Frances Hussey Sternhagen (January 13, 1930 – November 27, 2023) was an American actress. She was known as a character actress who appeared on- and off-Broadway, in movies, and on television for over six decades.Joy, Cara."Frances Sternhagen in Talks to Join Company of Broadway Magnolias", Broadway.com, November 22, 2004. Sternhagen received numerous accolades, including two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and a Saturn Award, as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Sternhagen gained acclaim for her extensive career on the Broadway stage. She made her debut in The Skin of Our Teeth (1955). She went on to receive two Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performances as various characters in Neil Simon's comedic play The Good Doctor (1973) and as Lavinia Penniman in Ruth and Augustus Goetz's dramatic play The Heiress (1995). Her other Tony-nominated roles were for The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (1972), Equus (1975), Angel (1978), On Golden Pond (1979), and Morning's at Seven (2002).
She gained prominence and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her recurring roles as Esther Clavin in the NBC sitcom Cheers (1986–1993) and Bunny MacDougal in the HBO series Sex and the City (2000–2002). She also had recurring roles in the NBC medical drama ER (1994–2009), and the TNT series The Closer (2006–2012). Sternhagen acted in numerous films, including The Hospital (1971), Starting Over (1979), Misery (1990), and Julie & Julia (2009).
Early life and education Frances Hussey Sternhagen was born in Washington, D.C., on January 13, 1930. Her father was tax court judge John M. Sternhagen and her mother was a homemaker who served as a nurse during World War I. She was educated at the Madeira and Potomac Schools in McLean, Virginia. At Vassar College, she was elected head of the Drama Club "after silencing a giggling college crowd at a campus dining hall with her interpretation of a scene from Richard II, playing none other than Richard himself". She attended the Catholic University of America as a graduate student. She also studied at the Perry Mansfield School of the Theatre, and at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse.
Career
1948–1973: Early work Sternhagen started her career teaching acting, singing, and dancing to school children at the Milton Academy in Massachusetts, and she first performed in 1948 at a Bryn Mawr summer theater in The Glass Menagerie and Angel Street. She went on to work at Washington's Arena Stage from 1953 to 1954, then made her Broadway debut in 1955 as Miss T. Muse in The Skin of Our Teeth. The same year, she had her off-Broadway debut in Thieves' Carnival, and her TV debut in The Great Bank Robbery on Omnibus (CBS). By the following year, she had won her first Obie Award for "Distinguished Performance (Actress)" in The Admirable Bashville (1955–56).
Sternhagen made her film debut in Up the Down Staircase (1967)."Frances Sternhagen Credits" hollywood.com; accessed August 27, 2011. Following this, she worked periodically in Hollywood. She had character roles in the Paddy Chayefsky-written The Hospital (1971), Two People (1973), and Billy Wilder's Fedora (1978). Sternhagen appeared as the daughter in the original 1971 Broadway production of Edward Albee's All Over with Colleen Dewhurst and Jessica Tandy. She worked for many years in soap operas, such as Another World, The Secret Storm, Love of Life, and The Doctors, and she played two roles on One Life to Live. She is also recognized as Mrs. Marsh from a series of television commercials for Colgate toothpaste that aired in the 1970s.
1974–1993: Theater roles and Cheers Sternhagen won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1974 for the original Broadway production of Neil Simon's The Good Doctor. She was also nominated for Tony Awards in that decade for her roles in Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (1972), Equus (1975), the musical Angel (1978), which was based on Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel, and On Golden Pond (1979). She was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play in 1979 for On Golden Pond.
Sternhagen portrayed the title character in 1988's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Driving Miss Daisy, which was originated by Dana Ivey at Playwrights Horizons in New York City. Sternhagen took over the role after the show moved to the John Houseman Theatre and played it for more than two years.
During this time, Sternhagen appeared as Charles Durning's strong-willed wife in Starting Over (1979) with Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh, the acerbic and tough-as-nails Dr. Marian Lazarus opposite Sean Connery in Outland (1981), a turn that garnered her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, and played roles in Bright Lights, Big City (1988) and Doc Hollywood (1991), both alongside Michael J. Fox. Sternhagen's work as Sheriff Buster's (Richard Farnsworth) wife Deputy Virginia in Rob Reiner's Misery (1990), an adaptation of Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name, and her performance as Dr. Lynn Waldheim in Brian De Palma's 1992 psychological horror-thriller Raising Cain garnered her two more career Saturn Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Sternhagen also played Farrah Fawcett's mother in See You in the Morning (1989). She may be best known to TV audiences as Esther Clavin, mother of John Ratzenberger's Boston postman character Cliff Clavin, on the long-running series Cheers, which she played from 1986 to 1993. For her performance, she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
1994–2014: Final roles Sternhagen won a second Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1995 for the revival of The Heiress. She received her seventh and final Tony Award nomination for the 2002 revival of Paul Osborn's Morning's at Seven. Sternhagen's later television roles included Millicent Carter on ER; Bunny MacDougal, mother of Charlotte's first husband Trey, on Sex and the City (another Emmy Award nomination); a memorable Willie Rae Johnson (mother of Brenda Leigh Johnson, played by Kyra Sedgwick) on The Closer; and Law & Order, among other network dramas and sitcoms. She recorded a voice-over for a May 2002 episode of The Simpsons ("The Frying Game").
