Frances Heflin

Mary Frances Heflin was born on September 20, 1920, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of Fanny Bleecker Shippey and Dr. Emmett Evan Heflin, a dentist. She had two older brothers: Martin, who worked as a public relations executive, and Van Heflin, the actor. Through her brother Martin, she was the aunt of actress Marta Heflin. Heflin died of lung cancer on June 1, 1994, in New York City at the age of 73.

Heflin began her professional career in radio, appearing on programs including Aunt Jenny, Betty and Bob, Cavalcade, Columbia Workshop, and Grand Central Station, among others. She portrayed Nora Holiday in the CBS radio comedy Holiday and Company. Her Broadway career spanned from 1941 to 1964, and she made her debut on that stage while still in her teens. Her Broadway credits included the original productions of The Skin of Our Teeth in 1942, The World's Full of Girls in 1943, and I Remember Mama in 1944, as well as the comedies All in Favor, Sheppey, and The Walrus and the Carpenter, and additional productions including The Physicists, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Tempest. On July 30, 1947, she appeared in the U.S. premiere of Bertolt Brecht's Galileo in Los Angeles. She also performed in London's West End, taking the role of Laura in John Gielgud's UK premiere of The Glass Menagerie opposite Helen Hayes.

Heflin's film debut came in The Molly Maguires in 1970, in which she played the wife of a leader of the Irish secret society. During the 1950s and 1960s she appeared in varying roles across numerous television series, including Kraft Television Theatre and The Patty Duke Show. She was a life member of The Actors Studio. Her most sustained and widely recognized role was Mona Kane Tyler, the mother of Erica Kane, on the ABC soap opera All My Children. She originated the role in January 1970 and continued playing it until her death in June 1994.

In 1944, Heflin briefly married filmmaker Sidney Kaufman; the marriage ended in 1945. That same year she married composer Sol Kaplan, and the two remained together until his death in 1990. Together they had three children: Jonathan Kaplan, a film director, and two actresses, Nora Heflin and Mady Kaplan.