The Best of Cloris Leachman (1926-2021)
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 9:00PM 
by Nathaniel R
We've lost one of the true greats. The one and only Cloris Leachman has died at 94 years of age of natural causes. The showbiz bug hit early, as it often does with plays as a teenager and by the time she was 20 in 1946 she was a Miss America contestant. Her career developed slowly as many truly enduring careers do, with numerous small roles in film and television (and some large ones onstage) before the big breakthrough. That breakthrough was a double whammy, as befits hard-working but late-breaking fame. In short succession she made a huge impression as Phyllis the landlady on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970/1971 first season and in October 1971 she was also on the big screen, flexing very different acting chops, in the soon to be Oscar-winning classic, The Last Picture Show (1971).
Though she is best remembered today for television sitcoms which she did on and off throughout her career, she was an actress of verve and versatility...
Leachman with her 8 Emmy Awards
The verve was something else, actually. Cloris Leachman was never afraid to go big. Today to celebrate her I watched her guest spot on Night Gallery (Rod Serling's follow up to The Twilight Zone) and found some deliciously hammy line readings as a drunk cruel woman threatening her robot maid! But more often than not, Leachman's bigness could work sitcom wonders... and she knew how to shift it beautifully in her best dramatic work.
Over her very long career she won the Oscar and BAFTA (The Last Picture Show, 1971), the Globe (Phyllis, 1985), a daytime Emmy (After School Special: The Woman Who Willed a Miracle, 1983) and eight PrimeTime Emmys for both guest spots, series regular gigs, and telefilms (A Brand New Life, 1973; Mary Tyler Moore, 1974 and 1975; Cher, 1975, SAG 50th Anniversary Celebration, 1984, Promised Land, 1998, Malcolm in the Middle, 2002 and 2006).
Here are 10 personal favourite Cloris Leachman roles though I haven't seen even half of her filmography -- she worked A LOT -- but her best role may have been herself given her entertaining nature on The Muppet Show and Cher and other variety-ready appearances on awards shows and a dozen years back on Dancing with the Stars.
"Christina Bailey" in Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Her official film debut came as a doomed hitchhiker in this classic noir.
"Phyllis Lindstrom" on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1975) and the spin-off Phyllis (1975-1977)
This landlady role won Cloris five Emmy nominations and two wins plus a Golden Globe over the seven years she played it.
"Ruth Popper" in The Last Picture Show (1971)
She's sensational as a repressed housewife having a sexual affair with a high school senior. But really, every actor is sensational in this Peter Bogdanovich classic; it's one of the greatest ensemble dramas in film history.
MEL BROOKS DOUBLE FEATURE: "Frau Blüchner" in Young Frankenstein (1974) / "Nurse Diesel" in High Anxiety (1977)
We're still so angry that they didn't let her reprise her rolee in the Young Frankenstein Broadway musical. They claimed they were worried she was going to die onstage which was a cruel thing to say and also ridiculous. Leachman had real stamina and went on Dancing with the Stars in her 80s while Young Frankenstein was still on Broadway! High Anxiety is much less famous but her role is juicier as a scheming psych nurse in the Hitchcock spoof.
"Clair" in The North Avenue Irregulars (1979)
Personal note: This Disney comedy is the first time I ever saw Cloris. Child me could no stop laughing at her hysteric antics. It's literally the only thing I have ever remembered about the movie. Scared to watch it on DisneyPlus and ruin a sweet childhood memory. Wait, is it on DisneyPlus?
"Beverly Ann Stickle" in The Facts of Life (1986-1988)
Guilty pleasure! We know it's a terrible show but we grew up on it, okay? Leachman was brought on as Edna Garrett's sister to keep the show going when the previous headliner Charlotte Rae left. (Trivia: Leachman and Rae were friends and had met in college at Northwestern University)
"Ida" in Malcolm in the Middle (2001-2006)
This popular sitcom was a big success with Emmy voters including two wins for Leachman.
"Evelyn" in Spanglish (2004)
It was an awards buzzy title before it opened but even though the reaction was mixed (to say the least), Leachman survived unscathed and even picked up a SAG nomination.
"Maw Maw" in Raising Hope (2010-2014)
One Emmy nomination. The Emmys did this very funny sitcom dirty across its four seasons. Leachman was often hysterical as the frequently disrobing crazy grandma.
WHAT WERE YOUR FAVOURITE CLORIS LEACHMAN ROLES OR MOMENTS?
Reader Comments (29)
The Facts of Life was no worse than any other typical 80s sitcom. Almost everything from that decade is a guilty pleasure in retrospect.
I love Cloris Leachman. She's an example of a free spirited self-propelled character actress that award bodies with taste showered her with deserved accolades. She will be missed.
She looked so beautiful and breezy the night she won.
to paraphrase romy and michelle:
i'm the phyllis
Her "Twilight Zone" episode -- about the kid who sends you to the cornfield if you commit wrongthink, in which Cloris plays his mom -- is probably my favorite. The ensemble cast has to make it both dramatic, comedic, and absurdist, threading that needle to make it a wholly captivating allegory of fascism.
And how's that for longevity! She was already playing mothers sixty years ago!
I love that you have The North Avenue Irregulars on this list.
She was terrific in just about everything.
She hit it out of the park every time she played Ida on Malcolm in the Middle. My favorite is when she reunites with Betty White, who plays Ida's bigamous husband's Canadian wife. One of the best episodes ever of one of the best sitcoms ever.
Malcolm in the Middle is my favorite sitcom from USA and one of the many reasons is the work of the acting ensemble, even the bit parts are played totally spot on with the tone of the series. Leachman's Ida is evilly funny and an esential role for the series but my favorite performance is the sublime portrait of motherhood through Lois, played delightfully from Jane Kaczmarek.
