Marilyn Chris

Marilyn Chris, born Marilyn Miller in Brooklyn, New York, in 1938 or 1939, is an American actress whose career has spanned stage, film, and television. Her parents were Jack Miller, of English-Scottish Mennonite background, and Sylvia Slavin, a Russian Jew. As a child, Chris experienced the departure of her father from the family and the death of her grandfather, with whom she had been close. She attended Junior High School 109 in Brooklyn, where one of her classmates was the future singer Steve Lawrence, then known as Sidney Liebowitz. She subsequently enrolled at the High School of Performing Arts and later at City College of New York. On February 23, 1958, the New York Daily News selected Chris as that week's "Typical American Girl," publishing her photograph in the Sunday magazine section and awarding her a twenty-five-dollar prize. Her stage name derived from a practical necessity: discovering that her birth name was already registered with Actors Equity, she shortened her then-married name, Christopoulos, to create the name Chris.

She launched her acting career in the 1950s at The Living Theatre, where she appeared in productions including Many Loves, Women of Trachis, In the Jungle of Cities, The Apple, and Man is Man. In 1963, she appeared in The Good Soldier Schweik for the Chelsea Theater Center and made her film debut in Love with the Proper Stranger, alongside Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen. Her Broadway career began with a series of understudying and standby roles: in 1965 she was an understudy for the roles of Agnes Graham and Sylvia Goldman in the original Broadway production of The Family Way, in 1967 she served as standby for the roles of Lulu and Meg in The Birthday Party, and in 1968 she was standby for the title role in The Seven Descents of Myrtle. She subsequently appeared on Broadway in Lenny.

Chris appeared in the 1969 romantic drama John and Mary, co-starring with Dustin Hoffman, and in 1970 played Myrtle Young in the crime film The Honeymoon Killers and had a role in the drama film The People Next Door. That same year she guest starred on Hawaii Five-O. In 1972, she briefly played Edie Hoffman on the ABC soap opera All My Children before being cast as Naomi, the paranoid mother of Allen Ginsberg, in the Off-Broadway production of Kaddish, which opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February of that year. The performance earned her an Obie Award, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Variety Critics Poll recognition. In May 1972, she joined the cast of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live in the contract role of Wanda Webb, a character whose true love was Vince Wolek, played by Antony Ponzini, and who operated a restaurant called Heavenly Hash in the fictional city of Llanview. Chris remained with the series until 1976, returned in 1980, and continued in the role until her final air date of February 7, 1994.

During the mid-1970s, Chris appeared in the comedy film Rhinoceros (1974) opposite Gene Wilder, playing Mrs. Bingham, and co-starred with Lee Wallace in the musical Laugh a Little, Cry a Little at the Westbury Music Fair in July 1974. She played Faye Stone in the 1975 television film Strike Force, alongside Richard Gere. In the late 1970s she starred as Rose Lander in Looking Up (1977), guest starred on Rafferty and Barney Miller, played Harriet in the television film Some Kind of Miracle (1979), appeared in the miniseries Backstairs at the White House, and made guest appearances on Family and Kaz. In 1980, she played Mavis Skinner in The Black Marble and appeared in the romantic comedy film Loving Couples, as well as in the television film The Secret War of Jackie's Girls. She appeared in the television film Kent State in 1981.

In the early 1980s, Chris returned to Broadway, playing Kate Jerome in Brighton Beach Memoirs. In 1984, she co-starred with her husband, actor Lee Wallace, in the television film A Doctor's Story, and guest starred on Fame in 1986. She appeared in the 1989 film American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy, and in 1990 co-starred with Wallace in Taking Stock for the Jewish Repertory Theatre. In March and April 1992, she appeared in Barefoot in the Park at the Valley Forge Music Fair alongside Bernard Barrow, Cady McClain, and Walt Willey, and in October 1992 co-starred again with Wallace in God of Vengeance for the Jewish Repertory Theatre.

In the 1990s, Chris made guest appearances on Law & Order and New York News, and played Josie Basilio in Trees Lounge (1996), a film written and directed by Steve Buscemi, in which she co-starred. In 1997, she appeared in the television film Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way and had a role in the film The Deli. In May 1997, she played Faye in The Young Girl and the Monsoon at Playwrights Horizons. She guest starred on Third Watch in 1999 and on Deadline and Oz in the early 2000s. She played Phyllis in The Great New Wonderful (2005), a comedy film set in New York City in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and appeared as Mrs. Chadwick in Waltzing Anna (2006). She also guest starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

In March 2010, Chris appeared in Sin at the Baruch Performing Arts Center's Rose Nagelberg Theatre, a production that closed early due to lack of funds. She played Elizabeth Robbins in the suspense film Altered Minds (2013), and in July 2024 portrayed serial killer Nannie Doss in a solo reading of The Giggling Granny at the Southampton Cultural Center.

Chris has been married three times. Her first marriage, in 1957, was to aspiring playwright George Christopoulos, with whom she had a son; it ended in divorce. Her second marriage, on New Year's Eve 1967, was to actor Ric Mancini, also ending in divorce. On December 14, 1975, she married actor Lee Wallace, with whom she remained until his death on December 20, 2020.