Tony Award-winner Marian Seldes, one of the premier stage actresses in America, was born on August 23, 1928 to writer Gilbert Seldes and his socialite wife, the former Alice Wadhams Hall. She studied drama at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner and dance with Martha Graham. She honed her craft with the legendary Broadway diva, ...
[on her 2010 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theater]: Yes, utterly. All I've done is live my life in the theater and loved it. If you can get an award for being happy, that's what I've got.
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[on her shoulder in 2010]: I wasn't used to pain. Except for having my daughter I've never been in a hospital. I've always had very good stamina and counted on never losing it. But I think I'm going to regain it. This award makes me feel optimistic about it.
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[on her greatest achievement besides acting]: Maybe the teaching. I hope so. Because that's helping somebody. It was the hardest thing too, because it takes an energy. If you look away from a student's eyes at the wrong moment, you can hurt them.
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On her relationship with Garson Kanin: Well, darling, if you're unhappy in a relationship, I think you just don't trust yourself for getting into another one. Garson gave me confidence. He made me feel gifted and strong. He was so kind and thoughtful, so funny. He used to say to me, if people weren't in the best of condition, he would say 'Damaged goods'. I always thought that was funny. Now when people say, 'How are you?' I say, 'I'm damaged goods'. And I am. But Garson approved of me, and I knew I could help him, too. At the end of his life, I know I did. I loved taking care of him. I took care of my father when he was dying, so I had rehearsed that in an odd way.
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[on her appearance] I've never been obsessed by how I looked. In fact, I would rather have looked more ordinary so I could play more parts truthfully. You know what I'm saying?
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Fact
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Michael Learned, Christina Rouner and she were awarded the 1996 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance for "Three Tall Women" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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She was awarded the 1996 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Leading Actress for "Three Tall Women" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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Her remains were cremated.
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Opening in limited engagement on Broadway, with Angela Lansbury, in "Deuce" by Terence McNally, in April. [February 2007]
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Teaching at Fordham University, Lincoln Center. [September 2002]
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Central Park South, New York City [June 2010]
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She made guest appearances on both of the longest running prime time dramas in US television history: Gunsmoke (1955) and Law & Order (1990).
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She was awarded the 2010 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement to the Theatre.
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She holds a place in the Guinness Book of Records for playing every performance of the play, "Deathtrap," on Broadway 1,809 for 8 shows per week for 4 years without taking a vacation or sick day.
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Mother of Katharine Claiman Andres, tutor at the Gunnery School in Washington, Connecticut. Grandmother of Timothy Andres (born in 1986) who is a composer and pianist.
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She studied at the School of American Ballet, where she studied dance with Martha Graham, and graduated from the Dalton School in New York City.
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Won Broadway's 1967 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance", and has since appeared in Albee's "Three Tall Women" and "The Play About the Baby". Her Tony Award was followed with four other nominations: as Best Actress (Dramatic) in 1971 for "Father's Day", as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) in 1978 for "Deathtrap" and, in 2003, for a revival of "Dinner at Eight", and as Best Actress (Play), in 1999, for a revival of "Ring Round the Moon".
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Between 1974 and 1982, she appeared in 179 episodes of the "CBS Radio Mystery Theater."
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Nominated for a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the revival of "Dinner at Eight." It is her fifth Tony nomination. [May 2003]
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Seldes was frequently heard on Himan Brown's CBS Mystery Theater series on radio in the 1970s.
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Entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for appearing in "Deathtrap" from 1978 until late in 1982 without ever missing a single performance.
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Earned a 1967 Tony award as Best Featured Actress in Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance", and has since appeared in Albee's "Three Tall Women" and "The Play About the Baby".
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