Shirley Knight

She was a beautiful woman

[quote]Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Mrs. Shirly Knight.

LOL

One of the last actresses to have a Mid-Atlantic accent

She had quite a patchy film career.

[quote] She had quite a patchy film career.

So patchy, that she was forced to do Soap Operas to pay the bills

Here she is as an undercover cop (!) on One Life To Live

She's DEAD!

As Lulu in film adaptation of LeRoy Jones allegorical play Dutchman as a woman who taunts and challenges Clay a black man It was rated X in its initial release

R7 is it a good movie?

Endless Love is a classic?

R9 It is not a good movie, but a classic love story like Dirty Dancing

I liked her as Phyllis van de Kamp, Bree's overbearing mother-in-law, on Desperate Housewives

R8 It's been years since I've seen but it's certainly a provocative film. It's 55 mins long and it takes place entirely on the subway car. Summary from IMDB

-A sinister, neurotic white girl Lula, with the provocation of her lovely, half-naked body and of her startlingly lascivious speech, lures to his doom a good-looking young black man Clay, a stranger whom she has picked up in the subway and whom she mocks for wearing the clothes and employing the voice and manners of the conventional white intellectual. The man, who, at first seeing no reason to resist the girl's advances, perceives too late that he is being used by her, drops his "white" disguise, and launches a wild and bitter counterattack on her and on the entire white race.

As Helen Hunt's mom in As Good As it Gets

[quote] Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Mrs. Shirly Knight.

So, who are YOU? Mr Ed Sullivan?

Oh, OP.

You are improving.

Only four spelling mistakes and no gratuitous use of the word 'great'.

[quote]R13 As Helen Hunt's mom in As Good As it Gets

I read in an interview they just gave her SAG minimum salary for her days, as they knew any older actress would be desperate for a job.

Meanwhile Nicholson etc. got millions (not to mention lead roles.)

[quote] I read in an interview they just gave her SAG minimum salary for her days, as they knew any older actress would be desperate for a job.

Betty White turned down the role because she objected to the animal cruelty in the script

In Richard Lester's Petulia (1968)

Excuse me...ex-c-u-u-u-s-e me...

With James Caan in Coppola's The rain people (1969)

R15 I didn't realize I have stalker...

R14 More of a Sue Lawley from Desert Island Discs

She did begin to resemble Shelley Winters in her latter years.

Shirley Hemphill

She was a pretty hot young actress in the mid 60's. Francis Coppola was crazy about her and wrote The Rain People for her. I heard that she turned out to be a nightmare to him but I can't remember how. She probably tried to wipe the floor with Coppola, then a first time director.

Loved Shirley Knight. She was so beautiful in “Sweet Bird of Youth.” She was signed fo a contract by Warner Bros. at the end of the ‘50s, who put her in all their TV series like “Hawaiian Eye,” 77 Sunset Strip” and “Surfside 6.” I once ran into her and got to tell her how much I loved her work. She was plump and much shorter than I imagined she would be but she was sfill lovely and I told her so. I told her I had just seen her in an episode of “Hawaiian Eye” and she laughed delightedly while reminiscing about those days. She said she didn’t know what she was doing but did what she was assigned and kept learning from every assignment.

[quote] She was plump

No r10 it’s a shit movie.

That’s too bad r16. She had just won the Emmy, cable ace and golden globe award for the mcmartin trial TV movie when she did as good as it gets.

*Tony-winning* Shirley Knight

^ I forgot Meryl was nominated.

Her career may have been spotty, but she worked steadily in film and television for 60 years starting with an uncredited appearance in Picnic (1955). Her diverse filmography includes 1974s Juggernaut and playing Kevin James' mother in both Paul Blart: Mall Cop films

She had the hots for Vanessa Redgrave in Playing for Time as a beautiful SS officer.

Shirley Knight was very good in Endless Love. Nomination worthy. Parents like Knight and Murray portrayed were very common in the 1970s. The entire movie seems far better today than it seemed 40 years ago. High quality, great Chicago and NYC locations, and tons of memorable actors in parts large and small. The scene leading up to the fire with Heart of Glass on the soundtrack is very eerie.

Brooke Shields is the weak link, but undeniably beautiful. Don Murray is a bit ham handed, unfortunately.

Knight was aghast that Zeffirelli cast Shields. She said that Shields could not feign orgasm and that Zeffirelli had to surprise pinch her toe during the lovemaking scene to capture the facial expression he needed from her.

