Mary Elizabeth Hartman (December 23, 1943 – June 10, 1987) was an American actress, best known for her performance in the 1965 film A Patch of Blue, a role for which she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Hartman was born in Youngstown, Ohio, where she became known to patrons of the Youngstown Playhouse as "Biff" Hartman. After gaining valuable experience in community theater, she relocated to New York City. In 1964, Hartman was signed to play the ingénue lead in the Broadway comedy, Everybody Out, the Castle is Sinking.
In 1964, Hartman was screen-tested by MGM and Warner Brothers. In the early autumn of 1964, she was offered a leading role in A Patch of Blue, opposite Sidney Poitier and Shelley Winters. The role won Hartman widespread critical acclaim, a fact proudly noted by the news media in her hometown. The role also won Hartman an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. At the time of her nomination in 1966, Elizabeth Hartman (who was 22 years old) was the youngest nominee ever in the Best Actress category. That same year, Hartman received an achievement award from the National Association of Theater Owners.
She went on to star in three well-received films, The Group, You're a Big Boy Now and The Beguiled. A role as wife of former Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall (1973) was followed a decade later by integral voice work in 1982's The Secret of NIMH, wherein she voiced mouse-heroine Mrs. Brisby. The Secret of NIMH proved to be Hartman's last Hollywood film role.
Throughout much of her life, Hartman suffered from depression. In her later years, her mental health continued to decline and she moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to be closer to her family. In 1984, she divorced her husband, screenwriter Gill Dennis, after a five-year separation. In 1987, Hartman fell to her death from a fifth-floor window in Pittsburgh in what was believed to be a suicide. Hartman's body was returned to her hometown and interred at the Boardman Memorial Park, beneath two maple trees.
