Tammy Grimes
Encyclopedia
Early life
Grimes was born in Lynn, MassachusettsLynn, Massachusetts
Lynn is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 89,050 at the 2000 census. An old industrial center, Lynn is home to Lynn Beach and Lynn Heritage State Park and is about north of downtown Boston.-17th century:...
, the daughter of Eola Willard (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Niles), a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School
Beaver Country Day School
Beaver Country Day School is an independent, college preparatory day school for students in grades 6 through 12 founded in 1920. The school is located on a campus in the village of Chestnut Hill, in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA, near Boston. Beaver is a member of the Cum Laude Society, the...
, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chestnut Hill is a wealthy New England village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of...
. She attended Stephens College
Stephens College
Stephens College is a women's college located in Columbia, Missouri. It is the second oldest female educational establishment that is still a women's college in the United States. It was founded on August 24, 1833 as the Columbia Female Academy. In 1856, David H. Hickman turned it into a college,...
in Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...
, and then studied acting at New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse.
Career
Known for a self-created persona described as "a daffy but endearing pseudo-English eccentric" with a "slightly askew accent that is two parts Grimesian British to one part British British" and a distinctive singing voice one critic called "a low, throaty quiver, a hum that takes wings", Grimes made her debut on the New York stage at the Neighborhood PlayhouseNeighborhood Playhouse
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is an actor training school at 340 East 54th Street in New York City, generally associated with the Meisner technique of Sanford Meisner.-History:...
in May 1955 in Jonah and the Whale. She made her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
stage debut as an understudy for Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances....
in the starring role in Bus Stop
Bus Stop (play)
Bus Stop is a 1955 play by William Inge. The 1956 film is only loosely based upon it.-Characters:Bus Stop is a drama, with romantic and some comedic elements. It is set in a diner in rural Kansas, about 20 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri during a snowstorm from which bus passengers must take...
in June 1955. In 1956, she appeared in the off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
production, The Littlest Revue, and in 1959 had the lead role in the Broadway production of Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's play Look After Lulu!
Look After Lulu!
Look After Lulu! is a play by British actor and playwright Noël Coward, based on "Occupe-toi d'Amelie" by Georges Feydeau. It is set in Paris in 1908. The farcical story concerns an attractive prostitute who is entrusted to a friend by her lover, when he goes into the army...
, after she was discovered in a nightclub by the playwright.
She starred in the 1960 musical comedy The Unsinkable Molly Brown
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (musical)
The Unsinkable Molly Brown is a musical with music and lyrics by Meredith Willson and book by Richard Morris. The plot is a fictionalized account of the life of Margaret Brown, who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and her wealthy miner-husband....
for which she won a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
(Best Featured Actress in a Musical) for what The New York Times called her "buoyant" performance as a rough-hewn Colorado social climber. She portrayed the title character, a Western mining millionairess who survived the sinking of the Titanic. In 1964, she appeared in the episode "The He-She Chemistry" of Craig Stevens
Craig Stevens (actor)
Craig Stevens was an American motion picture and television actor.-Early and personal life:Born Gail Shikles, Jr., in Liberty, Missouri, his father was a high school teacher....
's CBS drama Mr. Broadway
Mr. Broadway
Mr. Broadway is a 13-episode CBS adventure and drama television series starring Craig Stevens , formerly of Peter Gunn, as New York City public relations specialist Mike Bell. The program aired at 9 p.m. Eastern time Saturdays from September 26 to December 26, 1964...
. She made two separate appearances on the early '60s TV series Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
.
Tammy Grimes was originally chosen to play the part given to Elizabeth Montgomery
Elizabeth Montgomery
Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, as Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape and as Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden.-Early life:Born in Los...
in the hit television situation comedy Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
, but was let out of her contract when Noel Coward asked her to star in High Spirits
High Spirits (musical)
High Spirits is a musical with a book, lyrics, and music by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray, based on the play Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward, about a man's problems caused by the spirit of his dead wife....
, a Broadway musical directed by Coward based on his play Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit (play)
Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...
.
