Bonnie Bartlett
Encyclopedia
Bonnie Bartlett is an American television and film actress. Her career spans over 50 years, with her first major role being on a 1950s daytime drama, Love of Life
. She is best known for her role as Ellen Craig on the medical drama series St. Elsewhere
. She and her husband, actor William Daniels
, who played her fictional husband Dr. Mark Craig, won 1986 Emmy Awards on the same night, becoming the first married couple to accomplish the feat since Alfred Lunt
and Lynn Fontanne
in 1965.
, the daughter of Carrie and E.E. Bartlett, and raised in Moline, Illinois
. Her father was an insurance salesman and a failed actor, and she was determined to live out his dream. Bartlett met her husband, actor William Daniels
at Northwestern University
. They were married on June 30, 1951. In 1961, she gave birth to a son, who died just 24 hours later. They later adopted two children: Michael, who became an assistant director and stage manager in Los Angeles, and Robert, who became an artist and computer graphics designer based in New York City.
, and first got her start in television playing the heroine "Vanessa Dale Raven" on the soap opera
Love of Life from 1955 to 1959, replacing actress Peggy McCay
. She then moved on to nighttime roles in the 1960s. Her most widely known role was as Ellen Craig on St. Elsewhere. Initially an infrequently recurring character, she took on greater prominence in the 1984–1985 season when the storyline included Ellen and Mark's marital problems. The storyline deepened in the next season when their son was killed and they had to raise their granddaughter. Bartlett won back-to-back Emmys, and was made a contract player. Further difficult material included Ellen and Mark's divorce and slow reconciliation following the loss of their granddaughter in a custody dispute with her birth mother.
While her children were growing up, Bartlett was mostly a stay-at-home mother, accepting only small guest appearances on such programs as Gunsmoke
, The Rockford Files
, The Waltons
as well as a recurring role as Grace Snyder Edwards on Little House on the Prairie
from 1974 to 1977. Her acting career picked up considerably in the 1980s, including the miniseries V and North and South: Book II.
Bartlett and husband William Daniels
made Emmy Awards history in 1986 when they became just the second real-life married couple to win acting awards on the same night. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne first accomplished the feat in 1965. Bartlett and Daniels won for their portrayals of Dr. Mark and Mrs. Ellen Craig on the TV series St. Elsewhere
. They later acted together again when she played a college dean in a season of Daniels' ABC
series Boy Meets World
.
When St. Elsewhere ended in 1988, Bartlett's career moved to a wide variety of guest-starring appearances, including major roles on Wiseguy
as a tough and corrupt matriarch of a sewage business, as Andrea Drey; Secretary General of the United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO) on seaQuest DSV
, on Home Improvement as Lucille Taylor (Tim "The Tool-Man" Taylor's mother), and on ER
as Ruth Katherine Greene (Dr. Mark Greene's mother).
In the fall of 2000, she was an honoree at Moline High School
in Moline, Illinois
. Her plaque sits in a viewing window in the auditorium lobby at the school. Bartlett is an active member of Screen Actors Guild
and currently serves on its National Board of Directors.
Most recently, Bartlett wrapped production on Valediction
, which could begin its film festival circuit as early as October 2011. The teaser trailer can be found on YouTube via Valediction Teaser Trailer
Love of Life
Love of Life is an American soap opera which aired on CBS Daytime from September 24, 1951 to February 1, 1980. It was created by Roy Winsor, whose previous creation Search for Tomorrow had premiered three weeks before Love of Life, and who would go on to create The Secret Storm two and a half years...
. She is best known for her role as Ellen Craig on the medical drama series St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
. She and her husband, actor William Daniels
William Daniels
William David Daniels is an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild . He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate , as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in...
