Maureen Stapleton

She had a *major* crush on Joel McCrea.

What did she say about Birdie, OP?

She was the only one at the wrap party that didn't want to fuck Ann-Margret, r2.

Hello Birdie!

Thanks, R3

OP I liked her a lot and you are so right about nervous bundle of energy. My first memories of her are from Airport and Plaza Suite. Thanks for reminding me of her. I haven't seen Plaza Suite in years and it is on my to do list for this weekend now.

[quote]

She played all three roles on Broadway, r6.

^regarding Plaza Suite

She could drink ME under a table!

Loved her in the 1970s sleeper hit TV movie “Queen Of The Stardust Ballroom,” too.

r2 this link may be of interest / a bit more context

I always confuse her with Edith from AITF probably because I've never seen her in anything.

As R9 hinted, Stapleton was a major alcoholic, which had a terrible effect on her career at certain times.

That cocksucker Nancy Reagan fucked Maureen’s husband. From Kitty Kelley’s delightfully cunty Nancy biography:

“(The) presidential couple made their…..appearance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., to attend the stage debut of Elizabeth Taylor, who was playing Regina in Lillian Hellman’s play The Little Foxes. Afterward, the Reagans went backstage to congratulate the cast and the playwright.

Preceding her husband, Nancy made her way down the line of actors, graciously shaking hands and telling them how much she enjoyed their performances. When she got to Maureen Stapleton, who had once been married to producer Max Allentuck, she paused momentarily. Stapleton was an indirect link to the promiscuous past she had put firmly behind her. Forcing a smile, she quickly extended her hand to the actress.

“Hello, Maureen,” she said.

“Hello, Nancy.”

As the President and First Lady moved down the line, Lillian Hellman turned to Stapleton with a shocked expression on her face, and a voice full of reproach.

“You know her. You actually know her,” she said.

Stapleton shrugged.

“You know her. She said, ‘Hello, Maureen,’ and you said, ‘Hello, Nancy.’”

“She used to be an actress. I’m an actress. Actresses call each other by their first names.”

The playwright, who despised the politics of and his wife, could not believe that her dear friend, a liberal Democrat, could have anything in common with the President’s marzipan wife. Hellman pushed Maureen on the subject until Stapleton finally blurted:

“I don’t know her,” she said. “I just know Max fucked her.”

Her scene at the end of Airport used to bring me to tears.

She didn’t like A Chorus Line. She thought it was actors begging for jobs.

The phrase is THE table, dear R9.

I learned that at MGM.

She used to fuck George Abbott. And was the source of one of the best ever lines (a DL classic): "Adolph Green was the only man in New York I'd rather go down on than kiss."

I know an actor who was working at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in 2003 or 2004, who was asked on his day off to participate in a reading of a play starring Maureen, who lived nearby in Lenox, MA.

Maureen, who hadn’t worked in several years, actually showed up and was brilliant. They all went out for an early supper afterward, and as it was a Monday, everyone had a couple of drinks. There were 8 or 10 people there; a couple of people shared a bottle of wine, a few had gin martinis, a few were drinking scotch, and Maureen had a couple of “treble vodkas.” The group had exited the restaurant when Maureen announced she was going back in and throw more onto the tip, as she was a local resident. Then my friend realized he’d left his reading glasses in the table. He got inside and Maureen was going around the table, polishing off every last drop of everyone’s drink: gin, scotch, and drinking right out the wine bottle!

That’s my kind of gal!

Have you read her memoir - One Hell of a Life?

I loved her as Lou Grant’s wife on the Murray Tyler Moore Show!

Just checked. The book title is A Hell of a Life. I just re-read her notes on Woody Allen and making Interiors.

R14 You need to come over to our house for dinner. You seem like a fantastic dinner guest. Don't bring a thing except stories.

R18 She probably wanted a nightcap but no longer kept anything at home. Clever gal.

I mean R19 not R18

- R24

She was one of those old-time actresses who smoked and drank like crazy and had a filthy mouth and a raunchy sense of humor. She was a great broad.

I haven't seen anyone say a bad thing about her except the booze, and even then it's mentioned in a more cute and clever context. Seemed fun and down to earth. Would have loved to have had a dinner with her.

