Penelope Milford

Penelope Dale Milford (March 23, 1948 – October 14, 2025) was an American actress whose work spanned stage, film, and television across several decades. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she grew up in Illinois and graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka. Her father was Richard George Milford and her mother Ann Marie, née Felt. Her younger brother, Kim, was an actor and musician who died of heart failure at age 37. Milford was married to poet and actor Michael David Lally from 1982 to 1984.

Milford's stage career began off-Broadway in 1971, when she played Judith in Long Time Coming and a Long Time Gone, a musical about artist Richard Fariña, appearing opposite Richard Gere. Her Broadway work ran from 1971 to 1975. In 1972 she joined the cast of Lenny, a play about the life of Lenny Bruce. She subsequently appeared in Felix in 1974 and also performed in a revue called The Second Hottest Show in Town. Her most prominent Broadway credit came when she was cast as Jenny Anderson in Shenandoah, a musical based on the 1965 film of the same name. The production opened on January 7, 1975, and received a Tony Award for Best Musical nomination. For originating the role of Jenny Anderson, Milford earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical in 1975. Her later stage work included Fishing (1981) by Michael Weller, Territorial Rites (1983), and a 2013 production of Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska at the Cocoon Theatre in Rhinebeck, New York, where she played the role of Deborah.

Her screen career began with an uncredited appearance in Norman Mailer's film Maidstone in 1970. She appeared in Man on a Swing in 1974, and her television debut came in a 1976 episode of The Blue Knight. In 1977 she played a fictional actress named Lorna Sinclair in Ken Russell's Valentino, a film about the life of Rudolph Valentino. Her most celebrated film role came in 1978, when she was cast as Vi Munson in Coming Home. The performance earned her both an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a Photoplay Award nomination for Favorite Female Newcomer. Subsequent film appearances included The Last Word (1980), Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Endless Love (1981), the horror film Blood Link (1982), and the adventure film The Golden Seal (1983). After a period of reduced film activity, she appeared in the 1988 cult film Heathers, followed by Cold Justice (1989), Miss Missouri (1990), Normal Life (1996), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Part II (1996), and Night of the Lawyers (1997).

Milford's television work included the 1980 film Seizure: The Story of Kathy Morris, in which she played the title character, and The Oldest Living Graduate (1980), an Emmy Award-winning television movie starring Henry Fonda and Cloris Leachman. In 1982 she starred opposite Sondra Locke in Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story, directed by Jackie Cooper and also Emmy Award-winning, portraying Betty Clooney, the sister of Rosemary Clooney. She appeared in The Burning Bed (1984), a Golden Globe Award-winning television movie starring Farrah Fawcett and Paul Le Mat, and guest starred in a 1985 episode of The Hitchhiker. Milford died on October 14, 2025, in Saugerties, New York, at the age of 77.