contact
Charles Lago for booking information 760-564-3112 or click
here
Born
on April 30th, 1926, Cloris Leachman grew up in a small town near
Des Moines, Iowa. As a child, she loved to act and play the piano.
At age 11, she landed a job on a children's radio show from Drake
University. By 17, Leachman had joined the Kendall Community
Playhouse; a year later the aspiring actress headed to
Northwestern University on a drama scholarship. At 20, Leachman
entered a local beauty pageant on a lark and made it all the way
to the Miss America finals. She was Miss Chicago inthe 1946-Miss America contest. Leachman lost the beauty
contest, but not her love of the spotlight. She headed for New
York City and was recruited for the prestigious Actors Studio.
Leachman
is an American Academy Award-, eight-time Emmy- and Golden
Globe-winning actress of stage, film and television. She has won
nine primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other female
performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award. Cloris Leachman has
starred in a wide range of theater, television and motion picture
projects, creating such indelible characters as Phyllis in the TV
series Phyllis and The Mary Tyler
Moore Show, Nurse Diesel in High
Anxiety, Frau Blucher in Young
Frankenstein and Ruth Popper in The
Last Picture Show (for which she won an Oscar® and a
BAFTA). Leachman has been nominated 20 times for work in
Television over the years.
In 1978 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago
theatre. She has voice acted in numerous animated films, including
My Little Pony: The Movie, The Iron Giant, and most notably
as the voice of the cantankerous sky pirate Dola in Hayao
Miyazaki's 1986 feature Castle in the Sky. Dubbed by Disney
in 1998, Leachman's performance in this film received unanimous
praise.
Leachman
played embittered, greedy, Slavic "Grandma Ida" on the
Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, for which she won two
Emmy Awards, both for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
(once in 2002, then again in 2006). She was nominated for the same
role in that category for six consecutive years.
She was nominated for a SAG Award for her role as the wine-soaked,
former jazz singer and grandmother Evelyn in the Sony feature Spanglish
opposite Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni. That same year she appeared
with Sandler again, in the remake of The Longest Yard. She
also appeared in Kurt Russells' comedy Sky High.
In 2006, Leachman's performance alongside Sir Ben Kingsley and
Annette Benning in the HBO special Mrs. Harris earned her
an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actress in a
miniseries or TV movie as well as a SAG Award nomination for
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or
Miniseries.
On
May 14, 2006, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts
from Drake University.
Cloris recently wrapped three films, a remake of The Woman
with an all-star cast that features Eva Mendez, Meg Ryan, Annette
Benning, Jada Pincket Smith, Debra Messing, Candice Bergen and
Bette Midler. Cloris also recently completed an
independent film American Cowslip featuring Val Kilmer,
Peter Falk, Rip Torn, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern. And New York I
Love Youa collective work of
thirteenshort films
shot by renowned international directors in each of the city's
five boroughs, with the theme of finding love being interwoven
between each of the ten-minute stories.
Cloris is in the process of writing her memoir, which will
be published in the sprin of 2009 by Kensington Books and is
currently touring the U.S. with her one woman show CLORIS!
Leachman is a widely sought after speaker on the college circuit.
Her talk’s focus on the multiple aspects of her career, what
acting is, how one does it, the discipline demanded to continue at
the top and the special rewards that have come to her. She
describes with great humor and honesty how she organized her
talent to create such diverse women as her Oscar-winning
performance as the emotionally barren Ruth Popper in The Last
Picture Show, the bizarre Frau Blucher in Young
Frankenstein, and the Outrageous Nurse Diesel in High
Anxiety.
Leachman’s corporate events, she speaks of the high points of
her career from its beginning to the current year. In 2008 she has
already completed three new films, The
Women, American Cowslip
and
New York I Love You. How has the business changed?What are the differences in film-making today from
yesterday?
Cloris tells of the stars, directors and writers she’s
worked with. She will tell of exotic places she’s been and the
politicians and presidents she came to know. This year she is also
completing her autobiography and touring her one-woman show, she
will give highlights of those activities. As to family life
she will tell her successful oscillation between her work and
raising, feeding and putting her five children through school.
A schematic diagram of a bumblebee shows that it cannot fly. If
you look at a schematic diagram of Cloris’ life it would seem
impossible to have accomplished all that she has. But, like the
bumblebee, nullifying her schematics, she has blithely carried her
extraordinary load. She does fly!
CLORIS!
A One Woman Show Starring Cloris Leachman
Written & Directed by George Englund
Executive Producer Charles Lago
Producer George Englund Jr.
In
her one-woman show, nine Emmy Award winner Cloris Leachman
strides onto a new stage in her life. Well, not a
completely new stage, the show derives its substance from when,
at the age of seven, she began studying singing and became a
concert quality pianist. Not only does Cloris re-create
moments from some of her most famous performances - Ruth Popper
in The Last Picture Show, Phyllis in the Mary Tyler
Moore Show, Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein and
Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety she also tells
anecdotes of her experiences in creating those roles and the
people she worked with. Cloris
sings as she did when she played the lead in South Pacific
on Broadway and displays her amazing command of the piano.
Shake
hands with the newest diva in live entertainment.
contact
Charles Lago for booking information 760-564-3112 or click
here
independent film American Cowslip featuring Val Kilmer,
Peter Falk, Rip Torn, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern. And New York I
Love You 
