs. Cavour1997Addicted to LoveNana1998Wilbur FallsWilbur Falls High Secretary2003Living and DiningMrs. LundtFinal film role
Television Year Title Role Notes1954MedicEvelyn StraussEpisode: "Day 10"The Philco Television PlayhouseDaughterEpisode: "The Mother"1955The Philco Television PlayhouseMrs. JohnsonEpisode: "Incident in July"1956Armstrong Circle TheatreMrs. Elizabeth SteigerwaldEpisode: "H.R. 8438: The Story of a Lost Boy" The Alcoa HourVi MillerEpisode: "No License to Kill (II)"Studio One in HollywoodRachel JacksonEpisode: "Rachel"King, Joe D. (December 10, 1956). "Looking and Listening: Array of Musicians on Program Tonight". Evening Express. p. 24. Retrieved February 4, 2025.1958Kraft TheatreSadie BurkeEpisode: "All the King's Men" 1959Playhouse 90PilarEpisode: "For Whom the Bell Tolls"1960CBS Repertoire WorkshopTessieEpisode: "Tessie Malfitano and Anton Waldek"The Robert Herridge TheaterMauryaEpisode: "Riders to the Sea"1961Car 54, Where Are You?Gypsy WomanEpisode: "The Gypsy Curse"Naked CityAbbey BickEpisode: "Ooftus Goofus"1962Naked CityRuth CullanEpisode: "Kill Me While I'm Young So I Can Die Happy!"The DuPont Show of the WeekProfessor Gretchen Anna ThaelmanEpisode: "The Betrayal"1964East Side/West SideMolly CavanaughEpisode: "One Drink at a Time"1967Among the Paths to EdenMary O'MeaghanTelevision movie1969Mirror, Mirror Off the WallRuthie MaxwellTelevision movie1974Tell Me Where It HurtsConnieTelevision movie1975Queen of the Stardust BallroomBea AsherTelevision movie1976The Lively ArtsAmanda Wingfield Episode: "Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie"Cat on a Hot Tin RoofBig MamaTelevision movie1977The GatheringKateTelevision movie1979Letters from FrankBetty MillerTelevision movieThe Gathering, Part IIKate ThorntonTelevision movie Saturday Night LiveHerself (host)Episode: "Maureen Stapleton/Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow"1982The Electric GrandmotherGrandmotherTelevision movieLittle Gloria... Happy at LastNurse Emma KieslichTelevision movie1983Great PerformancesWhite QueenEpisode: "Alice in Wonderland"1984Sentimental JourneyRuthieTelevision movieFamily SecretsMaggie LukauerTelevision movie1985Private SessionsDr. Liz BolgerTelevision movie1988The ThornsPeggy / Mrs. Hamilton2 episodes: "The Other Maid" / "The Maid"Liberace: Behind the MusicFrances Liberace Television movie1989B.L. StrykerAuntie SueEpisode: "Auntie Sue"The EqualizerEmily RutherfordEpisode: "The Caper"1992Last WishIda RollinTelevision movieMiss Rose WhiteTanta PerlaTelevision movieLincolnSarah Bush LincolnVoice; Television movie 1995Road to AvonleaMaggie MacPheeEpisode: "What a Tangled Web We Weave"
Theatre