In 1966, Grimes starred in her own ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television series, The Tammy Grimes Show, in which she played a modern-day heiress who loved to spend money. Receiving "unfavorable critical reaction and poor ratings", it ran for only a month, although an additional six episodes had already been made.The Tammy Grimes Show remains one of the shortest series in television history. In 1958, ABC ran a five-episode anthology series called Encounter
Encounter (TV series)
Encounter is a five-week anthology television series aired from Toronto, Canada, and carried by both the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and ABC from October 5 to November 2, 1958.The one-hour dramas were either romance, adventure, or mystery stories...
, which originated from Toronto, Canada.
Returning to the Broadway stage in 1969 after almost a decade of performing in what The New York Times called "dubious delights", Grimes appeared in a revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives
Private Lives
Private Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for...
as "Amanda", winning the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Actress. Clive Barnes
Clive Barnes
Clive Alexander Barnes, CBE was a British-born American writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977 he was the dance and theater critic for the New York Times, the most powerful position he had held, since its theater critics' reviews historically have had great influence on the success or failure of...
in The New York Times review called her performance "outrageously appealing. She plays every cheap trick in the histrionic book with supreme aplomb and adorable confidence. Her voice moans, purrs, splutters; she gesticulates with her eyes, almost shouts with her hair. She is all campy, impossible woman, a lovable phony with the hint of tigress about her, so ridiculously artificial that she just has to be for real".
During her career, she spent several seasons at the Stratford Festival of Canada
Stratford Festival of Canada
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is an internationally recognized annual celebration of theatre running from April to November in the Canadian city of Stratford, Ontario...
in Stratford, Ontario
Stratford, Ontario
Stratford is a city on the Avon River in Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a population of 32,000.When the area was first settled by Europeans in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is the seat of Perth County. Stratford was...
and has appeared in a number of television series and motion pictures. Grimes has also entertained at various New York City night clubs and recorded several albums of songs; she also recited poetry as part of a 1968 solo act in the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel. Her voice can be heard in romantic duets on some of Ben Bagley's anthology albums of Broadway songs under his Painted Smiles
Painted Smiles
Painted Smiles is the name of a small record label run by Ben Bagley and based in New York City. The first of this set of stereo albums were of the songs of his often satirical Shoestring Revues which were performed off-Broadway starting in the late 1950s...
record label. In 1982, she hosted the final season of CBS Radio Mystery Theater
CBS Radio Mystery Theater
CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS affiliates from 1974 to 1982....
. In 1983 Grimes was dismissed from her co-starring role in the Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
play Actors and Actresses, reportedly due to an inability to learn her lines.
In 2003, Grimes was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. She also appeared in the rotating cast of the Off-Broadway staged reading of Wit & Wisdom
Wit & Wisdom
Wit & Wisdom is a play conceived and put together by Vivian Gornick and Nora Eisenberg and done by the Colleagues Theatre Company which premiered at the Off-Broadway Arclight Theatre in New York City, New York. It ran from March 5 to March 30, 2003.-Plot:...
.
She remains active on stage. In 2004 she joined the company of "Tasting Memories", a "compilation of delicious reveries in poetry, song and prose," with a starry rotating cast including Kitty Carlisle Hart, Rosemary Harris, Philip Bosco, Alvin Epstein, Joy Franz and Kathleen Noone.
In 2005 Grimes worked with director Brandon Jameson to voice UNICEF's multi-award winning tribute to Sesame Workshop.
In recent years, Grimes has showcased her talents in a critically acclaimed one-woman show.
Personal life
Grimes married Canadian actor Christopher PlummerChristopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
in August 1956, with whom she had a daughter, actress Amanda Plummer. They were divorced in 1960.
Her second husband was actor Jeremy Slate
Jeremy Slate
Jeremy Slate was an American film and television actor.-Early life:He attended a military academy and joined the navy when he was 16. He was barely 18 when his destroyer assisted in the Normandy Invasion on D-Day . After the war he attended St. Lawrence University where he graduated with honors in...
, whom she married in 1966 and divorced a year later.
Her third husband was composer Richard Bell (died 2005), whom she married in 1971.
In 1965 Grimes made headlines after she had been beaten and injured twice in four days by what were described as "white racists". According to a report, "Miss Grimes said she believed the attacks were related to her association with several Negro entertainers and recent appearances in public with Sammy Davis Jr., the Negro actor, who was said to be staging a night club act for her".
