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Remembering Kim Stanley

The Actors Studio honors the late Kim Stanley with a celebration of her life and a retrospective of her work in television.

Kim Stanley

On October 12, The Actors Studio will host a tribute to Broadway legend Kim Stanley, who died of cancer in New Mexico on August 20. Appearing to pay tribute to Stanley will be a host of theater luminaries, including Elaine Stritch, Janice Rule, Joanne Woodward, Arthur Laurents, John Guare, and Bryan Forbes.

In the 1950s, Texas-born Stanley was one of New York's brightest theatrical stars. After earning plaudits for her work Off-Broadway--notably in Gertrude Stein's Yes Is for a Very Young Man--she hit Broadway at age 27 in William Inge's Picnic (1952). A few years later, she was back on the Main Stem as Cherie in Inge's Bus Stop--a star-making part that Stanley reportedly chose not to recreate when the film version came along, leaving the role available for Marilyn Monroe. Stanley was nominated for two Academy Awards: best actress for Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), directed by Bryan Forbes, and best supporting actress for Frances (1982), in which she played Jessica Lange's mother).

Stanley's other stage successes included A Touch of the Poet and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on the West End. She was busy in television as well, a regular guest on such shows as The Goodyear T.V. Playhouse and Magnavox Theater. Her big screen debut came in 1958 when she took the lead in Paddy Chayefsky's The Goddess.

After the tribute on the afternoon of the 12th, The Actors Studio--where Stanley studied with Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg--will begin a screening of a series of television dramas from the '50s and '60s in which the actress starred, beginning on Friday evening with A Young Lady of Property and continuing through the weekend with Someone Special, The Traveling Lady, Clash by Night, Tomorrow, and a two part episode of the Ben Casey series. For more information and/or reservations, phone 212-757-0870. The Actors Studio is located at 432 West 44th Street.

 

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