# Carrie Snodgress

Caroline Louise Snodgress (October 27, 1945 – April 1, 2004) was an American actress. She is best remembered for her role in the film Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award as well as winning two Golden Globes and two Laurel Awards.

## Life and career

Born in Barrington, Illinois, Snodgress attended Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge, then Northern Illinois University before leaving to pursue acting. She trained for the stage at the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (later DePaul University). After some minor TV appearances, she made her film debut in an uncredited appearance in Easy Rider in 1969, followed by a credit in 1970 for Rabbit, Run. Her next film, Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), earned her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress and two Golden Globe wins, as Best Actress in a Comedy or a Musical and New Star of the Year – Actress.
She quit acting soon after to live with musician Neil Young and care for their son Zeke, who was born with cerebral palsy. She returned to acting in 1978 in The Fury.
According to Sylvester Stallone, Snodgress was the first actress considered for the role of Adrian in Rocky. However, Snodgress declined the part because it was not well-paid. Rocky director John G. Avildsen cast Snodgress in two of his later films: A Night in Heaven and 8 Seconds.
Neil Young's song "A Man Needs a Maid" was inspired by Snodgress, featuring the lyric "I fell in love with the actress / she was playing a part that I could understand." She also inspired the songs "Heart of Gold", "Harvest" and "Out on the Weekend" from Young's album Harvest, as well as "Motion Pictures" from the 1974 album On the Beach. She and Young split in 1974, and his song "Already One", which later appeared on his 1978 album Comes a Time, bookends their relationship. Later she and musician and film score composer Jack Nitzsche became lovers. Nitzsche had previously worked with Young on several albums. In 1979, Nitzsche was charged with threatening to kill her after he barged into her home and beat her with a handgun. He pleaded guilty to threatening her, was fined, and placed on three years' probation.
Snodgress made her off-Broadway debut in 1981 as a replacement in John Ford Noonan's A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking. She also appeared in All the Way Home, Oh! What a Lovely War!, Caesar and Cleopatra, Tartuffe, The Balcony and The Boor (all at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago); and Curse of the Starving Class at the Tiffany Theatre (in Los Angeles). Other films include Murphy's Law, White Man's Burden, Pale Rider and Blue Sky. She also worked extensively in television.
In her final film, Katja von Garnier's Iron Jawed Angels (2004) about the women's suffrage movement during the 1910s, Snodgress portrayed the mother of Alice Paul, played by Hilary Swank.

