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Stockard Channing Bio
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Stockard Channing
Susan Antonia Williams Stockard (Stockard Channing) was born February 13, 1944 in New York, New York. Her parents were Lester Napier Stockard and Mary Alice English. Channing’s parents were financially well-off, and she was afforded all the benefits of such an upbringing. Channing attended The Madeira School as well as Radcliffe College, graduating in 1965 after studying history and literature. At this point, Channing chose to pursue her acting career. She began working in Boston, but eventually split her time between New York and Los Angeles where work was easier to come by.
From 1969 to 1974, Channing served as the victim of the number painter on the children’s series Sesame Street. For the next several years, Channing could only find small roles such as a one-episode appearance in The Hospital (1971, not credited) and Up the Sandbox (1972). In 1973, Channing landed the lead in a made for TV film entitled The Girl Most Likely To…The film centered on an unattractive woman who undergoes plastic surgery and becomes beautiful. She then confronts all those that mistreated her when she was ugly. The film was extremely well-received, and Channing began winning over the hearts of the American film audiences.
In 1975, she furthered this effort with her role in The Fortune. Directed by Mike Nichols and starring Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, Channing earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Female Acting Debut in a Motion Picture. The following year she starred in Sweet Revenge alongside Sam Waterston to meager critical acclaim. Also in 1976 she starred in the 70s disaster film parody The Big Bus and in 1977 the made for TV film Lucan.
But it was 1978 that would prove to be Channing’s breakout year. Despite her 34 years, Channing took the role of irreverent high school student Betty Rizzo in the musical turned film Grease. The film also made stars of John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.
In the same year, Channing starred in the spoof comedy The Cheap Detective with Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Dom DeLuise and Madeline Kahn. Directed by Robert Moore and written by Neil Simon, audiences were not overly impressed, finding it lacking next to similar films like Murder by Death.
However, due to Channing’s success and popularity, CBS offered her leads in two ultimately short-lived sitcoms. The first was Stockard Channing in Just Friends (1979) and The Stockard Channing Show (1980).
For the next twenty years, she would remain a familiar face in television and film. She took many smaller roles in various kinds of films, but never quite recaptured the popularity of her earlier works. During this time, Channing also returned to theater acting and won a Tony Award in 1985 for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
Notable film appearances during this time included Tidy Endings (1988) for which she won the CableACE Award for Best Actress and Six Degrees of Separation (1993) which earned her an Oscar nomination.
Splitting her time between independent film, theater and larger budget films, fans may remember Channing in such 90’s films as To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), Up Close and Personal (1996) with Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer, The First Wives Club alongside Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, and Practical Magic (1998) which won her the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress.
Despite constant work, Channing’s career got a much needed boost at the turn of the millennium. From 1999 to 2006, Channing starred in The West Wing, which became highly successful and single-handedly brought her back into the limelight. In 2001, she won both the London Critics Circle Film Award for Actress of the Year as well as the AFI Film Award in recognition of her work on The Business of Strangers. The following year, she starred in The Matthew Shepard Story winning her the Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy, taking away two that year. (Her other Emmy was for The West Wing.) While The West Wing began winding down, Channing landed the lead in a new series, Out of Practice. Despite her Emmy nomination, the show was canceled one year later.
She is currently in post-production for a new comedy entitled Sparkle.
Channing has married four times. Her first husband was Walter Channing from whom she obtained her surname. The two were married from 1963 to 1967. Her second marriage was to Paul Schmidt from 1970 to 1976, while the third marriage to David Debin lasted from 1976 to 1980. Her last marriage, to David Rawle, ended in 1988 after eight years of marriage. Since 1988, Channing has been involved with cinematographer Daniel Gillham quipping, “The only one that wasn't a marriage lasts 15 years!”
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Jeff Conaway in Grease |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Barry Pearl in Grease |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Michael Tucci in Grease |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Kelly Ward in Grease |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Didi Conn in Grease |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Jamie Donnelly in Grease |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Dinah Manoff in Grease |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Victor Garber in The First Wives Club |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Stephen Collins in The First Wives Club |
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Stockard Channing - Appeared with Elizabeth Berkley in The First Wives Club |
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