Eileen Brennan

 ( 1932 Births ) 

She played Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker at the 1961 Central City Opera Summer Festival in Central City, Colorado directed by Arthur Penn, who had just won a Tony for his direction of the play on Broadway.Program, 30th Anniversary Central City Festival, The Miracle Worker by William Gibson. (1961). She went on to create the role of Irene Molloy in the original Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! (1964).

Brennan's work in theatre attracted attention from television producers in California. Carl Reiner, who was seeking an actress to play the role of Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, flew her from New York to Los Angeles to audition for the part; however, the role was given to Mary Tyler Moore.

Brennan became a favorite of a number of directors, in particular Peter Bogdanovich. She appeared in Bogdanovich's drama The Last Picture Show as Genevieve (1971), for which she received a BAFTA nomination for best supporting actress.

In 1972, Brennan appeared in an All in the Family episode, "The Elevator Story" (1972), as Angelique McCarthy, followed by a role in George Roy Hill's Academy Award-winning film The Sting (1973) as Billie, the brothel madam and confidante of con man Henry Gondorf (Paul Newman). In 1974, she reunited with director Bogdanovich, appearing in his adaptation of the Henry James novella Daisy Miller. Bogdanovich was the only director who made use of her musical talents (save for The Cheap Detective; and she sang in performances off Broadway) when he cast her as Cybill Shepherd's crude, fun-loving maid in his musical flop At Long Last Love (1975) (which also starred Madeline Kahn; Brennan and Kahn worked together in two more films: The Cheap Detective (1978) and Clue (1985).

Brennan also worked with director Robert Moore and writer Neil Simon, appearing in Murder by Death as Tess Skeffington (1976) and also appearing in The Cheap Detective (1978). Both of these movies also starred James Coco, James Cromwell and Peter Falk. She had a starring role, playing the disc jockey Mother in the film FM (1978), a comedy-drama about life at a rock-music radio station.

In 1980, Brennan received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Awards nomination for her role as Goldie Hawn's nasty commanding officer in Private Benjamin. She reprised the role in the television adaptation (1981–1983), for which she won an Emmy (supporting actress) as well as a Golden Globe (lead actress). She had one additional Golden Globe nomination and six Emmy nominations. Brennan received an Emmy nomination for her guest-star role in the Taxi episode "Thy Boss's Wife" (1981).

In 1985, Brennan portrayed the iconic Mrs. Peacock in the Paramount Pictures adaptation of Clue.

In 2001, she made a brief appearance in the horror movie Jeepers Creepers, and the following year starred in the dark comedy film Comic Book Villains, with DJ Qualls. In recent years, Brennan had guest-starred in television, including recurring roles as the nosy Mrs. Bink on 7th Heaven and as gruff-acting coach Zandra on Will & Grace. In 2003, director Shawn Levy cast her in a cameo role of a babysitter to Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt's children in an updated remake of Cheaper by the Dozen. Levy was inspired to cast Brennan after seeing Private Benjamin on television. However, Brennan's cameo was deleted from the actual cut of the movie. Nonetheless, she did receive credit for her role on the deleted scenes special feature of the film's DVD. In 2004, she appeared in the horror film The Hollow as Joan Van Etten. That same year, Brennan was nominated for an Emmy for her performance as Zandra, Jack McFarland's caustic drama teacher, on Will & Grace.