## Death

While waiting for a liver transplant, Snodgress was hospitalized in Los Angeles, where she died of heart failure on April 1, 2004, at age 58.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1969 | Easy Rider | Woman in Commune | Uncredited |
| 1970 | Diary of a Mad Housewife | Bettina "Tina" Balser | Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress Laurel Award for Best Dramatic Performance, Female Laurel Award for Star of Tomorrow, Female National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (5th place) Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated-BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles |
| 1970 | Rabbit, Run | Janice Angstrom | |
| 1972 | Journey Through the Past | appears as herself in semi-documentary | |
| 1978 | The Fury | Hester | |
| 1980 | The Attic | Louise Elmore | |
| 1982 | Homework | Dr. Delingua | |
| 1982 | Trick or Treats | Joan O'Keefe Adams | |
| 1983 | A Night in Heaven | Mrs. Johnson | |
| 1985 | Pale Rider | Sarah Wheeler | |
| 1985 | Rainy Day Friends | Margot | |
| 1986 | Murphy's Law | Joan Freeman | |
| 1988 | Blueberry Hill | Becca Dane | |
| 1989 | Chill Factor | Amy Carlisle | |
| 1990 | Across the Tracks | Rosemary Maloney | |
| 1993 | The Ballad of Little Jo | Ruth Badger | |
| 1994 | 8 Seconds | Elsie Frost | |
| 1994 | Blue Sky | Vera Johnson | |
| 1995 | White Man's Burden | Josine | |
| 1997 | Up Above the World | | |
| 1998 | Wild Things | Ruby | |
| 1999 | A Stranger in the Kingdom | Ruth Kinneson | |
| 2000 | In the Light of the Moon | Augusta Wilhelmine Gein | Alternate title: Ed Gein |
| 2001 | Bartleby | Book Publisher | |
| 2001 | The Forsaken | Ina Hamm | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1969 | Judd, for the Defense | Eileen | Episode: "The Crystal Maze" |
| 1969 | The Virginian | Josephine Delphinia | Episode: "Crime Wave in Buffalo Springs" |
| 1969 | The Outsider | Janet / Diane | Episode: "The Flip Side" |
| 1969 | The Bold Ones: The Lawyers | Megan Baker | Episode: "The Whole World is Watching" |
| 1969 | Marcus Welby, M.D. | Laura | Episode: "The White Cane" |
| 1969 | Silent Night, Lonely Night | Janet | TV movie |
| 1970 | Medical Center | Mim Hoagley | Episode: "The Deceived" |
| 1970 | The Forty-Eight Hour Mile | Janet / Diane | TV movie |
| 1971 | The Impatient Heart | Grace McCormack | TV movie |
| 1978 | Love's Dark Ride | Nancy Warren | TV movie |
| 1979 | Fast Friends | Diana Hayward | TV movie |
| 1979 | The Solitary Man | Sharon Keyes | TV movie |
| 1982 | Quincy M.E. | Mrs. Vicki McGuire | Episode: "The Face of Fear" |
| 1983 | ABC Afterschool Special | Mrs. Cranston | Episode: "Andrea's Story: A Hitchhiking Tragedy" |
| 1984 | Nadia | Stefania Comaneci | TV movie |
| 1984 | Highway to Heaven | Evelyn Nealy | Episode: "To Touch the Moon" |
| 1985 | A Reason to Live | Isobel Bennett | TV movie |
| 1986 | Murder, She Wrote | Connie Vernon | Episode: "If a Body Meet a Body" |
| 1988 | Friday the 13th: The Series | Dr. Viola Rhodes | Episode: "Brain Drain" |
| 1988 | Crossbow | Lady Montal | Episode: "Ladyship" |
| 1989 | In the Heat of the Night | Mrs. Kroller | Episode: "Crackdown" |
| 1990 | The Rose and the Jackal | Joan Pinkerton | TV movie |
| 1990 | Shades of LA | Lt. Armacost | Episode: "Pointers from Paz" |
| 1991 | Equal Justice | Marla Prentiss | Episode: "Courting Disaster" |
| 1991 | Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis | Louise McVay | TV movie |
| 1992 | Woman with a Past | Mama | TV movie |
| 1992 | Civil Wars | Mary Esquavil | Episode: "Drone of Arc" |
| 1992 | Reasonable Doubts | Christine Anderson | Episode: "Try to Be Nice, What Does It Get You?" |
| 1993 | The X-Files | Darlene Morris | Episode: "Conduit" |
| 1993 | Murder, She Wrote | Irene Macinoy | Episode: "Love & Hate in Cabot Cove" |
| 1994 | Rise and Walk: The Dennis Byrd Story | Mrs. Byrd | TV movie |
| 1994–1995 | Phantom 2040 | Heloise Walker | Voice, Recurring role |
| 1995 | Chicago Hope | Mrs. Weber | Episode: "Every Day a Little Death" |
| 1995 | Sisters | Betty Merrill | Episode: "For Everything a Season: Part 2" |
| 1996 | Death Benefit | Virginia McGinnis | TV movie |
| 1996 | All She Ever Wanted | Alma Winchester | TV movie |
| 1998 | ER | Mrs. Lang | Episode: "A Hole in the Heart" |
| 1998 | Touched by an Angel | Judy Bowers | Episode: "Miles to Go Before I Sleep" |
| 2002 | Judging Amy | Dr. Larabie | Episode: "People of the Lie" |
| 2003 | The West Wing | Mrs. Martha Rowe | Episode: "Red Haven's on Fire" |
| 2004 | Iron Jawed Angels | Mrs. Paul | TV movie |