Lee Ann Remick (December 14, 1935 – July 2, 1991)
was an American film and television actress. Among her best-known
films are
Anatomy of a
Murder (1959),
Days of Wine and Roses
(1962), and
The Omen (1976).
Early life
Remick was
born in Quincy,
Massachusetts
, the daughter of Margaret Patricia (née Waldo), an actress, and Francis
Edwin "Frank" Remick, who owned a department store. She attended the
Swaboda School of Dance and studied acting at Barnard College
and the Actors Studio
, making her Broadway theatre
debut in 1953 with Be Your
Age.
Career
Remick made her film debut in
Elia
Kazan's
A Face in the
Crowd.
While filming the movie in Arkansas
, Remick
lived with a local family and practiced baton twirling so that she
would be believable as the teenager who wins the heart of Lonesome
Rhodes (played by Andy
Griffith).
After appearing as Eula Varner, the hot-blooded daughter-in-law of
Will Varner (
Orson Welles) in 1958's
The Long, Hot Summer,
she appeared in
These Thousand
Hills as a dance hall girl. Remick came to prominence as a
rape victim whose husband is tried for killing her attacker in Otto
Preminger's
Anatomy of a
Murder. Lee made a second film with Elia Kazan called
Wild River (1960), co-starring
with
Montgomery Clift and
Jo Van Fleet, where she gives an understated
yet effective performance.
In 1962, she was nominated for an
Academy
Award as
Best Actress for her
performance as the alcoholic wife of
Jack
Lemmon in
Days of
Wine and Roses.
When
Marilyn Monroe was fired during
the filming of the comedy
Something's Got to Give, the
studio announced that Remick would be her replacement. However,
co-star
Dean Martin refused to continue,
saying that while he admired Remick, he had signed on to do the
picture strictly to work with Monroe.
Remick appeared in the 1964 Broadway musical
Anyone Can Whistle, written by
Stephen Sondheim and
Arthur Laurents, a highly unconventional
show that ran for only a week. Remick's performance is captured on
the original cast recording. This began a lifelong friendship
between Remick and Sondheim, and she later appeared in the landmark
1985 concert version of his musical
Follies.
Remick received a
Tony Award nomination
in 1966 for her role as a blind woman terrorized by drug smugglers
in the thriller
Wait Until
Dark (the character played by
Audrey Hepburn in the film version).
She co-starred with
Gregory Peck in the
1976 horror film
The Omen, in
which her adopted son turns out to be the Anti-Christ.
Remick later appeared in several made-for-TV movies or miniseries
(for which she earned seven
Emmy nominations).
Most were of a historical nature, including two noted miniseries:
Ike, in which she
portrayed
Kay Summersby, alongside
Robert Duvall as General
Dwight Eisenhower,
Haywire where she compellingly portrayed
Margaret Sullavan and
Jennie: Lady Randolph
Churchill where she portrayed the title character,
Winston Churchill's American
mother.
Personal life
Remick's first husband was Bill Colleran, an American television
producer, with whom she had a son Matthew and daughter Kate. Her
second husband was British film producer Kip Gowans. She died on
July 2, 1991 at age 55 at her home in Los Angeles of
kidney and
liver cancer.
Remick was cremated at Westwood Memorial Park.
Remick has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6104 Hollywood
Boulevard.
Popular culture
Remick was the subject of
The
Go-Betweens' first single, "Lee Remick", as well as
Hefner's
1998
single of the same title (the two songs are unrelated).
Filmography
Television
References
- Playing Jennie - The Churchill Centre
- http://rememberleeremick.com/family/remember_remicks1.htm
-
http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/r/Lee%20Remick/lee_remick.htm
External links
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