35 replies and no mention of Stuart Smalley???

15 years ago

[quote] I once ran into her and got to tell her how much I loved her work. She was plump and much shorter than I imagined she would be but she was sfill lovely and I told her so. I told her I had just seen her in an episode of “Hawaiian Eye” [bold]and she laughed delightedly[/bold] while reminiscing about those days.

These actresses always seem to laugh in these funny little stories. Did she clap her hands as well?

[Quote]Brooke Shields is the weak link, but undeniably beautiful.

Brooke is very good and being so beautiful believable as someone who would drive a young man to distraction. It's Richard Kiley and Beatrice straight as David's parents who are thoroughly dispensable.

R17 Beatrice Straight and Richard Kiley are very accomplished actors though.

She may have gotten paid shit for As Good As It Gets but she steals every scene she's in. And Helen Hunt was a very weak scene partner.

She was lovely in The Outer Limits episode The Man Who Was Never Born.

Don't call me Shirly!

An interview.

[quote]Mrs. Shirly Knight

You must REALLY love her MR OP.

from R 42's link - LOL

⤵️

I love it that you have no compunction about referring to yourself as a great actress.

Well, I’m not an idiot! I mean, false humility is nothing that interests me. If you asked Einstein if he was clever, he’d have said, “It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

OP- Oh her.

She played Hope Steadman's mother on thirtysomething.

[quote]She played Hope Steadman's mother on thirtysomething.

I don't remember that, can't have made much of an impression - I remember Melissa's parents - her father was Stan from Golden Girls.

I loved her as the mom on The Partridge Family!

Shirley was on Thirtysomething twice in the episodes The Parents are Coming, and Arizona.

Sweet Bird...

she was fun,. Do you think she was a Christian?

*3* SISTERS *3*

Shirley Knight starring in 'Circle of Fear' episode 18, 'Legion of Demons' (1973):

(watch for the toad frog dressed up as the Devil!)

Wonder who she is referring to in this story?

I was doing a movie called [Divine Secrets of] the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and I won’t mention names, but one of the actresses insisted on having blacks on the outside, which made us so far behind, because no one could be in her eyeline, because it was an emotional scene. I’m off to the side, and Maggie Smith turns to me, and she said, “Shirley. You do a lot of theater?” I said, “Yes, dear, I do.” And she said, “Have you ever noticed, everyone’s in our eyeline?”

And she added: "Trust me, I would never be like that actress, because number one, she’s not a great actress, and I am. [Laughs.] There’s a difference. So I would never be like that. "

R53 must have been Sandra Bullock, the only one of her scene partners to not do theater. Can't imagine it was Ellen Burstyn or Fionnula Flanagan.

I thought perhaps Burstyn as I agree she is not a great actress but she thinks she is.

[quote]OP / R50 / 'the Presbyterian': she was fun,. Do you think she was a Christian?

For you, such traits enhance whether or not people matter to you, don't they? If Shirley Knight was not a Christian, she would be somewhat diminished in your estimation. Right?

I enjoyed her in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs with the lovely Lee Kinsolving. WHET to that guy?

He died.

R58 he died at the age of 36 of a heart attack

I would have liked to see her do the wiry, social X-ray matron roles Marian Seldes and Holland Taylor got simply because Shirley turned into a great big fat person.

Lee Kinsolving was talented and gorgeous and is an obscure fascination of mine.

Died at 36 in 1974 of a "respiratory ailment" while he was managing an art gallery?

Drugs? Murder? Super-early AIDS victim?

She had that smooth speaking voice which someone said sounded affected as if she had adopted an English accent. Maybe it came out of her opera singing training though I assume she also studied voice at her acting classes. Certainly didn't have a Kansas accent.

I saw her in The Young Man from Atlanta. I feel privileged to have seen her on stage. A beautiful performance. And yes she was on the plump side.

[quoe]She said that Shields could not feign orgasm and that Zeffirelli had to surprise pinch her toe during the lovemaking scene to capture the facial expression he needed from her.

Uh-oh. Looks like another lawsuit against Zeffirelli coming up.

r65 Crossed my mind, too. But I think Brooke is 100% aware that the blame for all of her nude scenes falls on Teri. Plus, Brooke has a decent bit of money.

R63 It is called the Mid Atlantic accent. Very few actors have it now. The "modern ones" that come to mind are:

Susan Sullivan, Richard Chamberlain, Kelsey Grammer, and David Hye Pierce have it.