Awards
- Theatre World AwardTheatre World AwardThe Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
- Look After Lulu (1959) - Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical - The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1961)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - Private Lives (1970)
Filmography
- High ArtHigh ArtHigh Art is an independent film directed by Lisa Cholodenko and starring Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell.- Synopsis :Sydney , age 24, is a woman who has her whole life mapped out in front of her...
(1998) - Trouble on the CornerTrouble on the CornerTrouble on the Corner is a 1997 Crime, Drama Film in which Tony Goldwyn plays Jeff Steward, a psychologist, takes good care of his patients mostly living in the same apartment. One day a piece of the bathroom ceiling collapse so he can watch the woman living in the upper apartment taking a bath...
(1997) - A Modern AffairA Modern AffairA Modern Affair is an independent feature directed by Vern Oakley and produced by Tribe Pictures. Starring Stanley Tucci and Lisa Eichhorn, the film's plot reverses the conventions of romantic comedies: instead of man meet woman - fall in love, marry and have baby, in this film the woman gets...
(1995) - Backstreet Justice (1994)
- Slaves of New YorkSlaves of New YorkSlaves of New York is a 1989 comedy-drama Merchant Ivory Productions film. It was directed byJames Ivory, produced by Ismail Merchant, and starred Bernadette Peters, Adam Coleman Howard, Chris Sarandon, Mary Beth Hurt, Mercedes Ruehl, Madeleine Potter, and Steve Buscemi.Based on the stories Slaves...
(1989) - Mr. NorthMr. NorthMr. North is a 1988 American comedy-drama film starring Anthony Edwards, based on the 1973 novel Theophilus North by Thornton Wilder.Directed by Danny Huston, the film became a family project; produced by John Huston, it also stars Anjelica Huston, Danny's future wife Virginia Madsen, and Allegra...
(1988) - America (film)America (1986)
- The StuffThe StuffThe Stuff is a 1985 American horror film written, produced, and directed by Larry Cohen and starring Michael Moriarty, Garrett Morris, Andrea Marcovicci, and Paul Sorvino. It was also the last film of noted actor Alexander Scourby.-Plot:...
(1985) - The Last UnicornThe Last Unicorn (film)The Last Unicorn is a 1982 fantasy film produced by Rankin/Bass for ITC Entertainment and animated by Topcraft. The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Peter S. Beagle, who also wrote the film's screenplay...
(Molly Grue-voice) (1982) - Can't Stop the MusicCan't Stop the MusicCan't Stop the Music is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by Nancy Walker. It is a pseudo-biography of disco's Village People which bears only a vague resemblance to the actual story of the group's formation...
(1980) - The Runner Stumbles by Milan StittMilan StittMilan Stitt was an American playwright and educator.Milan Stitt was born in Detroit, Michigan; he graduated from Cooley High School in 1959. Stitt then studied at Albion College to become a priest before receiving his BA from the University of Michigan and MFA from the Yale School of Drama...
(1979) - Somebody Killed Her HusbandSomebody Killed Her HusbandSomebody Killed Her Husband is a 1978 comedy/mystery film directed by Lamont Johnson and written by Reginald Rose. It starred Farrah Fawcett and Jeff Bridges. Also in the cast were John Wood, Tammy Grimes and John Glover. The film is set in Manhattan, New York City...
(1978) - The Horror at 37,000 FeetThe Horror at 37,000 FeetThe Horror at 37,000 Feet is an American horror television movie made for CBS television by David Lowell Rich. The film first aired in 1973. In the movie, demonic forces terrorize the passengers on a Boeing 747 from London to New York....
(1973) - Play It As It LaysPlay It As It LaysPlay It as It Lays is a 1970 novel by the American writer Joan Didion. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. The book was made into a 1972 movie starring Tuesday Weld as Maria and Anthony Perkins as B.Z...
(1972) - Arthur! Arthur!Arthur! Arthur!Arthur! Arthur! is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Samuel Gallu and starring Shelley Winters, Donald Pleasence and Terry-Thomas. A dull and unsuccessful inventor begins to develop a second identity as a man about town with a completely different life....