, who played her fictional husband Dr. Mark Craig, won 1986 Emmy Awards on the same night, becoming the first married couple to accomplish the feat since Alfred Lunt
Alfred Lunt
Alfred Lunt was an American stage director and actor, often identified for a long-time professional partnership with his wife, actress Lynn Fontanne...
and Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne was a British actress and major stage star in the United States for over 40 years. She teamed with her husband Alfred Lunt.She lived in the United States for more than 60 years but never relinquished her British citizenship. Lunt and Fontanne shared a special Tony Award in 1970...
in 1965.
Early life
Bartlett was born in Wisconsin Rapids, WisconsinWisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Rapids is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 18,435 at the 2000 census.According to the 2010 census, the Wisconsin Rapids micropolitan area was home to 54,362 people...
, the daughter of Carrie and E.E. Bartlett, and raised in Moline, Illinois
Moline, Illinois
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 45,792 in 2010. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has a population of...
. Her father was an insurance salesman and a failed actor, and she was determined to live out his dream. Bartlett met her husband, actor William Daniels
William Daniels
William David Daniels is an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild . He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate , as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in...
at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
. They were married on June 30, 1951. In 1961, she gave birth to a son, who died just 24 hours later. They later adopted two children: Michael, who became an assistant director and stage manager in Los Angeles, and Robert, who became an artist and computer graphics designer based in New York City.
Career
Bartlett studied acting with Lee StrasbergLee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
, and first got her start in television playing the heroine "Vanessa Dale Raven" on the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Love of Life from 1955 to 1959, replacing actress Peggy McCay
Peggy McCay
Peggy McCay is a long-time American actress with a career lasting over sixty years in film and television...
. She then moved on to nighttime roles in the 1960s. Her most widely known role was as Ellen Craig on St. Elsewhere. Initially an infrequently recurring character, she took on greater prominence in the 1984–1985 season when the storyline included Ellen and Mark's marital problems. The storyline deepened in the next season when their son was killed and they had to raise their granddaughter. Bartlett won back-to-back Emmys, and was made a contract player. Further difficult material included Ellen and Mark's divorce and slow reconciliation following the loss of their granddaughter in a custody dispute with her birth mother.
While her children were growing up, Bartlett was mostly a stay-at-home mother, accepting only small guest appearances on such programs as Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...
, The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
as well as a recurring role as Grace Snyder Edwards on Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
from 1974 to 1977. Her acting career picked up considerably in the 1980s, including the miniseries V and North and South: Book II.
Bartlett and husband William Daniels
William Daniels
William David Daniels is an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild . He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate , as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in...
made Emmy Awards history in 1986 when they became just the second real-life married couple to win acting awards on the same night. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne first accomplished the feat in 1965. Bartlett and Daniels won for their portrayals of Dr. Mark and Mrs. Ellen Craig on the TV series St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
. They later acted together again when she played a college dean in a season of Daniels' ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
series Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
.
When St. Elsewhere ended in 1988, Bartlett's career moved to a wide variety of guest-starring appearances, including major roles on Wiseguy
Wiseguy
Wiseguy is an American crime drama series that aired on CBS from September 16, 1987 to December 8, 1990 for a total of four seasons. Starring Ken Wahl, the series was produced by Stephen J...
as a tough and corrupt matriarch of a sewage business, as Andrea Drey; Secretary General of the United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO) on seaQuest DSV
SeaQuest DSV
seaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction...
, on Home Improvement as Lucille Taylor (Tim "The Tool-Man" Taylor's mother), and on ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
as Ruth Katherine Greene (Dr. Mark Greene's mother).
In the fall of 2000, she was an honoree at Moline High School
Moline High School
Moline High School, or Moline, is a public four-year high school located in Moline, Illinois, a city in Rock Island County, in the United States...
in Moline, Illinois
Moline, Illinois
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 45,792 in 2010. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has a population of...
. Her plaque sits in a viewing window in the auditorium lobby at the school. Bartlett is an active member of Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
and currently serves on its National Board of Directors.
Most recently, Bartlett wrapped production on Valediction
Valediction (2012)
Valediction is an upcoming drama film written and directed by Dustin Kahia, starring Samuel Page, Eyal Podell, Italia Ricci, James Avery, and Bonnie Bartlett....
