Stockard Channing

Season 8, Episode 809

Original Airdate: January 20, 2002

Stockard Channing was born Susan Stockard on February 13, 1944 in New York City. From her privileged youth in Manhattan, she went on to study history and literature at Harvard-Radcliffe, where she graduated cum laude.

She started acting with the Theater Company, an experimental troupe in Boston. She made her film debut in 1971, in The Hospital. Her role in Mike Nichols' The Fortune (1975), alongside Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, should have been Channing's big break but turned into a disappointing flop. Several other forgettable film roles followed, but among them all was her memorable role in the film musical Grease. The 1978 film saw Channing, in her early 30s, shine as the wise-cracking teenaged bad girl Rizzo alongside John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

After a couple failed sitcoms, Channing turned her focus from Hollywood to the New York stage, where she finally found great success. She won the Tony award in 1985 for her role in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. Her award win led to other great roles, such as Bunny Flingus in The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare, and Love Letters by A.R. Gurney. The former brought her another Tony nomination as well as the attention of playwright Guare.

In 1990, he asked her to star in his next play, since another actress had dropped out. The role was that of Ouisa in Six Degrees of Separation. The play brought Channing another Tony nomination, and at long last, a starring film role in the screen adaptation. Starring alongside Will Smith and Donald Sutherland, Channing was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar in 1993.

Other stage roles since have included revivals of The Little Foxes and The Lion in Winter with Laurence Fishburne (and again a Tony nomination. Her work in film is still largely limited to supporting roles, such as Smoke (1995), The First Wives Club, Up Close & Personal and Moll Flanders (all 1996), Twilight (1998), and Where the Heart Is (2000).

Her latest starring role is in the 2001 critically acclaimed independent film The Business of Strangers co-starring Julia Stiles. Amidst the Tony, Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, Channing is currently best known for her role on the hit TV drama The West Wing as First Lady and doctor Abigail Bartlett.