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Carrie Snodgress
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Carrie Snodgress

While earning a Masters Degree in Fine Arts at Chicago's prestigious Goodman Theater, she appeared in the play Caesar and Cleopatra. Director Alan Pakula was visiting Chicago, saw Snodgress' performance and invited her to Hollywood for a screen test for the film The Sterile Cuckoo. Although Liza Minnelli won the part, Carrie's audition was powerful and she was convinced to give Hollywood a try.

Her performance caught the eye of Universal Studio's power duo Monique James and Lew Wasserman, who signed her for an exclusive 5 year contract on the spot. Her early television credits included The Virginian, Marcus Welby, and special TV movies such as The Impatient Heart.

Then in 1970 Snogress landed a leading role in Frank Perry's Diary of A Mad Housewife, opposite Frank Langella. This was the turning point in Carrie's career. Her performance as the victimized housewife earned her an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress and won her an unprecedented Best Newcomer and Best Actress Awards at the Golden Globes.

It was during this time while Snodgress' meteoric rise to stardom continued that she met and fell in love with musical icon Neil Young. At the height of her movie career Carrie stunned the Hollywood community by choosing a new path, one as a wife and mother. Carrie and Neil's son Zeke Young was born in 1972.

Then in 1976 in Detroit, Carrie was back on stage in the play Vanities. It was there that Director Brain DePalma saw her and chose to return Carrie to the big screen in his film The Fury, opposite Kirk Douglas. Other roles followed, such as Pale Rider, with Clint Eastwood, Blue Sky, with Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones, Murphy's Law opposite Charles Bronson, Wild Things with Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon, Eight Seconds, with Luke Perry, White Man's Burden, opposite John Travolta and Harry Belafonte, The Attic, with Ray Milland, and Across the Tracks, with Brad Pitt and Rick Schroder.

Additionally, Carrie continued to act on stage through the years in plays such as Arthur Miller's The Price, To Kill A Mockingbird, and "The Manchurian Candidate. She also appeared in numerous TV guest star roles in shows such as E.R., Touched By An Angel, The X Files, L.A. Law and Chicago Hope, as well as movies of the week: Mother's Day, Death Benefit, Mission of the Sharks, and Fast Friends, with David Letterman.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2003.

Carrie Snodgress Facts

Birth NameCaroline Snodgress
OccupationActress
BirthdayOctober 27, 1946
SignScorpio
BirthplacePark Ridge, Illinois, USA
Date of deathApril 1, 2004 (age 57)
Awards1971 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (for Diary of a Mad Housewife)

Selected Filmography

Not available.