| Bonnie Bartlett | ||||||
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 William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett |
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| Born | June 20 1929  Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, United States |
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Bonnie Bartlett (born June 20, 1929) 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 1980s Emmy Award-winning role as Ellen Craig on the popular medical drama series St. Elsewhere. She and her husband, actor William Daniels, who played her fictional husband Dr. Mark Craig, won Emmy Awards on the same night in 1986, becoming the first married couple to accomplish the feat since Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1965.
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Biography
Early life
Bartlett was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, the daughter of Carrie and E.E. Bartlett,[1] 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 since June 30, 1951, actor William Daniels, at Northwestern University. In 1961, she gave birth to a son who died 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 Strasberg, 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. 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, Rockford Files, as well as a recurring role as Grace Edwards on Little House on the Prairie from 1974 to 1977. Her acting career picked up considerably in the 1980s, including the miniseries V (TV series) and North and South: Part II. Bartlett and husband William Daniels made Emmy Awards history in 1986 when they became the first real-life couple to win acting awards on the same night. They 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 (TV series) 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.[2]
Works
Television
- Love of Life, 1955-1959, as Vanessa Dale Raven
- St. Elsewhere, 1982-1988, as Ellen Craig
Other recurring roles included:
- Wiseguy, matriarch of a sewage business
- SeaQuest DSV, Secretary General of the UEO
- ER, Dr. Mark Greene's mother
- Home Improvement, Tim Taylor's mother
- General Hospital, 2006, Damian Spinelli's grandmother
- Little House on the Prairie Grace Snider Edwards
- Stargate SG-1 episode Prisoners, Linnea
Film
- Twins (1988)
- Dave (1993)
- The Grass Harp (1995)
- Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)
- Primary Colors (1998)