, which could begin its film festival circuit as early as October 2011. The teaser trailer can be found on YouTube via Valediction Teaser Trailer
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955–59 | Love of Life Love of Life Love of Life is an American soap opera which aired on CBS Daytime from September 24, 1951 to February 1, 1980. It was created by Roy Winsor, whose previous creation Search for Tomorrow had premiered three weeks before Love of Life, and who would go on to create The Secret Storm two and a half years... |
Vanessa Dale Raven | Television series |
| 1974–77 | Little House on the Prairie Little House on the Prairie (TV series) Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books... |
Grace Snyder Edwards | Television series, 23 episodes |
| 1976 | Brady's secretary | ||
| 1979 | California Dreaming | Melinda Brooke | |
| 1979 | Salem's Lot | Ann Norton | Television miniseries |
| 1982–88 | St. Elsewhere St. Elsewhere St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood... |
Ellen Craig | Television series |
| 1983 | V | Lynn Bernstein | Television miniseries |
| 1988 | Barbara Thorndyke | Television series, "Dorothy's New Friend" | |
| 1998 | ER ER (TV series) ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television... |
Ruth Greene | Television series, "Family Practise" & "Father and Sons" |
| 1988 | Twins | Mary Ann Benedict | |
| 1990 | Wiseguy Wiseguy Wiseguy is an American crime drama series that aired on CBS from September 16, 1987 to December 8, 1990 for a total of four seasons. Starring Ken Wahl, the series was produced by Stephen J... |
Harriet Weiss | "Brump-Brump" & "Sanctuary" |
| 1993 | Dave Dave (film) Dave is a 1993 comedy-drama film written by Gary Ross, directed by Ivan Reitman, and starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Co-stars include Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn, Ving Rhames, and Ben Kingsley. Ross was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay... |
Female Senator | |
| 1994 | SeaQuest DSV SeaQuest DSV seaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction... |
Secretary General of the UEO | "The Last Lap at Luxury" |
| 1995 | Home Improvement | Lucille | Television series |
| 1995 | Mrs. Buster | ||
| 1996 | Ghosts of Mississippi Ghosts of Mississippi Ghosts of Mississippi is a 1996 American drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, and James Woods. The plot is based on the true story of the 1994 trial of Byron De La Beckwith, the white supremacist accused of the 1963 assassination of civil rights activist... |
Billie DeLaughter | |
| 1997-99 | Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Dean Bolander | Television series |
| 1997 | Sleeping with the Devil Sleeping with the Devil (film) Sleeping with the Devil is a 1997 television film directed by William A. Graham. The film is based upon the novel of the same name by Suzanne Finstad.-Plot:... |
Stasha Dubrovich | Television film |
| 1998 | Primary Colors | Martha Harris | |
| 1998 | Stargate SG-1 Stargate SG-1 Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich... |
Linnea | "Prisoners" |
| 1999–2002 | Once and Again Once and Again Once and Again is an American television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999 to April 15, 2002. It depicts the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father... |
Barbara Brooks | Television series |
| 2002 | Firefly Firefly (TV series) Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear.... |
Patience | "Serenity Serenity (Firefly episode) "Serenity" is the two-hour series pilot for the American science fiction television series Firefly created by Joss Whedon. However, Fox executives were not satisfied with this as a pilot, and so instead, "The Train Job" was created as a second pilot and was the first episode of the series aired.... " |
| 2002 | General Hospital General Hospital General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns.... |
Damian Spinelli's grandmother | Ep. #11191 |
| 2006 | Saving Shiloh | Mrs. Wallace | |
| 2008 | Grey's Anatomy Grey's Anatomy Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in... |
Patient Rosie Bullard | "Rise Up" |
| 2012 | Valediction Valediction (2012) Valediction is an upcoming drama film written and directed by Dustin Kahia, starring Samuel Page, Eyal Podell, Italia Ricci, James Avery, and Bonnie Bartlett.... |
Anabell | post-production |