Back to Leachman, she is also esential in the other perfect ensemble that Young Frankenstein is, but her role as Maw Maw is definitively my favorite, she is hysterical crazy but very tender too.
I don't know if is just me but I have the impression that comedians these days avoids physical comedy to don't look like mad or exagerated and they are more worried to deliver smart-funny-punch-lines.
I hope this loss inspire new generations to go far in comedy as this lady brilliantly does.
The Beverly Hillbillies movie!!! So funny
Love her to death, probably my favorite of hers is Young Frankenstein. That might be because it was the first thing I saw her in and she made such an indelible impression.
I also think she’s legitimately unnerving in the best possible way in Kiss Me Deadly. It’s a great and terrifying opening sequence and she plays a major part of that. Her last little “remember me” (might be misquoting) before being re-captured is haunting.
And of course she’s beyond hilarious in Malcolm in the Middle. Fun fact: she got an AARP movies for grown ups nom as besr ACTRESS for Spanglish.
Cloris Leachman was a joy to watch. The only thing in Spanglish that I liked.
Yet, there were other things she did that I enjoyed such as Herbie Goes Bananas, Sky High, and Beerfest. She was fucking hilarious in Beerfest playing Donald Sutherland's mother and the great-grandmother of the Broken Lizard cast as well as revealing was the ultimate whore but man she was beloved. They did tweet about her death and had great things to say about her. I also enjoyed her on Dancing with the Stars as my mom loved watching her.
R.I.P. Cloris
Oh nooooo!!! :(
Oh man, I will never forget her serene smile at the end of her aria in TLPS. The distillation of an entire character’s emotional spectrum in about five minutes. One of my all-times.
“Never you mind, honey, never you mind...”
Sigh.
Here’s a lovely write-up on it: https://www.google.com/amp/s/variety.com/2021/film/news/cloris-leachman-last-picture-show-1234894248/amp/
Truly sad to hear that she's left us. Whenever you saw her she was so vital, I just assumed she's be one of those who glided to the century mark...though she did very well.
Number one has to be Phyllis on the Mary Tyler Moore show. She was so skillful at keeping the character, who in lesser hands would have been an unbearable harpy, kookily endearing.
Next would have to be Ruth Popper in Last Picture Show and the Mel Brooks films.
She also had a great run in the 70's when TV movies ruled the roost with The Migrants, A Girl Named Sooner, Dying Room Only, A Brand New Life and many others.
But from there it gets harder, the woman seemingly appeared at one time or another on every single show that was ever on the air! It's always cool when catching a random rerun of say Mannix, Alfred Hitchcock or The Big Valley and there she is!
Plus she was always an absolute delight on talk shows. Relaxed, natural, funny and above all candid.
She will be missed.
OMG, i was obsessed with North Avenue Irregulars when I was little. I think we should do a four-writer breakdown of it here like we did for West Side Story?
I seem to remember that she and Maggie Cheung were in (then cut from) Inglorious Basterds!!?? Have I made this up? Would love to see those deleted scenes...
In the photo, she was with her NINE Emmys! 8 primetime and 1 daytime. Legendary.
Quite devastated. Love the comments and how there's a Cloris for everybody to enjoy. May she rest in peace.
I was surprised at her age when she won she looked 10 yrs younger,a sublime comic and dramatic actress.
I absolutely adored her - and would also give a nod to her turn as Granny in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES which, while hardly a stellar film, did make fabulous use of its cast (including Dabney Coleman & Lily Tomlin as a knockout Mr. Drysdale and Miss Hathaway).
Was it Liza Minnelli or Carrie Fisher who lived down the street from Cloris and used to go over to her house to marvel at what a domestic goddess she was? One of those famous women with a trainwreck childhood said Cloris was the absolute measure of great parenting in Hollywood.
RIP-thanks for the memories. Loved that she never stopped working. She was a staple for the ABC Movie of the Week in the 70s. Looking at her filmography, seeing ‘A Girl Named Sooner’ (1975) as a kid made my bawl and I discovered ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ only through the TV Marlo Christmas remake (It Happened One Christmas) where Cloris was the guardian Angel. Even her presence on reruns of MTM had you sit up and notice her. Going to rewatch ‘The Last Picture Show’ in your honor. God Bless!
Looking at the pic of the 79 children's movie made me think of Reese in Legally Blonde.
Leachman truly had the face from a Dorothea Lange photograph, so her role in 1974's The Migrants was perfect casting.
@TOM, "It Happened One Christmas" is where I discovered "It's a Wonderful Life" also! It's on Amazon Prime.
I watched "High Anxiety" last night in her honor, and it still holds up, especially Leachman and Harvey Korman as the dastardly Psych Staff.
Rest in Peace.
A very talented lady who has long and successful career in both film and television- will be missed but she left a great legacy behind- "He was my boyfriend!"
I'd totally forgotten about NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS! It was one of those periodic films from Disney in the 70s and early 80s promoted, in indirect ways, as "Disney's got their Groove Back. This one is actually good!" but then you'd see them and go... "meh. Not really." Of course Leachman was by far the best thing in it. The scene where she loses her long fingernails in an auto mishap and goes nuts about it is a small classic of comedy, and certainly the best moment in the film.
So talented, and probably one of, if not the best winner in her category of all time.
One of the joys of her being a TV actress is that there is so much content with her in it. Can't wait to revisit "The Lars Affair" and more!
It's gotta be Double, Double, Toil and Trouble with Mary Kate and Ashley!
"The North Avenue Irregulars" is absolutely my favorite live-action Disney film, and I think it holds up as well as any children's movie from the 1970s. It's still not on Disney+, which I find absolutely infuriating.