Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley (
February 11,
1925 –
August 20,
2001) was an
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 Actor's Studio, studying under
Elia Kazan and
Lee Strasberg.
She starred in such Broadway hits as
Picnic (play) (
1953), playing Millie Owens, and
Bus Stop (play) (
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 Award 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 (play) (
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.
Her first movie was
The Goddess (
1958), playing an unstable
movie star, Rita Shawn. In
1964, she starred in
Seance on a Wet Afternoon and was nominated for the
Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Other movies include
Frances (
1982), playing the mother of movie star
Frances Farmer opposite
Jessica Lange, in which 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 - Motion Picture. She also played
Pancho Barnes in
The Right Stuff (
1983).
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).
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.
*[
1] IBDB
*[
2] IMDb
*[
3] Website of Kim Stanley biographer Jon Krampner
