Kim Stanley (February 11, 1925 – August 20, 2001) was an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning American actress.
She was born Patricia Beth Reid in Tularosa, New Mexico. She was a drama major at the University of New Mexico and later studied at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Stanley was a successful Broadway actress with only a few motion picture roles. She was singled out by the New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson for her early work. She eventually attended The Actors Studio, studying under Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg.
She starred in such Broadway hits as Picnic (1953), playing "Millie Owens," and Bus Stop (1955), playing "Cherie."
She received the 1952 Theatre World Award for her performance of "Anna Reeves" in The Chase; and was nominated for the 1959 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for A Touch of the Poet and the 1962 Tony for Best Actress in a Play for A Far Country.
Stanley was also the leading lady of live television drama, which flourished in New York City during the 1950s. Among her many starring roles was Wilma, a star-struck 15-year-old girl from the U.S. Gulf Coast of Texas in Horton Foote's A Young Lady of Property, which aired on the Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse April 5, 1953.
A savaging by English critics after her London performance of "Masha" in The Actor's Studio production of Anton Chekhov's play The Three Sisters (1965) made her vow never to perform on stage again, a vow she kept for the rest of her life.
Stanley had four husbands, Bruce Hall (married 1945-divorced 1946), Curt Conway (married 1949-divorced 1956), Alfred Ryder (married 1958-divorced 1964) and Joseph Siegel (married 1964-divorced 1967).
She had three children, one by Conway, one by Brooks Clift (brother of Montgomery Clift) while she was married to Conway, and one by Ryder. During her marriage to Alfred Ryder, Kim Stanley converted to Judaism.
Kim Stanley died of uterine cancer at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the age of 76. She was survived by her first husband, Bruce Hall, her brother Justin Truman Reid, and her three children. Her biography, Female Brando: the Legend of Kim Stanley, by Jon Krampner, was published in the spring of 2006 by Back Stage Books, a division of Watson-Guptill Publications.
Her first movie was The Goddess (1958), playing a tragic movie star modeled on Marilyn Monroe. In 1964, she starred in Seance on a Wet Afternoon, won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actress for it and was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar.
In 1982, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Frances Farmer's possessive mother in Frances. She also played Pancho Barnes in The Right Stuff (1983).
While her on-screen legacy is stunning, some believe Kim Stanley's most powerful role in a movie is an off-screen one. She serves as the uncredited narrator in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. As the narrator, she represents the character "Jean Louise Finch" ("Scout") as an adult. Mary Badham portrays "Scout" as a child in the film.
She received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in the episode, A Cardinal Act of Mercy, on the TV series, Ben Casey (1963), and an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for playing, "Big Mama," in Tennessee Williams' Southern melodrama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1985).
