Elizabeth Ashley

She got fat , she drinks a lot and she has a reputation for being difficult.

She's also old and nobody under 50 knows who she is.

She's still alive???

She really is a good interview.

I enjoyed her a lot as the therapist in Russian Doll.

Didn’t know she appeared in Oceans 8.

She reminds me a bit of Ava Gardner. Salty southern broad.

^ Forgot the link to another interview.

I had no idea that was her in Russian Doll!

She wrote an autobiography years ago--she got some early breaks and then her career stalled because her then-husband George Peppard didn't like her working, so she did the whole Hollywood wife thing (got her interior decorating license). Then she went back to stage and did decently there--I saw her in the original Agnes of God, but it was clear, even in her own autobiography, that she was a bit of a diva. So, she kind of missed the boat or got off it too frequently for major stardom.

Also, tendency to overact.

Some people say she was the best Maggie the Cat.

Look out, she's got a knife!

Windows, or Fatal Lesbionic Attraction

I have her book. She’s all about the drugs and sex.

She's one of those people who works brilliantly onstage but less well onscreen.

See also: Carol Channing, Zero Mostel, Swoosie Kurtz, Geraldine Page, Raul Esparza, Patti LuPone, Ethel Merman, Bernadette Peters

I always loved her voice. I mostly know her from her soap days. She was on Another World.

She's the only Maggie I saw onstage, so I don't have anyone to compare her to, but god, how she made me love that infuriating play.

Liked her icy character in COMA (1978).

Those 80s perms must have been hell to maintain.

Didn't she live in an NYU dorm in recent years?

I have worked with her several time. She is bat-shit crazy and very difficult. In one show she slugged the stage manager. He was the nicest, gentlest, older man one could every know. It was really quite shocking. If she sees weakness in anyone, she will give them hell.

She drives costume people crazy and is notorious for stealing her costumes after the show closes. Mind you, those costumes cost thousands of dollars.

She is good friends with the costume designer Frannie Lee. Talk about crazy meets crazy.

She lived in the building long before it became an NYU dorm.

[quote]Didn't she live in an NYU dorm in recent years?

[quote]She lived in the building long before it became an NYU dorm.

Which one? Address?

So NYU bought the building but couldn't evict the tenants? How did that work, is she still living there surrounded by college kids. How strange.

R16

I can not wrap my head around any job allowing one employee to slug another employee. They should be fired on the spot.

Didn’t she claimed that she was raped by someone in a gas station restroom?

r19 oh my

Was the best Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ever (Broadway mid-70s) Truly batshit. Can be lots of fun. Never heard the story about her hitting the stage manager. Who knows maybe the SM deserved it.

She crazy tho.. but fun

[quote] She had minor success on stage, tv and film [quote]

She worked. Starred on Broadway, did feature films. Most would question your perspective calling her success "minor"

She's amazing in the seemingly forgotten by everyone (except me) Evening Shade.

Apparently, Linda Bloodworth Thomason could tell Burt Reynolds didn't have the right personality for a sitcom, so she surrounded him with an army of experts... Charles Durning, Hal Holbrook, Michael Jeter, Elizabeth Ashley (playing an aging version of Maggie the Cat) and, my favorite when I was a kid, Anne Wedgeworth, who I am pretty sure came from some other, better planet.

R24, fuck you.

Saw her in the original Agnes of God on Broadway with Geraldine Page and Amanda Plummer. She was brilliant. Still one of the top five theatre performances I’ve seen in my life.

Ann Wedgeworth's tiny role as Aunt Fern in [italic]Steel Magnolias[/italic] was one the best things about the movie.

Her book, “Actress” was a good read. She was very candid about her career and the role she played in its trajectory. Interesting to learn some insider info on the Golden Age of Broadway and of the filming of “Ship of Fools” (amazing cast!) Ashley was brutally honest about how difficult it was for her to return to acting after taking some time off to be a Hollywood wife, taking gigs on shows like “Love American Style” and “Mission: Impossible” to get her face back out there.

[quote]Didn’t she claimed that she was raped by someone in a gas station restroom?