Christopher Plummer, Philip Boscoe, David Ogden Stiers, and Shirley Knight had it too.

Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann also had it

She was in a Law & Order episode, ripped from the Betty-Broderick headlines. Jerry Orbach played her defense attorney (this was before he was cast as Lenny Briscoe). It's good, rotten fun.

Kelly Osbourne has it.

I saw her in her later, fatter years as Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie" at the McCarter Theater in Princeton. She was ideally cast and was superb.

Wasn't she also in a L&O where she played a psychiatrist who was accused of implanting false memories on a patient? When the cops asked her about it she had an arrogant reply like You haven't the psychological training to understand.

Just checked IMDB. Yes it is L&O SVU episode "Repression".

Shirley puts up with the futzing of this gayling.

That guy is very good. Have no idea what he's doing now but he has excellent interviews with Gwen Verden and Marge Champion. Well worth watching.

She really gained weight between 1984 and 1996, when she won two Emmys.

In Endless Love her character tries to seduce Martin Hewitt. Aged 44 Shirley is still beautiful enough to us to believe she could seduce a teenager.

FYI - Knight did not have faith in Brooke Shields acting and suggested other actresses for the part - Rosanna Arquette, Linda Blair, Bo Derek, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kristy McNichol, Michelle Pfeiffer or Debra Winger.

I first saw her in “The Group” where she played Polly Andrews. The character sold her blood in order to afford the expenses of her manic father! She didn’t coast on her looks like many beautiful actresses would have done. She sought serious and demanding work. There was sometimes a sour aspect to some of her performances she used I think, in order to add another layer to her work.

[Quote] Knight did not have faith in Brooke Shields acting and suggested other actresses for the part - Rosanna Arquette, Linda Blair, Bo Derek, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kristy McNichol, Michelle Pfeiffer or Debra Winger

Good thing Knight wasn't a casting director. Carrie Fisher, Kristy McNicol, Linda Blair aren't beautiful enough and most of the others seem too old WTF!

With Barbara Nichols (as Candy Kane) and Connie Ford in the prison drama "House of Women".

I have a hard time picturing Shirley Knight going to bat for Bo Derek as an actress.

Brooke Shields was the single box office draw in that early 80s cast, so MISS KNIGHT should have been kissing her ASS in gratitude for insuring anyone would SEE IT.

Did she play Vi the old waitress with a heart of gold in Grease?

I hate to crash a Shirley Knight thread, but.......

R80 so thin!

Shirley sometimes did too much hair acting. At least in her young days.

R86 Shirley Knight should however stop fondling her hair like a miser with a golden hoard, it's time for her to get another prop

Pauline Kael on Petulia (1968)

R80 - Shirley said when she was nominated for her second Oscar, for Sweet Bird of Youth, Jack Warner thought, “Well, I guess we’d better just throw her in a couple of movies because [of the nomination].” And instead of putting me in something wonderful he put me in this women’s prison movie, House of Women. She was really cross because they fired the director [Walter Doniger] on the prison movie, and we had this horrible producer and I shouted at him and said, “You know, he’s good, and why are you . . . ?” I mean, I was a feisty little thing. And I was taken to Jack Warner’s office, and I was sat down. He said, “I am only going to say this once. I do not want another Bette Davis in my studio.” I was terrified! And I thought, okay, I get it. I am to do what I am told, and that’s that.

She and Sada Thompson were perfectly cast as the mousy daughter and fiery mother at the center of the McMartin trial in HBO's movie version in the '90s. IIRC they both were nominated for Emmys.

Sada and Shirley:

^^ that actress who drowned last summer, Mary Mara, is in that, too. She plays a cop.

Proud to say I worked with Shirley Knight in the late 70s and absolutely loved her.

r74, thanks for posting that interview. It really shows Shirley just as I remember her.

The Outer Limits: The Man Who Was Never Born full episode.

Mary Mara drowned???

Mara died on the morning of June 26, 2022, in Cape Vincent. She was 61, and drowned while swimming in the St. Lawrence River.

I agree, that's a great interview at R74.

And she's speaking in a mid-Atlantic accent. She moved to New York in her early 20s, and she had considered being a journalist. Many East Coast actors, and radio and TV journalists (particularly NBC's) got speech training that was the mid-Atlantic accent.

Nothing wrong with it, that's just the way things were done if you were studying to be on camera or stage at that time.

And you wanted to be understood.

