Eileen Brennan

Her role as Zondra on Will & Grace alone makes her a DL icon

Growing up, I thought she was a little scary-looking, and yet she seemed to play a surprising number of roles in which she was supposed to be sexy. I could never figure that out.

She was in one of my favorite Halloween movies, "The Hollow."

It is a cheesy mess of a movie, low-budget and bad acting, but she was great in it.

And believe it or not, Kevin Zegers, Kaley Cuoco, Stacey Keach, Judd Hirsch, Joseph Mazzello, and Nick Carter were also in that stupid movie.

I also loved her in Clue.

Here she is with Marian Mercer in LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE (1961 Off-Broadway)

She IS the American actress Eileen Brennan!!!

She was really good in Private Benjamin, the only movie I've seen her in.

This is the kind of surprise thread in DL-land that can make the space special. Share more - photos and memories guys. I did love Eileen in The Sting; was never a fan of W&G, so never saw her as part of that cast.

Loved her in Private Benjamin. Her reactions to Goldie Hawn's character were hilarious.

I recently saw "The Last Picture Show" for the first time. She was one of the three "older ladies" in the cast (along with Cloris Leachman and Ellen Burstyn). Her character was the least-developed of the 3 ladies.

Her posture (she was always standing / slouching at the counter of the diner) was horrible. I think she was supposed to be somewhat sexy. In one scene, one of the teen boy characters (Timothy Bottoms, IIRC) looked at her as if he were attracted to her.

I caught her in The Cheap Detective the other day on TV. She plays a singer who just sings "la la la" instead of the lyrics.

Irish eyes

The gold standard...

Loved her in "Murder by Death".

oops

Dead, k

Aw! I don’t think I’d ever seen her in anything before Private Benjamin but she was very pretty as a young woman. Loved her in the few things I saw her in.

She was also fun in Clue as Mrs. Peacock

I've always wondered what her and Charles Nelson Reilly were like together in the original Hello Dolly!

Loved her in "Clue" when I was a kid. She was used to great effect in "Jeepers Creepers" in her later years. This scene is unforgettable.

I think she became addicted to pain killers because she was hit by a car, walking down the street. She was seriously injured, she wasn't just trying to get high.

R20 unfortunately that's how the majority of people get addicted to them (not from getting hit by a car per se, but being seriously injured and needing them for temporary pain relief—for people who have a propensity to addiction, it's a dangerous game).

R20 And wasn't it a friend who hit her?

She was DETERMINED to enjoy herself!

Absolutely BRILLIANT in both Murder By Death and Private Benjamin.

Her obit mentioned the accident.

Brennan's "Private Benjamin" role led to an enduring friendship with Hawn. A couple of years after they filmed the movie, Brennan and Hawn had dinner one night in 1982 in Venice, Calif. As they left the restaurant, Brennan was struck by a car. Her legs were smashed, bones on the left side of her face were broken, her left eye socket was shattered. Brennan said she fought her injuries with rage.

so goldie hawn killed her.

Actually, Goldie adored her.

They were very close up until Eileen's death.

I always confused her with the snaked eyed (and less talented) Meg Foster.

Clue was one of those movies my sisters and I would watch on repeat as kids. I can still quote half of it.

Even Mrs. Peacock wasn't my favorite, she was still so great in it.

And her Zandra was pitch perfect.

Eileen was stunning. simply stunning as Mrs. Wilkerson in 1990s Stella

old thread

She put a unique spin on ever role!

I saw her in Dolly! but missed her in Little Mary Sunshine. But she reprised the role at the Ivanhoe Theater in Chicago in the 70s. She was riotously funny in ways that couldn't be replicated on the OCR—much of it physical comedy. Hilarious. It made me realize why the show was such a hit off-Broadway.

Tall Irish girl with big feet. She was in a serious car accident in which she was jaywalking. She was laid up in excruciating pain for a very long time but couldn’t sue the driver because she was jaywalking. She also became a drug addict from the painkillers. She had to take two years off to unravel this catastrophe and it really derailed her career.

I only recently bought the CD of the original off-Broadway production of LITTLE MARY SUSNSHINE in which Eileen played the title role. And quickly became addicted to listening to it all the time. I believe that was her first starring role.

The show is a delightful and loving parody of operettas like ROSE MARIE and all of those Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy films. I love that Eileen was cast against type in the ingenue lead as she wasn't a simpering girlish blonde girl, very much the same as her ingenious casting as Irene Molloy in the original Broadway production of HELLO DOLLY! She brought a depth to those roles that wasn't the norm back then.

I wonder how she felt when Jerry Herman wrote in his memoir that with a revival he "finally had a beautiful Mrs. Molloy."

Which revival was he talking about, r36? I thought he never saw the Midler production.

Anyway, he was wrong.

Boy her face couldn't be anymore Irish looking if she tried.

Years back, o read an interview with Goldie Hawn where she talked about her friendship with Eileen. It was really touching. Eileen got in a terrible car accident—or got hit by a car?— right after having lunch with Hawn.

^ooops…I wrote post before reading the full thread. Sorry for the repeat of info

Forever Zandra.

R5 I love you

Irish you say?

Her performance as captain Lewis was so funny and fascinating. She did so many amazing things with her face and voice. It’s like a master class in characterization.

I remember one scene where she cracks a smile to reveal her blue stained teeth after being pranked by the troops. The theater exploded with laughter.

She was in Jerry Zaks'1998 production of Martin McDonagh's play "The Cripple of Inishmaan." Wish I'd seen that...

Private Benjamin is an odd movie. The first half with the army stuff is great but then it shifts to her romance with Armand Assante and I lose interest.

Stripes was also an odd movie. The first half made sense. The second half was like another movie.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Murder by Death. What a delightful movie. And in a cast of comedy legends she’s the standout.

I worked with a lady like her character in The Last Picture Show. Wherever you are Old Iron Tits, I love you.