Carol Rossen

Carol Eve Rossen, born August 12, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, is an American actress whose career has spanned stage, television, and film. She is the eldest of three children of director and producer Robert Rossen. The family remained in California until Rossen was twelve, after which they relocated to Connecticut and New York. During the Hollywood blacklisting era, accusations leveled against her father prompted the family to move to Paris. Rossen pursued her education at the American Academy in Rome before earning a degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1959, where she majored in English literature and minored in political science. She served as president of her senior class and delivered remarks at her commencement ceremony. It was Bessie Schonberg, who led Sarah Lawrence's theater department, who persistently encouraged Rossen to explore acting, spending three years persuading her to enroll in a workshop course. Once she did, Rossen extended her involvement beyond performance to write and direct productions staged on campus for children from the surrounding community.

Following her graduation, Rossen worked in summer stock theatre in Saranac Lake, New York, before transitioning to television in 1960. Her early television work included a recurring role on The Lawless Years, and she went on to appear in episodes of The Untouchables, Dr. Kildare, Perry Mason, The Fugitive, Branded, Harry O, and CBS Playhouse, among others. She also acted in television pilots including The Cliff Dwellers in 1966, The Oath in 1976, Corey: For the People in 1977, and Scene of the Crime V in 1985. A 1969 New York Times review cited her performance in the CBS Playhouse episode "Shadow Game" as strong, while Time magazine described an episode of East Side West Side in which she starred as the series' best. A Times review also listed her work in the 1982 television movie A Question of Honor among its impressive performances.

Rossen's Broadway career ran from 1963 to 1965 and included two productions: Nobody Loves an Albatross, which opened in 1963, and The Glass Menagerie in 1965. Her stage work extended beyond Broadway to include an off-Broadway production of Square in the Eye, performances at the Forum Lab Theatre, and a production with John Houseman's Theater Group. In 1978, she appeared in the film The Fury.

Rossen left the entertainment industry after the birth of her daughter. When she attempted to return seven years later, she encountered professional difficulties, which she attributed in part to having allowed herself to become identified primarily as the wife of actor Hal Holbrook, whom she had married on December 28, 1966, in New York City. Holbrook encouraged her return to acting, and she resumed her career beginning with a role in a small theatrical production in Los Angeles. Rossen and Holbrook remained married until 1979.

In addition to her acting career, Rossen has worked as an author. In 1988, Dutton Books published her nonfiction work Counterpunch: A Woman's Journey from the Terror of Violence through Rage to Survival, in which she recounted being attacked by a sledgehammer-wielding assailant while jogging in Will Rogers State Park on February 14, 1984, and the physical and emotional recovery that followed. A review in The Desert Sun described the attack as dreadful and stated that the book tells a story that deserves to be read, while noting that a more direct writing style would have strengthened its impact. Her 2019 book, Mother Goose Drank Scotch, is a biography of her father, Robert Rossen.