Holland Taylor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2007)
Holland Taylor

Taylor at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Born Holland Taylor
January 14, 1943 (1943-01-14) (age 65)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Holland Taylor (born January 14, 1943) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress, known for her film, television and theatre work. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Ruth Dunbar in Bosom Buddies, as Judge Roberta Kittleson in The Practice and as Evelyn Harper in Two and a Half Men.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Taylor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Virginia, a painter, and C. Tracy Taylor, an attorney.[1] She is the youngest of three girls in the family and her sisters are Patricia and Pamela. Taylor attended high school at Westtown School, a Quaker boarding school then majored in drama at Bennington College in 1964, before moving to New York City to become an actress.

[edit] Career

Taylor's first credits were in the theater and throughout the 1960s and 1970s she appeared in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Taylor went on to star in Breakfast with Les and Bess and A.R. Gurney's The Cocktail Hour. In 1978, she expanded her range with extensive dance training in ballet, jazz and tap at the renowned Joffrey Ballet.

On television, from 1978 to 1979 Taylor was cast as Denise Cavanaugh on the long running soap opera, The Edge of Night. Encouraged by her acting coach, Stella Adler, Taylor took two roles that would make her well known: alongside Tom Hanks in the 1980s sitcom Bosom Buddies, and a supporting role in the 1984 film Romancing the Stone. After several years of traveling between California and New York, she finally decided to move permanently to California. The actress' rising fame, built slowly over many years, led her to roles that made her a well known name in the industry. She proved herself to be equally adept both at comedy and at drama.

She also starred from 1992 to 1993 in Norman Lear's The Powers That Be with John Forsythe and David Hyde Pierce, from 1995 to 1998 on The Naked Truth. She played the recurring role of Judge Roberta Kittleson on The Practice from 1998 to 2003, for which she was nominated for two Emmys, winning one for best supporting actress. In her Emmy speech, she brought the house down when she lifted the Emmy over her head and said, "Overnight!" Taylor thanked David E. Kelley, The Practice's producer/writer and creator, for, "giving me a chariot to ride up here on: A woman who puts a flag on the moon for women over 40. Who can think, who can work, who are successes, who can cook, and who can COOK!"[citation needed] She has had an Emmy-nominated supporting role on the TV series Two and a Half Men since its inception in 2003, playing Evelyn Harper, the snobbish, overbearing mother of the two main characters Charlie and Alan.

Taylor again played a legal professional in the 2001 movie Legally Blonde, a comedy in which she played a tough Harvard law professor. From 1999 to 2001, she played the Hedda Hopper-esque Letitia Devine on The Lot for which she was also nominated for an Emmy. Other guest roles include appearances on ER, Veronica's Closet, and recurring roles on Monk and as billionaire Peggy Peabody on The L Word.

Taylor's only animated role was that of Prudence, castle majordomo and love interest of the Grand Duke, in Disney's Cinderella II and Cinderella III.

After less than a week of rehearsal Taylor stepped into what had been Eve Arden's lead (until she quit after the first preview) in Moose Murders, a play which opened and closed in one performance and is infamous as Broadway's greatest flop.[2]

[edit] Emmy Award nominations

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Film

[edit] Television

  • Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967) .... Trish Wanamaker (1971)
  • Somerset (1970) .... Sgt. Ruth Winter (unknown episodes, 1973)
  • Beacon Hill (1975) .... Marilyn Gardiner (unknown episodes)
  • Kojak .... Elizabeth (1 episode, 1977)
  • The Edge of Night (1956) .... Denise Norwood Cavanaugh, R.N. (1977-1978, 1980)
  • ABC Afterschool Specials .... Felicia Martin (1 episode, 1981)
  • Bosom Buddies .... Ruth Dunbar (21 episodes, 1980-1981)
  • All My Children (1970) .... Jill Ollinger (unknown episodes, 1981-1982)
  • The Love Boat .... Kathy Brighton (1 episode, 1983)
  • Kate & Allie .... Linda Cabot (1 episode, 1984)
  • Me and Mom (1985) .... Zena Hunnicutt (unknown episodes)
  • Harry (1987) .... Ina Duckett, R.N. (unknown episodes)
  • Perfect Strangers .... Olivia Crawford (1 episode, 1987)
  • CBS Summer Playhouse .... Fran Grogan / ... (2 episodes, 1987-1989)
  • Murder, She Wrote .... Winifred Thayer (1 episode, 1989)
  • Wiseguy .... Allison Royce / ... (1 episode, 1990)
  • Going Places .... Dawn St. Clare (3 episodes, 1990-1991)
  • The Powers That Be .... Margaret Powers (20 episodes, 1992-1993)
  • Saved by the Bell: The College Years .... Dean Susan McMann (7 episodes, 1993-1994)
  • Diagnosis Murder .... Agent Gretchen McCord (2 episodes, 1994-1995)
  • The Naked Truth .... Camilla Dane (2 episodes, 1995-1998)
  • Something So Right .... Abigail (1 episode, 1996)
  • Veronica's Closet .... Millicent (2 episodes, 1998)
  • Buddy Faro .... Olivia Vandermeer (1 episode, 1998)
  • ER .... Phyllis Farr (1 episode, 1999)
  • The Lot (1999) .... Letitia DeVine (unknown episodes)
  • The 51st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1999) (TV) .... Herself
  • Ally McBeal .... 2nd Woman in Face Bra Infomercial / ... (2 episodes, 1999-2000)
  • Strong Medicine .... Lillian Pynchon (1 episode, 2000)
  • DAG .... Katherine Twigg (1 episode, 2000)
  • The Living Edens .... Narrator (1 episode, 2000)
  • The Fighting Fitzgeralds .... Rose (1 episode, 2001)
  • Strange Frequency .... Marge Crowley (1 episode, 2001)
  • Baby Bob (2002) .... Madeline Collins (unknown episodes)
  • Fillmore! .... Mrs. Cornwall (1 episode, 2002)
  • Intimate Portrait .... Herself (2 episodes, 2002-2004)
  • Banzai .... Herself (1 episode, 2003)
  • The Practice .... Judge Roberta Kittleson (29 episodes, 1998-2003)
  • The L Word .... Peggy Peabody (8 episodes, 2004-2008)
  • Big Brother .... Herself (1 episode, 2005)
  • Monk .... Peggy Davenport (2 episodes, 2005-2007)
  • The 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2006) (TV) .... Herself
  • The 33rd Annual People's Choice Awards (2007) (TV) .... Herself
  • Two and a Half Men .... Evelyn Harper / ... (47 episodes, 2003-2007)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Holland Taylor Biography (1943-)
  2. ^ http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9400E3DF133BF930A15751C0A965948260

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series

Ellen Corby (1976) · Kristy McNichol (1977) · Nancy Marchand (1978) · Kristy McNichol (1979) · Nancy Marchand (1980) · Nancy Marchand (1981) · Nancy Marchand (1982) · Doris Roberts (1983) · Alfre Woodard (1984) · Betty Thomas (1985) · Bonnie Bartlett (1986) · Bonnie Bartlett (1987) · Patricia Wettig (1988) · Melanie Mayron (1989) · Marg Helgenberger (1990) · Madge Sinclair (1991) · Valerie Mahaffey (1992) · Mary Alice (1993) · Leigh Taylor-Young (1994) · Julianna Margulies (1995) · Tyne Daly (1996) · Kim Delaney (1997) · Camryn Manheim (1998) · Holland Taylor (1999) · Allison Janney (2000)