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Stockard Channing

Stockard Channing is one of the most respected and versatile actresses of our time. Her career to date reflects a vast range of roles in film, television and theatre. Channing will be returning to television this fall starring in the CBS comedy Out of Practice. The story revolves around a family of physicians who, although they share the same profession, have very little in common. Her character is a driven, status-conscious cardiologist whose career eclipsed her ex-husband's (Henry Winkler) years ago.

Channing has been balancing both film and successful television shows for years. In 2003, she starred in Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things, opposite Jim Broadbent, Dan Aykroyd and Emily Mortimer. She also starred in the Merchant-Ivory film Le Divorce, opposite Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts and Glenn Close. That same year, Channing was a part of an ensemble star-studded cast of Woody Allen's Anything Else, opposite Danny DeVito, Woody Allen, Christina Ricci and Jason Biggs. In 2002, she was awarded an Emmy and Screen Actor's Guild Award for her poignant portrayal of Matthew Shepard's mother in The Matthew Shepard Story. The controversial television movie was based on the true story of the openly gay college student Matthew Shepard, who was brutally beaten and killed from a hate-motivated murder that later led to a great deal of national media attention. That same year, Channing was also awarded an Emmy for her powerful portrayal of first lady Abigail Bartlet on the award-winning series The West Wing.

One of the more acclaimed film portrayals of Channing's career took place when she reprised her Broadway role of Ouisa Kittredge (for which she was nominated for a Tony Award) in the motion picture version of Six Degrees of Separation. Channing went on to be nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. This film tells the story of a pampered socialite who begins to realize the emptiness of her life and the starvation of her soul. That same year she earned a Screen Actor's Guild nomination for her appearance in the Wayne Wang film Smoke. In 2002, she was recognized by the London Film Critics for her role in Business of Strangers.

In Addition to Six Degrees of Separation, Channing has an extensive career on Broadway. In 1999, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her role as Eleanor of Aquitane in The Lion in Winter, opposite Laurence Fishburne. Other stage credits include her Tony Award-winning role in Joe Egg, where she portrayed a wife struggling with her husband to cope with their only child's severe handicaps. Others include: House of Blue Leaves, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, The Little Foxes, Hapgood, Woman in Mind, The Rink, The Golden Age, They're Playing Our Song and the original production of Love Letters.

Another of Channing's notable performances was playing the iconic bad girl, Rizzo, in the infamous Randall Kleiser film Grease, in which she starred opposite John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Channing went on to appear in several other high profile pictures over the years, including Life or Something Like it, Isn't She Great, Practical Magic, Twilight, The First Wives Club, Moll Flanders, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, Married to It, Meet the Applegates, Staying Together, Destiny, Heartburn, The Men's Club, The Fortune, The Cheap Detective, Sweet Revenge, The Big Bus and Without a Trace.

Channing's television credits include the Lifetime movie The Truth about Jane; the Showtime miniseries It's A Girl Thing; An Unexpected Life for the USA Network; the Disney Channel's The Road to Avonleam; HBO's Perfect Witness; CBS's David's Mother, Echoes in the Darkness, and On Tidy Endings; NBC's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and The Prosecutors; Showtime's Lily Dale; the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of The Room Upstairs; Silent Victory: The Story of Kitty O'Neal; CBS's The Stockard Channing Show and The Girl Most Likely To.

Channing divides her time between New York and Los Angeles.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2005.
Read earlier biographies on this page.

Stockard Channing Facts

Birth NameSusan Williams Antonia Stockard
OccupationActress
BirthdayFebruary 13, 1944 (80)
SignAquarius
BirthplaceNew York, New York, USA
Height5' 3" (1m60)  How tall is Stockard Channing compared to you?
Awards2003 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Female Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries (for The Matthew Shepard Story)
2002 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series (for The West Wing)
2002 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie (for The Matthew Shepard Story)

Selected Filmography

Where The Heart Is
Staying Together
Grease
To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar
Practical Magic
Anything Else
Must Love Dogs
Heartburn
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