Wow -- and I thought getting raped in a Howard Johnson's was as low as you could go!

[quote]Who knows maybe the SM deserved it.

*I* know. I was there.

R28

Did her memoir have anything to say about her time on Another World?

I don’t remember her mentioning anything about “Another World”, but her book came out around 1978, so her it may have pre-dated her time on the show.

She did mention that she turned down roles in Otto Preminger’s “In Harm’s Way” and the Woody Allen-scripted “What’s New, Pussycat?” (Maybe the roles that DL icon Paula Prentiss ended up playing?)

R32

Oh, yeah. 1978 was eons before her stint on Another World

She got slim....

Elizabeth Ashley -- beautiful but dangerous

Darren McGavin's partner tells him he's got BDF right before he's introduced.....

My memory of her was as The Woman Who Knew Too Much in Tennessee Williams' "The Red Devil Battery Sign" - - the neon Devil would flash whenever she was in danger!

Maggie the Cat

Sweet Bird of Youth

Martha

Back in 1986 she was arrested at Edmonton International Airport in Alberta Friday and charged with two counts of narcotics possession.

In 2008 her son was arrested after Utah Highway Patrol troopers found two duffle bags full of marijuana in the trunk of his rental car.

Anyone who was married to George Peppard has paid major dues.

Not sure is it’s still there, but Amazon Prime used to have an episode of “Celebrity Bowling” that featured Elizabeth Ashley teamed with her hunky ex-husband, James Farentino!

Cute couple....

Jimmy never took me bowling!

I saw a documentary on Vivien Leigh, and Elizabeth Ashley provided a lovely and candid moment where she said what a honor it was to work with such a legend — she just wished it had been at a happier time in Leigh’s life.

on Leigh....

Hope that this link works — this is a classic lineup!

with Leigh...

Elizabeth Ashley. She's 80 and continues to work. Long list of credits:

Fun Fact: She attended college with Rex Reed.

I petted her dog once. It was a bulldog I think, she would bring him to the theater she'd be working at.

That Slim Fast commercial is HILARIOUSLY BAD!

This is a more recent interview and she chronicles most of her career in this as well as her appearances on Johnny Carson. Although the podcast is supposed to be about guest experiences on Carson the bulk of this interview is not about Carson but her career at large and her life in general. It’s long and you can hear her lighting up ciggies throughout. It’s from 2016. I work from home and had this on in the background this afternoon. Well worth it, she sounds fun but I wouldn’t want to be around her everyday!

She got much better looking in middle age. When she was young, she looked liked Rachel Dratch (sorry, Rachel).

Oh, where did she do Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I bet she was great in that. This is kind of silly, but I've never seen her on stage and only caught a couple of her film or TV appearances (will have to check out Russian Doll!), but I know her best from her Theater Talk appearances. She's a hoot.

Coconut Grove Playhouse. Mr. Burt Reynolds' Dinner Theater had closed a few years earlier.

[quote]I have worked with her several time. She is bat-shit crazy and very difficult. In one show she slugged the stage manager. He was the nicest, gentlest, older man one could every know. It was really quite shocking. If she sees weakness in anyone, she will give them hell. She drives costume people crazy and is notorious for stealing her costumes after the show closes. Mind you, those costumes cost thousands of dollars.

I think we've finally found Miss Dunaway's "Tea at Five" replacement.

Elizabeth Ashley reminds me of Kathleen Turner.

No one yet mentioned her Family episode "Lovers and Strangers" playing the inexplicable lover of Willie. For me Elizabeth always acts with her hair which is ironic since she takes herself so seriously as an actor.

We shared voices.

No, r58, Miss Turner reminds you of me.

I read her autobiography years ago. Sounds like she and George Peppard were perfectly dysfunctional together. One memorable passage concerned the time a drunken Peppard hit her upside the head with a hot frying pan. Not too surprised their son turned out to be a mess (see link for one example).

If it's true about her slugging the gentle stage manager, she should have been fired.

Liz steps to the rear....