A tribute

She was good in DL fave The Fan with Lauren Bacall. Would love to hear stories about the making of that one!

Read something somewhere about her baudy language, loving her gay pals and her readiness to sleep with leading men.

Maureen reports that she once had an assistant that used to work for Bacall. She knew Bacall when she was married to Bogart and later when both women were campaigning for JFK. But she doesn't mention The Fan.

She was great in INTERIORS.

Dingbat!

full length / / hd

R28 that tribute is one of my favorite things on YouTube. Rick McKay did some brilliant things. Love Barbara Cook's comment and delivery of "She's the only person I'd be comfortable trading talent with."

I'm endeared by Maureen's persona and bought her memoir several years ago, but unfortunately the personality didn't come across for me. I'm sure there are a few interesting anecdotes sprinkled throughout but I couldn't make it past the first 50 pages.

One of Carol Matthau's books mentions her advice to Maureen ahead of one marriage, that she should hire a live-in maid. IIRC, Stapleton's reply was that she had a maid already. Matthau emphasized that she should hire a live-in. She later mentioned the marriage did not last.

She probably didn't write the book herself.

R22, there seem to be two different versions of the title:

Here's the other title:

(I didn't check ISBN so the book may have been released in different countries with various titles. No idea.)

Her best performance was playing Lauren Bacall's ill-fated assistant in The Fan.

Apparently, according to this thread, she was too busy drinking.

^^I meant the above response to answer this:

[quote]She probably didn't write the book herself.

I wish she was my mother.

She's a vulgarian!

That said, she might even agree with that line from "Interiors." Her Oscar speech is rather unique in that she felt compelled to say that she was sober. It appears that her drinking and smoking were legendary but she did live to be 80 years old. Not too bad. I remember her obituary (the Times?) mentioning that in the last years when she was mostly retired but she could be found on many an afternoon sitting in some bar drinking vodka with townspeople.

She drank and smoked right to the end.

I have to laugh how she applauds when her name is announced as one of the nominees and then she realizes the name is hers. That's me!

She did say something like she became an actress because she had such a crush on Joel Mcrea. I wonder if they ever met.

I think it was some party for the execs of Columbia. They had just screened BBB and all the execs were going to the podium and praising Ann to the skies. Maureen went to the podium and said 'It looks like I'm the only one here who doesn't want to fuck Ann-Margret.'

I've got to credit to Taylor for having Maureen for Birdie in Foxes. It was as if Stapleton were the only professional actor on stage. Taylor was very pretty and had great presence but she was so at sea in that role. Everybody was on their own in that production. Dennis Christopher who was so wonderful in Breaking Away was really the worst. Downright embarrassing.

at 14:20...

Rick McKay's interviews are great but I wish he didn't use that dumb music on the soundtrack when you just want to hear someone speak.

I just read Dick Van Dyke's bio and he tells how she got drunk one night at a Bye Bye Birdie party and took off all her clothes and dove into a pool.

I wish I could get that image out of my head.

Sounds like Kathy Bates nude in the hot tub in that Jack Nicholson movie.

'I just read Dick Van Dyke's bio and he tells how she got drunk one night at a Bye Bye Birdie party and took off all her clothes and dove into a pool.'

It's tough seeing your mother naked and drunk at a party.

Maureen was beloved by all her Actors Studio friends, who would congregate and crash at her pad on West 52nd Street during their salad days. She was a mother hen to all those up-and-comers who were in need of advice, guidance, and a place to stay. Brando adored her, and Kim Stanley said this of her friend Mo:

"I would lay down my life for Maureen Stapleton, and I know that I would for my children; I would have done it for my mother; but I do not pause when I say I would do it for Maureen, and I have always had to think about my commitment with the others."

Impeccable taste. Joel McCrea is exquisite

At a memorial service for Colleen Dewhurst at the Martin Beck Theater, Maureen got up to speak about her dear departed friend and reminisced about the time she and Colleen were both nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1968. She then pointed to Zoe Caldwell out in the audience and said, "And we both lost to that Australian cunt!" The audience gasped, but Caldwell, another dear friend, was ROTFL.

Maureen predicts what she would say if she won an Oscar.