In the summer of 2005, she starred in the Broadway production of Steel Magnolias along with Marsha Mason, Delta Burke, Christine Ebersole, Lily Rabe, and Rebecca Gayheart. She also starred in the 2005 revival of Edward Albee's Seascape, produced by Lincoln Center Theater at the Booth Theater on Broadway. She received Drama Desk Award nominations in 1998 for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (which starred her own son, Paul Carlin, as her character's son, Jamie Tyrone) for the Irish Repertory TheatreLefkowitz, David."Brian Murray & Frances Sternhagen Take Irish Journey, Mar. 22" Playbill.com, March 22, 1998 and in 2005 for the World War I drama Echoes of the War. In 2013, Sternhagen was awarded the Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement. She is included in the New Rochelle Walk of Fame. Her final film roles included Irene Reppler, one of the numerous local townfolk trapped in a supermarket, in Frank Darabont's horror-chiller The Mist (2007), real-life Joy of Cooking author Irma Rombauer in Julie & Julia (2009), Clearwater Aquarium owner Gloria Forrest in Dolphin Tale (2011), and in her final screen appearance, Claire in the Rob Reiner romantic comedy And So It Goes (2014) starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton.
Personal life and death Sternhagen met Thomas A. Carlin while in graduate school and was married to him from 1956 until his death in 1991; the couple had four sons and two daughters.Profile, mcall.com; accessed October 6, 2021.
Sternhagen was a longtime resident of New Rochelle, New York. She died at home November 27, 2023, at age 93.
Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1967 Up the Down Staircase Charlotte Wolf 1967 Lady On Bus 1971 Mrs. Cushing 1973 Two People Mrs. McCluskey 1978 Fedora Miss Balfour 1979 Starting Over Marva Potter 1981 Outland Dr. Marian Lazarus 1983 Independence Day Carla Taylor 1983 Romantic Comedy Blanche Dailey 1988 Bright Lights, Big City Clara Tillinghast 1989 Communion Dr. Janet Duffy 1989 See You in the Morning Neenie 1990 Sibling Rivalry Rose Turner 1990 Misery Deputy Virginia 1991 Doc Hollywood Lillian 1991 Walking the Dog Antique Dealer Short film 1992 Raising Cain Dr. Lynn Waldheim 1998 It All Came True Amy 2000 Midnight Gospel Ruth Short film 2001 Landfall Emily Thornton 2001 The Rising Place Ruth Wilder 2002 Highway Mrs. Murray 2007 Irene Reppler 2009 Julie & Julia Irma Rombauer 2011 Dolphin Tale Gloria Forrest 2014 And So It Goes Claire
Television Year Title Role Notes 1956 Westinghouse Studio One Betty Episode: "The Arena" 1957 Westinghouse Studio One Mary Episode: "My Mother and How She Undid Me" 1957 Goodyear Television Playhouse Elizabeth Barnes Episode: "The House" 1959 Play of the Week Eva Episode: "Thieves Carnival" 1961 Play of the Week Unknown Episode: "In a Garden" 1962 Theatre-Goer TV movie 1962 Mrs. Harris Episode: "The Lady Made of Stone" 1964 Louise Kiley Episode: "May Day! May Day!" 1964 Profiles in Courage Miss Koeller Episode: "Mary S. McDowell" 1967 NET Playhouse Unknown Episode: "Infancy and Childhood" 1967 Hallmark Hall of Fame Abigail Episode: "Soldier in Love" 1967–1968 Love of Life Toni Prentiss Davis TV series 1970 The Doctors Phyllis Corrigan TV series 1971 NET Playhouse Unknown Segment: "Foul!" 1971 Another World Jane Overstreet TV series 1972 Great Performances Wilma Atkins Episode: "The Rimers of Eldritch" 1974 Jessie Reddin TV series 1974 Great Performances Paulina Episode: "Enemies" 1977 The Andros Targets Mrs. Mason Episode: "In the Event of My Death" 1978 Who'll Save Our Children? Nellie Henderson TV movie 1980 Mother and Daughter: The Loving War Mrs. Lloyd TV movie 1980 Mary Richards TV short 1983 Prototype Dorothy Forrester TV movie 1984 Various TV movie 1985 Spencer Millie Sprague 7 episodes 1986 Resting Place Eudora McCallister TV movie 1986–1993 Cheers Esther Clavin 7 episodes 1987 At Mother's Request Berenice Bradshaw TV movie 1987 Once Again Esther TV movie 1990 Follow Your Heart Cloe Sixbury TV movie 1991 American Experience (voice) Episode: "Coney Island" 1991 Dora Episode: "Here's a High Dive Into a Shallow Pool" 1991 Golden Years Gina Williams 7 episodes 1991 Law & Order Margaret Langdon Episode: "The Serpent's Tooth" 1992 She Woke Up Noelle TV movie 1992 Tales from the Crypt Effie Gluckman Episode: "None But the Lonely Heart" 1993 Mary Rafferty TV movie 1994 Vault of Horror I Unknown TV movie 1994 Charlotte Babineaux 6 episodes 1994 Tobie Yates TV movie 1995 Jean Anderson Episode: "The Choice" 1997 Law & Order Estelle Muller Episode: "Legacy" 1997–2003 ER Millicent Carter 21 episodes 1998 Hadabelle TV movie 1998 To Live Again Constance Holmes TV movie 2000–2002 Sex and the City Bunny MacDougal 10 episodes 2002 Marge Murray TV movie 2002 Mrs. Bellamy (voice) Episode: "The Frying Game" 2004 Becker Naomi Episode: "Subway Story" 2006–2012 Willie Rae Johnson 15 episodes 2012 Parenthood Blanche Braverman Episode: "Road Trip"
Theatre