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Kim Stanley

Kim Stanley (February 11, 1925 - August 20, 2001) was an American actress. She was born Patricia Beth Reid in Tularosa, New Mexico. She was a drama major at the University of New Mexico and later studied at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Stanley was a successful Broadway actress with only a few motion picture roles. She was singled out by the New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson for her early work. She eventually attended The Actor's Studio, studying under Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg.

Stanley starred in such Broadway hits as Picnic (1953), playing Millie Owens, and Bus Stop (1955), playing Cherie.

She received the 1952 Theatre World Award for her performance of Anna Reeves in The Chase; and was nominated for the 1959 Tony for Best Actress in a Play for A Touch of the Poet and the 1962 Tony for Best Actress in a Play for A Far Country.

Stanley was also the leading lady of live television drama, which flourished in New York during the 1950s. Among her many starring roles was Wilma, a star-struck 15-year-old girl from the gulf coast of Texas in Horton Foote's A Young Lady of Property, which aired on Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse on April 5, 1953.

A savaging by English critics after her London performance of Masha in The Actor's Studio production of Chekhov's play The Three Sisters (1964) made her vow never to perform on stage again, and she kept that vow for the rest of her life.

Stanley had four husbands, Bruce Hall (married 1945-divorced 1946), Curt Conway (married 1949-divorced 1956), Alfred Ryder (married 1958-divorced 1964) and Joseph Siegel (married 1964-divorced 1967).

She had three children, one by Conway, one by Brooks Clift (brother of Montgomery Clift) while she was married to Conway, and one by Ryder.

Her first movie was The Goddess (1958), playing an unstable movie star, Rita Shawn. In 1964, she starred in Seance on a Wet Afternoon and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Other movies include Frances (1982), playing the mother of movie star Frances Farmer opposite Jessica Lange, in which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. And she played Pancho Barnes in The Right Stuff (1983).

She received an Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in the episode A Cardinal Act of Mercy on the television series Ben Casey (1963) and an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for playing Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1985).

Kim Stanley died of uterine cancer in Santa Fe, New Mexico.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2004.

Kim Stanley Facts

Birth NamePatricia Reid
OccupationActress
BirthdayFebruary 11, 1925
SignAquarius
BirthplaceTularosa, New Mexico, USA
Date of deathAugust 20, 2001 (age 76)

Selected Filmography

Captain America: Civil War
Zoolander
The Wiz
The Right Stuff
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Sentinel
Duplicity
Frances
Continue » Find more details on the Kim Stanley Movies page