Estelle Parsons

Estelle Parsons
Parsons in a Love, American Style episode in 1973
Born	(1927-11-20) November 20, 1927 Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education	Connecticut College (BA) Boston University
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1956–present
Known for	Roseanne The Conners Bonnie and Clyde
Spouses	Richard Gehman ​ ​ (m. 1953; div. 1958)​ Peter Zimroth ​ ​ (m. 1983; died 2021)​
Children	3

Estelle Parsons (born November 20, 1927) is an American actress.

After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program Today and made her stage debut in 1961. During the 1960s, Parsons established her career on Broadway before progressing to film. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and was also nominated for her work in Rachel, Rachel (1968).

Parsons worked extensively in film and theatre during the 1970s and later directed several Broadway productions. Later work included perhaps her best known role, as Beverly Harris, mother of the title character, on the sitcom Roseanne, and, later, on its spinoff The Conners. She has been nominated five times for the Tony Award (four times for Lead Actress of a Play and once for Featured Actress). In 2004, Parsons was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Early life

Parsons was born in Lynn Hospital, Lynn, Massachusetts, the younger of two children born to Elinor Ingeborg (née Mattsson), a native of Sweden, and Eben Parsons, who was of English descent. Estelle's older sister, Elaine Parsons Ruggles, was born in 1923 and died in 1996.

She attended Oak Grove School for Girls in Maine. After graduating from Connecticut College in 1949, Parsons initially studied law at Boston University School of Law, and then worked as a singer with a band before settling on an acting career in the early 1950s.

Career

Parsons moved to New York City, and worked as a writer, producer and commentator for The Today Show. She made her Broadway debut in 1956 in the ensemble of the Ethel Merman musical Happy Hunting. Her Off-Broadway debut was in 1961, and she received a Theatre World Award in 1963 for her performance in Whisper into My Good Ear/Mrs. Dally Has a Lover (1962).

In 1964, Parsons won an Obie Award for Best Actress for her performance in two Off-Broadway plays, Next Time I'll Sing to You and In the Summer House. In 1967, she starred with Stacy Keach in the premiere of Joseph Heller's play We Bombed in New Haven at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Parsons has received Tony Award nominations for her work in The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968), And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (1971), Miss Margarida's Way (1978), Morning's at Seven (2002), and The Velocity of Autumn (2014). She played Leokadia Begbick in the American premiere of the Weill–Brecht opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1970), and performed as Mrs. Peachum to Lotte Lenya's Jenny in Threepenny Opera on tour and in New York City. In 1978 she played Lady Macbeth in the Kauai Community Players production. She also played Ruth in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway in 1981. From June 17, 2008, through May 17, 2009, she played the role of Violet Weston in August: Osage County. She continued playing the role during the show's national tour beginning July 24, 2009, in Denver.

In 1979, Parsons directed a production of Antony and Cleopatra at Interart Theatre in New York in which she incorporated some Spanish into the show, prompting Joseph Papp to invite her to direct at the New York Shakespeare Festival (now The Public Theatre), and becoming the first woman to do so. As a director, Parsons has a number of Broadway credits, including a production of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and As You Like It in 1986. Off-Broadway, she directed Dario Fo's Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo (1983). She served as the Artistic Director of the Actors Studio for five years, from 1998 to 2003.

In 2016, she starred in Israel Horovitz's new play Out of the Mouths of Babes along with Judith Ivey directed by Barnet Kellman at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City.

In 2004, Parsons was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Her film career includes an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and a nomination for Rachel, Rachel (1968). She received a BAFTA Award nomination for her role in Watermelon Man (1970), and appeared in I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Two People (1973), A Memory of Two Mondays (1974), For Pete's Sake (1974), Dick Tracy (1990) and Boys on the Side (1995).

On television, Parsons played the recurring role of Beverly Harris, the mother of the title character on Roseanne; her Beverly character is the daughter of character Nana Mary, played by fellow Academy Award winner Shelley Winters. Other television credits include appearances in The Patty Duke Show, Love, American Style, All in the Family, Archie Bunker's Place, Open Admissions, Frasier, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and The Good Wife, as well as The UFO Incident: The Story of Betty and Barney Hill and the PBS production of June Moon. She played the part of Babe in three episodes of the second and fifth seasons of Grace and Frankie.

She was honored with a Woman of Achievement Award from the Women's Project Theater in 2009. In 2010, she appeared in London, playing psychic Helga ten Dorp in Deathtrap at the Noël Coward Theatre in the West End.

