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A veteran of stage, screen, and television, she won the Oscarr as Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde. She was nominated again the following year for her performance in Paul Newman's Rachel, Rachel. Her other feature film credits include Woody Allen's Don't Drink The Water, I Never Sang For My Father, I Walk The Line, Watermelon Man, Two People, For Pete's Sake, The Gentleman Bandit, The Lemon Sisters, Dick Tracy and Boys on the Side.

Her television credits include several appearances on All In The Family and Archie Bunker's Place, as well as the television films and miniseries Open Admissions, The UFO Incident, Backstairs at the White House, the Peabody Award-winning Animals, Animals, Animals and HBO's Miss Sheri. Parsons can currently be seen in the recurring role of Bev, Roseanne's mother, on the hit ABC sitcom, Roseanne.

Parsons won a Theatre World Award for her professional acting debut in Mrs. Dally Has a Lover, and made her musical theatre debut in Happy Hunting with Ethel Merman. Seven Descents of Myrtle and And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, both of which earned her Tony Award nominations; Ladies of the Alamo, The Norman Conquests, Shimada and The Shadow Box are some of her Broadway credits. As an actor, director and adaptor, Parsons has had a long association with the New York Shakespeare Festival. Credits there include The Pirates of Penzance, co-starring with Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt, Miss Margarida's Way for which she received a Tony Award nomination, Peer Gynt, Mert and Phil and Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo. She directed productions of As You Like It, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Recently, she starred in the two-character play Grace and Glorie in New York where she portrayed a 91 year-old Appalachian farm woman dying from cancer. Parsons has also been associated with many of the country's top theater festivals.

On the day of her arrival in New York City from Marblehead, Massachusetts, with a B.A. from Connecticut College and a year of law school, she was hired as one of eight people who put together NBC's Today Show. She then became the first woman political news reporter for a television network. Parsons has also taught at several institutes and universities including Yale and Columbia. Parsons, who lives in New York with her family, commutes to Los Angeles constantly to film her recurring role on Roseanne.