(1969)
Stage
- The Littlest Revue (1959)
- The Unsinkable Molly BrownThe Unsinkable Molly Brown (musical)The Unsinkable Molly Brown is a musical with music and lyrics by Meredith Willson and book by Richard Morris. The plot is a fictionalized account of the life of Margaret Brown, who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and her wealthy miner-husband....
(1960) - Rattle of a Simple ManRattle of a Simple ManRattle of a Simple Man is a 1964 British comedy film directed by Muriel Box and starring Diane Cilento, Harry H. Corbett and Michael Medwin. After travelling down from Manchester to watch the FA Cup final, a naive young man becomes involved with a prostitute.-Selected cast:* Diane Cilento as...
(1963) - High SpiritsHigh Spirits (musical)High Spirits is a musical with a book, lyrics, and music by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray, based on the play Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward, about a man's problems caused by the spirit of his dead wife....
(1964) - The Only Game in Town (1968)
- Private LivesPrivate LivesPrivate Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for...
(revival) (1969) - A Musical Jubilee (1975)
- California SuiteCalifornia SuiteCalifornia Suite is a 1976 play by Neil Simon. Similar in structure to his earlier Plaza Suite, the comedy is composed of four playlets set in Suite 203-04, which consists of a living room and an adjoining bedroom with an ensuite bath, in The Beverly Hills Hotel.-Plot:In Visitor from New York,...
(1976) - TartuffeTartuffeTartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is one of his most famous plays.-History:Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664...
(revival)(1977) - Trick (1979)
- 42nd Street42nd Street (musical)42nd Street is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin, and music by Harry Warren. The 1980 Broadway production, directed by an ailing Gower Champion and orchestrated by Philip J. Lang, won the Tony Award for Best Musical and became a long-running hit...
(1980) - Sunset (1983)
- Orpheus DescendingOrpheus DescendingOrpheus Descending is a play by Tennessee Williams. It was first presented on Broadway in 1957 where it enjoyed a brief run with only modest success. The play is basically a rewrite of an earlier play by Williams called Battle of Angels, which was written in 1940, but had been closed on its opening...
(revival) (1989) - Wit & WisdomWit & WisdomWit & Wisdom is a play conceived and put together by Vivian Gornick and Nora Eisenberg and done by the Colleagues Theatre Company which premiered at the Off-Broadway Arclight Theatre in New York City, New York. It ran from March 5 to March 30, 2003.-Plot:...
(2003)
Discography
Grimes released three known one-off singles during the 1960s, none of which charted:- "Home Sweet Heaven"/"You'd Better Love Me" (ABC-Paramount 10551) 1964, from High SpiritsHigh Spirits (musical)High Spirits is a musical with a book, lyrics, and music by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray, based on the play Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward, about a man's problems caused by the spirit of his dead wife....
- "The Big Hurt"/"Nobody Needs Your Love More Than I Do" (Reprise 0487) 1966
- "I Really Loved Harold"/"Father O'Conner" (Buddha 99) 1969
Her debut solo album, "Julius Monk presents Tammy Grimes" (1959), featured the music from her one-woman show at the NYC nightclub Downstairs at the Upstairs. The album was re-released on the AEI label in 1982.
In the early 1960s, she recorded two more albums, which were re-released on one CD,The Unmistakable Tammy Grimes.
She is featured on the following Original Cast Recordings: The Littlest Revue, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, High Spririts, 42nd Street, and Sunset, as well as a TV Cast Album of the televised version of George M Cohan's "45 Minutes from Broadway".
All have been released on CD, though High Spirits in now out of print.
Tammy Grimes also did the introductory narration for the American rebroadcast of the BBC's 1981 radio production of The Lord of the Rings.
She recorded an album of children's stories, read out loud, called "Hooray for Captain Jane" in the early 1970s.
Recorded "Gorey by Grimes" in 1980, giving her voice to numerous Edward Gorey
Edward Gorey
Edward St. John Gorey was an American writer and artist noted for his macabre illustrated books.-Early life:...
stories. On cassette (Caedmon CP 1651) and LP (Caedmon TC 1651). Out of print.