Parsons' most recent Broadway appearances include Good People (2011) and Nice Work If You Can Get It (2012).

In April 2018, Parsons returned to television reprising her role as Beverly Harris, mother of Roseanne Barr's title character, in season 10, episode 5 of Roseanne.

Personal life

While co-starring with fellow Academy Award-winning actor Jack Lemmon in a new Ernest Thompson stage play in Los Angeles, Parsons appeared on the November 1, 1983, episode of The Tonight Show, and told Johnny Carson that Lemmon had been her first boyfriend when they were teenagers in the 1940s.

Parsons married author Richard Gehman in 1953. They had twin daughters, reporter Abbie and actress Martha Gehman, before divorcing in 1958. Her grandson Eben Britton, Abbie's son, is a former player for the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars as a guard/tackle, and who was named for his great-grandfather, Estelle's father.

In January 1983, she married her partner of 10 years, Peter Zimroth, who had served as Assistant U.S. Attorney, Assistant District Attorney and court-appointed monitor of the NYPD's policies and practices regarding stop-and-frisk. They adopted a son, Abraham, born in February 1983. Peter Zimroth died on November 8, 2021.

In 1976, Parsons was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1963	Ladybug Ladybug	JoAnn's Mother
1967	Bonnie and Clyde	Blanche	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance (2nd place)
1968	Rachel, Rachel	Calla Mackie	Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1969	Don't Drink the Water	Marion Hollander
1970	Watermelon Man	Althea Gerber	Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
	I Walk the Line	Ellen Haney
	I Never Sang for My Father	Alice
1973	Two People	Barbara Newman
1974	For Pete's Sake	Helen Robbins
1975	Fore Play	1st Lady / Barmaid
1989	The Lemon Sisters	Mrs. Kupchak
1990	The Blue Men	May
	Dick Tracy	Mrs. Trueheart
1995	Boys on the Side	Louise
1996	Looking for Richard	Margaret
1997	That Darn Cat	Old Lady McCracken
2018	Diane	Mary