Just realised she was Rex's mother on Desperate Housewives, and had some great fun bitching with Bree.

Her letting her pregnant granddaughter move into her retirement village led to the funniest line Orson ever got, when arguing about the medical care there:

"This is a retirement home Phyllis, the one thing the Doctors know how to deliver is bad news.."

GREAT interviews at r42 and r74, thank you both for posting!

Shirley also sat down for a rather infamous interview with Rex Reed, I believe in the late 1960s after filming THE GROUP, in which she eviscerated lots of deserving colleagues. Love it because she's far less discreet there than in the later interviews. It was in his book of collected interviews called Do You Sleep in the Nude? Sorry, don't know how to link it or if it's even linkable.

R99 who got eviscerated?

Reed's book has that quote from Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra - "I always knew Frank would end up in bed with a boy".

...from Ava about Frank and Mia Farrow...

[quote] Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Mrs. Shirly Knight.

OP supposedly loves this actress but couldn't even spell her name correctly......

Reed also blasts Barbra.

Here's a podcast interview by Illeanna Douglas with Shirley when she was 80.

r100, among others, IIRC Garson Kanin who directed her in some flop play that closed out of town and the producers and publicists of THE GROUP who didn't treat her with better care than some of the newcomers in that ensemble cast. There was lots more that I'm forgetting....

In the podcast she says she was then writing a memoir called A Life and Stories. Wonder if it was ever published?

Thanks R99!

Yes, she said Kanin was the worst director she ever worked with. Said she left Hollywood because she didn't want to be Natalie Wood. Criticized Olivier and Brando for making trashy movies, which is funny in retrospect when you consider "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" ...

It appears she never finished her memoir. In The Hollywood Reporter obit it says her daughter claimed the actress was still working on it.

I wonder what her singing voice was like and why she didn't do a musical.

In the interview at r74, Shirley talks about a new musical she would soon be doing with her daughter Kaitlyn Hopkins but I don't think it ever happened. That would have been in 1984-85. Anyone know? I believe Kaitlyn, who did have a promising career in the NY theater in the 1990s/2000s did leave the business awhile ago.

In 2009, Kaitlin Hopkins was named the new Head of Musical Theatre at Texas State University under the Department Chair, Dr. John Fleming

[quote]R106 Garson Kanin, who directed her in some flop play that closed out of town

I think this was a stage version of Shirley Jackson’s WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE. There were a lot of technical things that went wrong with sound effects, etc. They did play 11 performances on Broadway in 1966.

No, R36, she didn’t clap her hands like a child (or imbecile) — she threw her head back and gave me a full-bodied laugh. She was an actress with an actress’s normal vanity and the vanity of a beautiful woman who was now of a “certain age.” She was happy to talk to someone who appreciated her early work and blushed with pleasure when told she was still beautiful (I realized immediately that saying “still” was tactless but she didn’t seem to notice or else she didn’t care).

I cherish this memory of a sensitive, intelligent and beautiful actress I’d admired since I saw her work on TV as a child. I’m also happy that I got to meet Anne Francis in the 1980s and got to tell her how much I loved her in “Forbidden Planet,” “The After Hours” on The Twilight Zone, and “Honey West.” She was delighted to be remembered too. Or did a good imitation of pretending she was.

Thank goodness you didn't tell her how horrible Babs was having her cut out of Funny Girl and that she was robbed of an Oscar.

I enjoyed Shirley Knight in this John Guare effort at the Public. in 1977 ... 16 year old Paul McCrane as her son was quite memorable. Re reading the synopsis and I have no memory of the plot... I think John Guare plays are like that in retrospect...

I had a long elevator ride with her many years ago. It was just the two of us, and we went almost all the way to the top of a tall building together. I said hello and told her how much I enjoyed her work. She was very gracious and asked what I did, and I told her I was an aspiring actor, and had just come back to New York from the national tour of a Broadway show. She was very encouraging.

Scene from Endless Love.

Cougar Knight

Endless Love would have been so much better had the first choice for Jade, Lucie Arnaz taken the role.

Look, Martin Hewitt was no great shakes as an actor, either.

#LeaveBrookeAlone!

R120 what a humiliating scene to play.

[quote]OP: Samuel Becket

Oh, dear.

And this at R124.

Love the mid-Atlantic accent

R115, did you tell Anne Francis how much you loved her as Truie McMahon? I remember being horrified when I thought she died on the tennis court. So relived to discover it was a "patented Trudie McMahon prank!"