Relaxed, elegantly beautiful blonde lead of the 1950s and 60s with a gentle and refined presence. A veteran of the New York stage from the age of 12 and live TV dramas in the early 1950s, including several outings on "Playhouse 90", Lange attracted the attention of film producer Buddy Adler with her performance in Kraft Television Theatres' "Snap Finger Creek" in 1956. Her success led to her notable debut as the waitress Emma in Adler's film adaptation of "Bus Stop" (1956).
Signed by 20th Century Fox, Lange earned an Oscar nomination for her third film, "Peyton Place" (1957), in which she plays an incest victim who murders her rapist father; she played Montgomery Clift's romantic interest in "The Young Lions" (1958), and won two Emmys as the eponymous Carolyn Muir on the mild but charming and popular comedy series, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1968-70). She continued to display her gift for light comedy as the wife on the TV series, "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" (1971-74). After a 6-year hiatus, Lange returned to film as Charles Bronson's wife and the reason for his vigilante revenge in the first "Death Wish" (1974) and later played Laura Dern's mother in "Blue Velvet" (1986). Lange was married to "Bus Stop" co-star Don Murray (1956-61) and director-producer Alan J. Pakula (1963-69).
Family
FATHER: John Lange. Musician. Gained fame as Florenz Ziegfeld's musical conductor.
MOTHER: Minette Lange. Actor. Widowed in the 1940s, she gave elocution lessons.
SISTER: Faith Lange. Actor.
SISTER: Charity Lange. Actor.
SON: Christopher Murray. Born in 1957.
DAUGHTER: Patricia Murray. Born in 1958.
Companion
HUSBAND: Don Murray. Actor. Married in 1956; divorced in 1961.
HUSBAND: Alan J Pakula. Producer, director. Married in 1963; divorced in 1969.
HUSBAND: Charles Hollerith Jr. Married in 1986.
Milestone
1943: Stage debut at age 12 in Sidney Kingsley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "The Patriots"
1943 - 1950: Left show business to finish school
Appeared in commercials and bit parts on live TV (including as a dancer on "The Jackie Gleason Show" and an assistant on the short-lived quiz program "Back That Fact" 1953) while a college student in New York
1957: Starred in feature film, "Peyton Place"
Starred on TV series, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir"
Played Jenny Preston on TV comedy, "The New Dick Van Dyke Show"
1973: TV movie debut, "That Certain Summer"
1977: Returned to Broadway in "Same Time, Next Year"
1991: Had surgery to remove a benign brain tumor in October
Education
Barmore Junior College
Reed College - Portland, Oregon
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