Method-trained critics' darling of the 1960s who first made her name on Broadway with Tony Award-winning performances in "A Thousand Clowns" (1962) and "Any Wednesday" (1964). Dennis' high-pitched, neurotic style lent itself to quirky, eccentric roles in films such as "Splendor in the Grass" (1961, her debut). Her memorable performance as the irritating yet vulnerable young faculty wife in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1967) earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and her portrayal of an idealistic teacher in an inner-city school in "Up the Down Staircase" (1967) won her a Best Actress accolade from the Moscow Film Festival.
Dennis turned in some fine performances in later films, notably "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" (1982) and, in a hilarious cameo, Bob Balaban's overlooked "Parents" (1989). She made her final onscreen cameo as the wife of Charles Bronson in Sean Penn's directorial debut, "The Indian Runner" (1991), before her death the following year from ovarian cancer at age 54.
Family
FATHER: Jack Dennis. Postal worker. Deceased.
MOTHER: Yvonne Dennis.
BROTHER: Frank Dennis.
Companion
COMPANION: Gerald O'Loughlin. Actor. Lived together seven years.
COMPANION: Gerry Mulligan. Jazz saxophonist. Together June 1965 until 1976.
COMPANION: Eric Roberts. Actor.
Milestone
Grew up in Kenesaw and Lincoln, Nebraska
Began acting in high school
Joined Lincoln Community Theater Group
1956: Stage debut, "Bus Stop" at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, Palm Beach, Florida
Moved to New York City at age 19
First New York stage production, "The Lady From the Sea"
1960: Broadway debut, "Face of a Hero" at the O'Neill Theater
1961: Screen acting debut in "Splendor in the Grass"
1966: Appeared in legendary Actors Studio production of "The Three Sisters" with Kim Stanley and Geraldine Page; production was taped for television
1968: TV acting debut, "A Hatful of Rain"
1985 - 1989: Regular role in TV series, "The Equalizer"
Education
Actors Studio - New York, New York
Nebraska Wesleyan University - Lincoln, Nebraska - attended one semester
University of Nebraska - attended one semester
"I think the mannerisms offended a tremendous number of people. They were due to the fact that I didn't know what I was doing." --Sandy Dennis quoted in "Earl Blackwell's Celebrity Register 1991"
"Like Geraldine Page, an Actors Studio cohort ... Dennis was an extremely mannered performer--lunging with studied reluctance into her characters--yet out of her theatrical busywork often came recognizable truths. ... She knew the trick of standing out in a crowd and still staying a part of it. It was a delicate art." --Harry Haun in Daily News, appreciation, March 5, 1992.
Once championed by Walter Kerr for her natural and sensitive stage performances in the early 1960s, Dennis had fallen out of the critic's favor by 1967 when he criticized her habit of speaking onstage as through sentences "were poor crippled things that couldn't cross a street without making three false starts from the curb." --quoted in The New York Times obituary, March 5, 1992.
"She has made an acting style out of post-nasal drip." --critic Pauline Kael on Dennis
A longtime animal lover, Dennis left 33 cats and three dogs upon her death and a Sandy Dennis Memorial Animal Care Fund was established.
Film_Buff_985
Often Underrated or Just Plain Maligned
While much has been made of the supposedly annoying mannerisms of this actress, a study of her films reveals something ...
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