R62, Ashley admitted it was a lie. Peppard said his son heard Ashley say it on a talk show and so he got a frying pan and told him to hit an ironing board as hard as he could. He did and the board was destroyed. Peppard said if he hit his mom with that pan the way she claimed, do you think she'd have done better than the ironing board? When confronted by the comment, Ashley said he "grazed" her. But I agree, they were a wonderfully dysfunctional couple.

The glamour....

Didn’t Williams give her the rightstoCat On A Tin Roof ?

She was terrific in AGNES OF GOD. I alo saw her on stage in a Broadway revival of GBShaw's ANTHONY & CLEOPATRA opposite Rex Harrison. I was thrilled to be going as it was my first time seeing them perform live. What a bore. The only thing I remember was a giGANtic Sphinx on stage that made all the actors totally disappear.

She also starred in a Dory Previn musical called MARY C. BROWN AND THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN. Dory made an album of the score and I found that LP in a discount bin years ago. The show closed out of town.

Oh dear, r67.

Lots of drinking and if the rumor is true, nose candy.

I don't think the Christ of the Andes ever blessed so many ills....

[quote] Wow -- and I thought getting raped in a Howard Johnson's was as low as you could go! —DL Icon Connie Francis

Nope.

Oh my lord, is she on speed in OP’s clip? She can’t get the words out of her mouth fast enough. It made me so nervous, I couldn’t get all the way through it.

I wonder if she ever hung out with Leslie Ann Warren. They would have made a crazy fun, hard drinking, coke snorting pair.

She was gang raped at a gas station.

I loved her in Treme.

R73, Ashley and Warren costarred in a touring production of “Vanities” in the late-1970s.

Hey asswad r76.... there a reason you left ME out? Is there???

R77, Barbara, you should be more upset they put the watermark over your face.

Elizabeth really did look like Rachel Dratch in her youth! In some pictures she looked like Dratch dressing up as Audrey Hepburn.

A friend of mine was in a play with Ms. Ashley about 10 years ago -- my friend said that she never ate anything and just drank sugar-free Red Bull and smoked cigarettes.

No stories about on-set misbehavior, though.

This is an interesting talk show appearance, , given two anecdotes Ashley relates in “Actress”.

Lucille Ball came backstage after one of Ashley’s performances (Barefoot in the Park”, maybe?) and in her praise of Ashley asks her if she might want to do some TV down the line. Ashley blithely remarks that she could not see herself doing television. To Lucille Ball.

And later, she wrote that she turned down “In Harm’s Way” because the prospect for an actor to work with Otto Preminger was horrible.

Wonder if this got back to Lucy and Otto before this sit-down!

Wonder how Elizabeth Ashley and Cybill Shepherd got along!

Every time I scroll past that photo it reminds me of someone and today I finally realized who!

I didn't remember that Miss Donna Hanover was in that production, r82.

Donna....

Elizabeth was on the show The Bold Type. It took me a few minutes to recognize her.

Elizabeth had a small guest spot on The Bold Type.

Elizabeth, let's go to Whole Foods together and scream at people! You get free food!

Elizabeth has certainly had her share of mishaps, what with the boating accident where she broke her face, setting her NYC apartment on fire with a cigarette, drug arrests and all those messy divorces. But she's fabulous and worked pretty consistently all these years.

[quot][Why didn’t her career really take off?

Uhm, because she's BANANAS....and a drunk!

[quote] boating accident where she broke her face

What kind of accident was that? You'd have to be beat up or take one heck of a fall to do the damage she says she sustained in that interview. I go with the former.

Hasn't she talked about freebasing while doing "Agnes of God." Did she do it with Carrie Fisher?

2 Hour recent interview. Will probably answer any questions.

She reminds me of DL fav Suzanne Pleshette, not quite as traditionally beautiful and crazier but similar vibe, similar voice and similar 'type' in casting terms.

Nah. Pleshette's casting type was not "unhinged."

I guess Evening Shade is long forgotten but did any of you hear any gossip about her on the set. She doesn't seem like the type to deal well with a sitcom. You have to show up every day, for months of the year, hang around a lot, doing sub par material. She was good though. In this clip she is also out of her head on something and hilariously throws her head back into Ann's shot much like Liza in the infamous HSN appearance.