Remembering Cloris Leachman 1926 - 2021

Cloris Leachman (April 30, 1926 – January 26, 2021) was an American actress and comedian, whose career spanned over seven decades. She won various accolades, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 22 nominations, making her the most nominated and, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, most awarded actress in Emmy history. In addition, she has won an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Daytime Emmy Award.

Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Leachman attended Northwestern University and began appearing in local plays as a teenager. After competing in the 1946 Miss America pageant, she secured a scholarship to study under Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in New York City, making her professional debut in 1948. Her breakthrough role was the nosy and cunning landlady Phyllis Lindstrom in the landmark CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–75), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1974 and 1975; its spin-off, Phyllis (1975–77), earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best TV Actress – Musical or Comedy.

In film, she appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971) as the jaded wife of a closeted schoolteacher in the 1950s; she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance, and the film is widely considered to be one of the greatest of all time. Additionally, she was part of Mel Brooks's ensemble cast, appearing in roles such as Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein (1974) and Madame Defarge in History of the World, Part I (1981).

Leachman won additional Emmys for the television film A Brand New Life (1973); the variety sketch show Cher (1975); the ABC serial The Woman Who Willed a Miracle (1983); and the television shows Promised Land (1998) and Malcolm in the Middle (2001–06). Her other notable film and television credits include The Twilight Zone (1961; 2003), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), WUSA (1970), Yesterday (1981), the English-language dub of the Studio Ghibli's Castle in the Sky (1998), Spanglish (2004), and Mrs. Harris (2005). Leachman released her autobiography in 2009, and continued to act in occasional roles.
Leachman died of natural causes on January 26, 2021, at her home in Encinitas, California at the age of 94 with her daughter, Dinah, by her side.

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