Cloris Leachman (1926 - 2021)

Born 30 Apr 1926 in Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States

Ancestors

Died 26 Jan 2021 at age 94 in Encinitas, San Diego, California, United States

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Biography

Cloris Leachman is Notable.

Cloris was born in Des Moines, Iowa on April 30, 1926. She was the daughter of Berkeley Claiborne "Buck" Leachman and Cloris Wallace and was the eldest child in the family. She had two sisters, one born around 1930 and another born around 1932. Her father was listed on the 1930 Census as the Vice President of a lumber yard, and a Secretary of a lumber yard in 1940, making a salary of $3600 a year, which was fairly significant in 1940. Average income for 1940 was $1368, so their family appears to have done well for the times.

She attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, and appeared in plays put on by Drake University in Des Moines while a teenager. When she graduated around 1944, she enrolled in Northwestern University in neighboring Illinois. Originally, she enrolled in the School of Education, but after joining the Gamm Phi Beta sorority, meeting fellow classmates Paul Lynde and Charlotte Rae, and competing to become Miss Illinois and following that becoming a Miss America finalist in the 1946 pageant, she changed her focus from education to acting.

As a result of her competition for Miss America, she won a scholarship and enrolled in the Actors Studio and took lessons from Elia Kazan. She started off on the stage as a replacement cast member, but soon began to take on roles of her own. Several plays had the opportunity to take her to Broadway, but she seemed to leave the cast for another opportunity just before they were to go there. She also began appearing in a number of television shows around this time. One of her biggest roles was as Timmy's mother in Lassie.

It was around this time in 1953 that she married George Englund, Sr. They would go on to have five children from their marriage and remained married for many years. During this time she continued her television career, appearing in numerous shows and movies. Cloris seemed to take her career seriously, even walking away from a role that she did not find particularly challenging.

Her television career continued into the 1970's, when she decided to take the role of Ruth Popper in The Last Picture Show movie. Cloris won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film. She took on a recurring role in the Mary Tyler Moore show (for which she won an Emmy Award) which branched into a spinoff called Phyllis, named for the lead character she played. She won a Golden Globe Award for her performance on Phyllis.

Through the 1980's, she played many different parts in many different television shows. From guest appearances, to short term roles that lasted upwards of two years, to television movies, to voice acting, she continued to select roles that she used to broaden her career and challenge her skills.

She passed away in 2021.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMVL-XVF : accessed 28 November 2015), Cloris Leachman in entry for Berkley Leachman, 1930.

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KMBH-DZL : accessed 28 November 2015), Clois Leachman in household of Berkeley Leachman, Berwick, Delaware Township, Polk, Iowa, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 77-16, sheet 20A, family 414, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 1192.

• "California Divorce Index, 1966-1984," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VP16-LG3 : accessed 28 November 2015), Cloris L Englund and George H, 29 Dec 1978; from "California Divorce Index, 1966-1984," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2007); citing Los Angeles, California, Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento.

• "New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24G2-BL4 : accessed 28 November 2015), Cloris Leachman, 1946; citing Immigration, New York City, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KVVF-HT2 : accessed 28 November 2015), Leachman Trust Cloris, Residence, New York, New York, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.

• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJ1Y-NLXN : accessed 28 November 2015), Cloris Leachman, Residence, Los Angeles, California, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloris_Leachman