In her long career, Beatrice Straight did quite a bit of work in
the movies, despite plying her trade mostly onstage. When she did grace
the silver screen, she did it with great skill. Her first love was
theater, having debuted on Broadway in the 1935 "Bitter Oleander". Her
work garnered her much acclaim, including laurels in her Tony-winning
performance for which she won the award for best supporting actress as Elizabeth Proctor
in the 1953 production of
Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". In addition to
theater and movies, she gave us notable work on television. In
1978, she won an Emmy nomination for her part as the matriarch Alice
Dain Leggett in the miniseries
The Dain Curse (1978). No less stately, she played the
part of
Lynda Carter's Queen Mother in the 1970s
Wonder Woman (1975) series. Her life
was touched by that same kind of elegance and stateliness that she
often portrayed onstage and on-screen. She was born Beatrice Whitney
Straight in Old Westbury on Long Island. Her father, banker and
diplomat Willard Dickerman Straight, associated with the likes of J.P.
Morgan. Her mother, Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight, was an heiress of
the Whitneys, a dynastic (in the sense of TV's own "Dynasty"), moneyed
family on the eastern seaboard. Beatrice went to the best schools and
caught the acting bug while a student in Devonshire, England, rendering
a critically acclaimed performance in a school production of Ibsen's "A
Doll's House." Her studies subsequently turned to acting, and she studied
under the tutelage of
Michael Chekhov, nephew of Russian playwright
Anton Chekhov and a member of the Moscow Art Theatre. Their relationship was
somewhat symbiotic in that she persuaded him to start an acting school,
later teaching there herself. It was through her work in the theater
that she met her husband
Peter Cookson, appearing opposite him as leading
lady in "The Heiress" in 1948. She is perhaps best known for her
achievement in the 1976 movie
Network (1976); after only three days of work in
that movie in just a few scenes that actually made it into the final
cut, Beatrice Straight contributed such a stellar performance that she
earned the Academy Award for the best performance by a supporting
actress.
Deceived(1991)as Adrienne's Mother
People Like Us(1990)as Maisie Verdurin
Run Till You Fall(1988)as Margaret
St. Elsewhere(1982)as Marjorie Andrews
Jack and Mike(1986)as Mike's Mother
Trader Verdinkle: The Underpinnings of An Understudy(2025)
And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird(1991)
From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff(2002)as Self
All-Star Family Feud Special(1978)as Self - Celebrity Contestant
The Making of 'Poltergeist'(1982)as Self
Night of 100 Stars(1982)as Self
The 50th Annual Academy Awards(1978)as Self - Past Winner
Shakespeare Uncovered(2012)as Goneril
They Are Here: The Real World of the Poltergeists(2007)as Dr. Lesh
The 74th Annual Academy Awards(2002)as Self - Memorial Tribute
8th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards(2002)as Self