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	Today	Self	Episode dated 6 September 1954
1963	The Defenders	Mrs. Martin	"Metamorphosis"
1964	The DuPont Show of the Week	Carrie Bernice	"The Gambling Heart"
	The Patty Duke Show	Mrs. Appleton	"The Con Artist"
1965	The Doctors and the Nurses	Mrs. Meyers	"Where There's Smoke"
1966	The Trials of O'Brien	Miss Baines	"Alarums and Excursions"
1968	Snap Judgment	Self	Episode dated 18 November 1968
	Hemingway's Spain: A Love Affair	Self (voice only)
	Kraft Music Hall	Self	Episode #11.30
1970	The Front Page	Mollie Malloy
	The David Frost Show	Self	Episode #2.240
1971	Great Performances	Agnes	A Memory of Two Mondays
1972	Love, American Style	Bernice	"Love and the Clinic/Love and the Perfect Wedding/Love and the President/Love and the Return of Raymond"
	Medical Center	Bev	"Wall of Silence"
1973	Terror on the Beach	Arlene Glynn
1974	The Gun and the Pulpit	Sadie Underwood
	Great Performances	Lucille	"June Moon"
1975	The UFO Incident	Betty Hill
1976	The Tenth Level	Crossland
	NBC Special Treat	Edwina Kemp	"Big Henry and the Polka Dot Kid"
	All in the Family	Dolores Mancheney Fencel	"Archie's Secret Passion"
1978	All in the Family	Blanche Hefner	2 episodes
1979	Archie Bunker's Place	Blanche Hefner	"Blanche and Murray"
	Backstairs at the White House	Bess Truman	Four episodes
1981	The Gentleman Bandit	Marjorie Seebode
	Guests of the Nation	Kate O'Connell
1982	Today	Self	Episode dated 14 January 1982
	American Playhouse	Mabel Lederer/Angela Motorman	"Come Along with Me"
1987	American Playhouse		"Waiting for the Moon" (the producers wish to thank)
1988	Open Admissions	Clare Block
1989–1997, 2018	Roseanne	Beverly Harris	61 episodes Nominated for TV Land Award
1990	Everyday Heroes	Matty Jennings
1992	A Private Matter	Mary Chessen	Nominated—CableACE Award Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries
1993	The American Clock	Older Doris
	Family Feud	Self	"Roseanne vs. Jackie Thomas Sitcoms"
1994	Inside the Actors Studio	Self
1997	Touched by an Angel	Jeannette Fisher	"Sandcastles"
1998	The Love Letter	Beatrice Corrigan
1999	Freak City	Mrs. Stanapolous
2000	Backstory	Self	"Bonnie and Clyde"
2001	100 Centre Street	Esther O'Neill	"The Fix"
2002	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Rose Rinato	"Denial"
2004	Frasier	Celeste's Mother (voice) Opal Herself (photograph)	"Frasier-Lite" "Coots and Ladders" "Goodnight, Seattle"
	Strip Search	Roberta Gray
	Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde	Self
2005	Empire Falls	Bea	2 episodes
2013	The Good Wife	Nana Joe	Episode: "What's in the Box?"
2016–2019	Grace and Frankie	Babe	3 episodes
2018–2024	The Conners	Beverly Harris	10 episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1956	Happy Hunting	Mary Mills	Majestic Theatre, Broadway
1958	Whoop-Up	Reservation Resident	Shubert Theatre, Broadway
1960	Beg, Borrow or Steal	Ollie	Martin Beck Theatre, Broadway
1961	Whisper Into My Good Ear/ Mrs. Daily Has a Lover	Mrs. Daily	Off-Broadway
1964	Next Time I'll Sing to You	Lizzie	Off-Broadway
1964	Ready When You Are, C.B.!	Felicia	Brooks Atkinson Theatre, Broadway
1966	Malcolm	Madame Rosita/Laureen	Shubert Theatre, Broadway
1967	We Bombed in New Haven	Performer	Yale Repertory Theatre
1968	The Seven Descents of Myrtle	Myrtle	Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway
1969	Peer Gynt	Aase	Delacorte Theater, Off-Broadway
1970	Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny	Leocadia Begbick	Off-Broadway
1970	Threepenny Opera	Mrs. Peachum	US Tour
1971	And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little	Catherine Reardon	Morosco Theatre, Broadway
1973	Barbary Shore	Guinevere	Off-Broadway
1974	Mert & Phil	Mert	Vivan Beaumont Theater, Broadway
1977	Ladies at the Alamo	Dede Cooper	Martin Beck Theatre, Broadway
1978	Miss Margarida's Way	Miss Margarida	Ambassador Theatre, Broadway
1981	The Pirates of Penzance	Ruth	Uris Theatre, Broadway
1989	Baby Goya	Goya	McGinn-Cazale Theater, Off-Broadway
1989	The Unguided Missile	Martha Mitchell	American Place Theater, Off-Broadway
1990	Miss Margarida's Way	Miss Margarida	Helen Hayes Theater, Broadway Revival
1992	Shimada	Denny	Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway
1994	The Shadow Box	Felicity	Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway
1996	Grace & Glorie	Grace Stiles	Laura Pels Theater, Off-Broadway
2000	The Last of the Thorntons	Fannie Mae Gossett	Pershing Square, Off-Broadway
2002	Morning's at Seven	Cora Swanson	Lyceum Theatre, Broadway
2005	Harold and Maude	Maude	Paper Mill Playhouse
2009	August: Osage County	Violet Weston (Replacement)	Imperial Theatre, Broadway, US Tour
2010	Deathtrap	Helga ten Dorp	Noel Coward Theatre, West End
2011	Good People	Dottie	Manhattan Theatre Club, Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Broadway
2012	Nice Work If You Can Get It	Millicent Winter	Imperial Theatre, Broadway
2014	The Velocity of Autumn	Alexandra	Booth Theatre, Broadway
2016	Out of the Mouths of Babes	Evelyn	Cherry Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway
2019	A Bright Room Called Day	Die Alte	Public Theater, Off-Broadway
2020	Unknown Soldier	Lucy Anderson	Playwrights Horizons, Off-Broadway

Audio dramas

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2023–2024	Around the Sun	Bibi	2 episodes

External links

• Estelle Parsons at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Estelle Parsons at IMDb
• Estelle Parsons at the TCM Movie Database (archived)
• Estelle Parsons at the Internet Broadway Database
• Estelle Parsons at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
• Estelle Parsons at the University of Wisconsin's Actors Studio audio collection
• Estelle Parsons at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Estelle Parsons reading Flannery O'Connor's story "Everything That Rises Must Converge" on YouTube