Marian Seldes

Marian Hall Seldes (born August 23, 1928, died October 6, 2014) is an American stage, film, radio, and television actress whose career has spanned six decades and who was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Life and career
Seldes was born in New York City, the daughter of Alice "Amanda" Wadhams Hall, a socialite, and Gilbert Seldes, a journalist, author, and editor. Her uncle was journalist George Seldes. Seldes's paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and her mother was from a "prominent WASP family," the "Episcopalian blue-blooded Halls." Seldes had a brother, Timothy, and grew up in a creative environment, studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Her mother's sister, Marian Wells Hall (died 1972), was a prominent American interior decorator.

Trained for the stage, Seldes made her Broadway theatre debut in 1948 in a production of Medea. She went on to an illustrious career in which she has earned five Tony Award nominations, winning her first time out in 1967 for A Delicate Balance. In addition to performing in live theatre, Seldes began acting in television in 1952 in a Hallmark Hall of Fame production that marked the first of many guest star roles. She also has performed in a number of motion pictures and in radio plays. In the mid-sixties, Seldes recorded five albums for Folkways Records of famous works of literature. Between 1974 and 1982, she appeared in 179 episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. In 1992 she appeared as Murphy Brown's eccentric Aunt Brooke.

She had a daughter, Katharine, by her first marriage to Julian Claman. They were divorced in 1961. Seldes said that the marriage to Claman was violent. "If I sound a little vague about that marriage, it’s because I don’t understand the person in it. Me. I literally didn’t know that people could be abusive." Seldes left the marriage after her father noticed marks on Seldes' face. Seldes was married to screenwriter/playwright Garson Kanin from 1990 until his death in 1999.

At various times, Sanford Meisner, Katherine Cornell and Martha Graham taught Marian Seldes. Actor Laura Linney says, "Marian is our touchstone to those theatrical ancestors. She provides an inspiration that makes you want to reach outside of yourself to something more potent and powerful." Marian Seldes was a member of the Juilliard School of Performing Arts from 1969 to 1972. Some of Marian Seldes' students include Robin Williams, Kelsey Grammer, Kevin Kline, William Hurt and Patti LuPone. In 2002, Marian Seldes began teaching at Fordham University, Lincoln Center.

Seldes appeared in every one of the 1,809 Broadway performances of Ira Levin's play Deathtrap - a feat that earned her a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records as "most durable actress." Seldes was also well-known for her readings of short stories in the "Selected Shorts" series hosted by Isaiah Sheffer at New York City's Symphony Space. Marian Seldes was the recipient of a 2010 Antoinette Perry ("Tony") Lifetime Achievement Award.

Theatre

 * The Chalk Garden (1955)
 * The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1964)
 * Tiny Alice (1964)
 * A Delicate Balance (1966)
 * Mercy Street (1969)
 * Equus (1974)
 * Deathtrap (1978)
 * Painting Churches (1983)
 * Three Tall Women (1993)
 * Ivanov (1998)
 * 45 Seconds from Broadway (2001)
 * Dinner at Eight (2003 revival)
 * Deuce (2007)
 * La fille du régiment (2008)

Television
Played Mary K. Davis in Perry Mason (Case of the screaming woman). Guest Starred on Sex and the City season 1 as Mr Big's Mother.

Played Christie Smith in Season 1, Episode 6 (The Bride) of Have Gun Will Travel.

Films

 * The Light in the Forest (1958)
 * The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
 * Fingers (1978)
 * The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag (1992)
 * Tom and Huck (1995)
 * Affliction (1997)
 * Home Alone 3 (1997)
 * Digging to China (1998)
 * The Haunting (1999)
 * If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000)
 * Duets (2000)
 * Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
 * Ballets Russes (2005), narrator
 * August Rush (2007)
 * Leatherheads (2008)
 * The Visitor (2008)
 * The Extra Man (2010)

Discography

 * The Roan Stallion by Robinson Jeffers (1963)
 * The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein (1963

Theodore Bikel: "Songs of Songs" and other Biblical Prophecies"  featuring Marian Seldes as Shulamite.  (1964))
 * Tower Beyond Tragedy by Robinson Jeffers (1964)
 * Phèdre by Jean Racine (1964)
 * Prayers from the Ark: French and English Poems (1964)

Awards and nominations

 * Awards
 * 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play – A Delicate Balance
 * 1971 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance – Father's Day
 * 1983 Outer Circle Critics Award for Best Actress in a Play - Painting Churches
 * 2010 Tony Lifetime Achievement Award


 * Nominations
 * 1971 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play – Father's Day
 * 1978 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play – Deathtrap
 * 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Ivanov
 * 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Ring Round the Moon
 * 1999 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play – Ring Round the Moon
 * 2001 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – The Butterfly Collection
 * 2001 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play – The Play About the Baby
 * 2003 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play – Dinner at Eight
 * 2006 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams

Death
Seldes died on October 6, 2014 in Manhattan, aged 86 years. She was survived by her daughter, brother, sister-in-law, and extended family.

The cause of her death was not released. However, in 2017, it was reported that a documentary about her life, Marian, by director R.E. "Rick" Rodgers, chronicling Seldes' last years, had created "consternation in the theater world" as a "horrific, intrusive depicting of her slide into dementia".