Sandy Dennis

Sandra Dale Dennis was born on April 27, 1937, in Hastings, Nebraska, the daughter of Yvonne Dennis, a secretary, and Jack Dennis, a postal clerk, who divorced in 1966 after 38 years of marriage. Dennis grew up in Kenesaw and Lincoln, Nebraska, and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1955, where one of her classmates was writer and comedian Dick Cavett. She attended Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Nebraska, performing with the Lincoln Community Theater Group before relocating to New York City at age 19. There she trained at HB Studio. She had one brother, Frank, who was eight years her senior.

Dennis made her television debut in 1956 on the soap opera Guiding Light. Her Broadway career began in 1957 when she was cast as an understudy in William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, directed by Elia Kazan. She appeared on Broadway in Face of a Hero in 1960 alongside Jack Lemmon, and in Graham Greene's The Complaisant Lover from 1961 to 1962, which featured Michael Redgrave and Googie Withers and ran for 101 performances. Kazan also cast her in a small part in the 1961 film Splendor in the Grass, starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty, marking her feature film debut. That same year she received a Theatre World Award.

Dennis achieved significant Broadway recognition with Herb Gardner's A Thousand Clowns, which ran for 428 performances beginning in 1962. Her performance earned her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1963. She followed that success with the lead role in the Broadway comedy Any Wednesday, which opened in 1964 and ran for 983 performances, earning her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1964. Barbara Harris replaced Dennis in the 1965 film adaptation of A Thousand Clowns.

Her film career accelerated when she was cast as Honey, the neurotic young wife of George Segal's character, in the 1966 comedy-drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The role brought Dennis the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She returned to the stage that same year in a production of The Three Sisters alongside Geraldine Page and Kim Stanley, a production that traveled to London and was filmed. She also appeared briefly on Broadway in Daphne in Cottage D in 1967.

Dennis took her first lead film role in Up the Down Staircase in 1967, directed by Robert Mulligan, which was a box-office success. The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther praised her for a vivid performance of emotional range and depth. Also in 1967, she starred in The Fox, directed by Mark Rydell, and that year was ranked the 18th biggest star in the United States. Subsequent films included Sweet November in 1968, That Cold Day in the Park in 1969 directed by Robert Altman, and the Neil Simon comedy The Out-of-Towners in 1970, opposite Jack Lemmon.

Dennis returned to Broadway for How the Other Half Loves in 1971, written by Alan Ayckbourn, which ran for more than 100 performances. Let Me Hear You Smile in 1973 lasted only a single performance, but Absurd Person Singular, which ran from 1974 to 1976, was a substantial hit with 591 performances. In 1974 she also played Joan of Arc in the pilot of Witness to Yesterday, Patrick Watson's television series presenting interviews with historical figures. She appeared in Mr. Sycamore in 1975 with Jason Robards, had a small role in the horror film God Told Me To in 1976, and briefly joined the cast of the long-running Broadway production Same Time, Next Year. On Broadway she also appeared in A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking.

Dennis had a well-received part in Alan Alda's film The Four Seasons in 1981 and appeared on Broadway that same year in Her Supporting Cast, directed by Gene Saks. She then appeared in both the stage production and the 1982 film adaptation of Robert Altman's Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, having originated the role in the Broadway production. Her other film credits include God Told Me To, Another Woman for Woody Allen in 1988, and the horror films 976-EVIL and Parents, both in 1989.

Her final screen appearance was in the crime drama The Indian Runner, filmed in 1990 and released in 1991, which marked Sean Penn's directorial debut. Actor Viggo Mortensen, who played one of her two sons in the film, wrote that Penn had been unwilling to consider anyone other than Dennis for the role of the mother, and described her work on set as operating on a level far above the rest of the cast, investing her scenes with remarkable concentration and vulnerability. Much of her work was ultimately cut from the finished film.

Away from her professional life, Dennis was committed to animal welfare and rescued stray cats from Grand Central Terminal. At the time of her death she was living with more than 20 cats, who were subsequently adopted out by friends. Dennis died on March 2, 1992, in Westport, Connecticut, of ovarian cancer, at the age of 54. Her Broadway career spanned from 1957 to 1982, encompassing productions that brought her two Tony Awards and a Theatre World Award.