Lesley Ann Warren (born August 16, 1946), is a Golden Globe Award-winning, Oscar nominated American stage, film and television actress and singer.
Warren was born in New York City to a Jewish family whose surname was originally "Woronoff". The 5-foot-8 inch actress began her career as a ballet dancer, training at the School of American Ballet.
She entered the Actors Studio at the age of seventeen - reputedly the youngest applicant ever to be accepted. Her Broadway debut came in 1963 in the musical, 110 in the Shade. She won the Theatre World Award for her performance in the 1965 flop musical Drat! The Cat!. In 1973 she portrayed Scarlett O'Hara in the Los Angeles production of Scarlett, which was reviewed so scathingly it didn't continue to Broadway as planned.
Having failed to obtain the role of Liesl in the film version of The Sound of Music, her first major television success was in the title role of Rodgers and Hammerstein's television special, Cinderella, in 1965. She later replaced Barbara Bain as the leading female in the Mission: Impossible team during the 1970-1971 television season, though according to The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier by Patrick White, she was considered too inexperienced for the part and left after only one year (she was billed as Lesley Warren on the series).
For her portrayal of a dim-witted gangster's moll in the 1982 musical-comedy Victor/Victoria, Warren was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
She is a five-time Golden Globes nominee and won for the 1977 mini-series Harold Robbins' 79 Park Avenue. She was Emmy-nominated for the TV movie Family of Spies (1991).
In the comic film version of the popular board game Clue (1985), Warren starred as one of the prime murder suspects, Miss Scarlet.
Her 1967 marriage to producer Jon Peters ended in divorce. They had one son, Christopher Peters (born 1968, now an actor).
Select Filmography
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1965)
The Happiest Millionaire (1967)
The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1967)
Victor/Victoria (1982) (Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress)
A Night in Heaven (1983)
Choose Me (1984)
Clue (1985)
Burglar (1987)
Life Stinks (1991)
Pure Country (1992)
Color of Night (1994)
Joseph (1995)
The Limey (1999)
Deepwater (2006)
Constellation (2007)
Television
She has also appeared extensively on television, most notably in Mission: Impossible (1970-71). In 1970 she also had the lead role in an unbroadcast pilot based upon the 1965 film Cat Ballou. She also appeared as a guest star on a third-season episode of The Muppet Show. Most recently, she has had recurring roles on Will & Grace, as Will's dad's mistress, and on Desperate Housewives, as Susan's mother. She played Lily Lebowski's mother on Crossing Jordan until the character was killed. She has also played the role of Kip Stedman's mother on the ABC show "Less Than Perfect". She currently plays the role of Mary's mother in the USA Network original series, In Plain Sight.
External links
Lesley Ann Warren at the Internet Movie Database
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesley_Ann_Warren"
Categories: 1946 births | American film actors | American Jews | American musical theatre actors | American stage actors | American television actors | Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts alumni | Jewish actors | Living people | Mission: Impossible | People from New York City
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