# Beatrice Straight

Beatrice Whitney Straight (August 2, 1914 – April 7, 2001) was an American theatre, film, television and radio actress and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She was both an Academy Award and Tony Award winner, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award nominee.
Straight made her Broadway debut in The Possessed (1939). Her other Broadway roles included Viola in Twelfth Night (1941), Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (1947) and Lady Macduff in Macbeth (1948). For her role as Elizabeth Proctor in the production of The Crucible (1953), she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. For the satirical film Network (1976), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance is the shortest ever to win an Academy Award for acting (at five minutes and two seconds of screen time). She also received an Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the miniseries The Dain Curse (1978). Straight also appeared as Mother Christophe in The Nun's Story (1959) and Dr. Martha Lesh in Poltergeist (1982).

## Early life

Beatrice Whitney Straight was born in Old Westbury, New York, the daughter of Dorothy Payne Whitney of the Whitney family, and Willard Dickerman Straight, an investment banker, diplomat, and career U.S. Army officer. Her maternal grandfather was political leader and financier William Collins Whitney. In 1918, when Straight was four years old, her father died in France of influenza during the great epidemic while serving with the United States Army during World War I. Following her mother's remarriage to British agronomist Leonard K. Elmhirst in 1925, the family moved to Devon, England. It was there that Straight was educated at Dartington Hall and began acting in amateur theater productions. In the 1930s, she attended the Cornish School in Seattle where many of her teachers at Dartington Hall were from and to which both she and her mother became major benefactors.

## Career

Straight returned to the United States and made her Broadway debut in the play The Possessed (1939). Most of her theater work was in the classics, including Twelfth Night (1941), Macbeth (1948) and The Crucible (1953), for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
From its inception, Straight was a member of the Actors Studio, attending the class conducted three times weekly by founding member Robert Lewis; her classmates included Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Jerome Robbins, Sidney Lumet, and about 20 others.
Straight was active in the early days of television, appearing in anthology series such as Armstrong Circle Theatre, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Kraft Television Theatre, Studio One, Suspense, The United States Steel Hour, Playhouse 90, and dramatic series such as Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, The Defenders, Route 66, Mission: Impossible and St. Elsewhere. Further television performances included the likes of turns in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as her role as Hippolyta in the Wonder Woman series.
Straight worked infrequently in film and is perhaps remembered best for her role as a devastated wife confronting husband William Holden's infidelity in Network (1976). Despite her character only appearing briefly onscreen, Straight was highly praised for her performance, earning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Another widely seen film appearance was the role of the paranormal investigator Dr. Martha Lesh in the horror film Poltergeist (1982).

## Personal life

On February 22, 1942, Straight married Louis Dolivet, Free French Leader, in Polk County, Iowa. At the time, Dolivet was a speaker at the National Farm Institute and Straight was in the middle of the midwest road show of Twelfth Night. Her mother Dorothy Elmhirst and stepfather Leonard K. Elmhirst attended the wedding with her brother Michael Straight and his wife Belinda Crompton. Dolivet was in the French Air Force until June 1940 and was the co-editor of The Free World, a magazine published by the International Free World Association, of which he was secretary general. At the time of the wedding, her elder brother, Whitney Straight, had been missing since August 1941, when his plane was shot down on the French coast.
Straight obtained a divorce from Dolivet in Reno, Nevada, on May 24, 1949. Together the couple had one child:
* Willard Whitney Straight Dolivet (1945–1952)
In 1948, while starring in the Broadway production of The Heiress, an adaptation of Henry James's Washington Square, she met Peter Cookson. They married in 1949 and remained married until Cookson's death in 1990. Peter had two children from his previous marriage, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Jane Coopland (née Cookson). Together, Straight and Cookson had two children:
* Gary Cookson
* Anthony "Tony" Cookson
In 1952, her 7-year-old son, Willard, from her first marriage, accidentally drowned in a pond on their farm in Armonk while playing in a small rowboat tied to the dock. The boy was found by Cookson. The boy's father, Dolivet, who was living in Paris at the time, was refused a visa and, therefore, unable to fly to the United States to attend the funeral because of his alleged pro-communist activities, which he denied.
Straight reportedly had Alzheimer's disease in her last years. In 2001, she died from pneumonia in Northridge, Los Angeles, at the age of 86. Her interment was at William Henry Lee Memorial Cemetery in New Marlborough, Massachusetts.

## Filmography
### Film

| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
| Phone Call from a Stranger | 1952 | Claire Fortness | |
| Patterns | 1956 | Nancy Staples | |
| The Silken Affair | 1956 | Theora | |
| The Nun's Story | 1959 | Mother Christophe (Sanatorium) | |
| The Young Lovers | 1964 | Mrs. Burns | |
| The Garden Party | 1973 | Mrs. Sheridan | Short film |
| Network | 1976 | Louise Schumacher | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| The Promise | 1979 | Marion Hillyard | |
| Bloodline | 1979 | Kate Erling | |
| The Formula | 1980 | Kay Neeley | |
| Endless Love | 1981 | Rose Axelrod | |
| Poltergeist | 1982 | Dr. Martha Lesh | |
| Two of a Kind | 1983 | Ruth | |
| Power | 1986 | Claire Hastings | Nominated – Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress |
| Deceived | 1991 | Adrienne's Mother | Final film role |
| From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff | 2002 | Self | |
| They Are Here: The Real World of the Poltergeists | 2007 | Dr. Martha Lesh (uncredited) | Archive footage from Poltergeist |

## Television

| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
| With This Ring | 1951 | Self | Season 1, Episode 4: "#1.4" ; Season 1, Episode 5: "#1.5" |
| Somerset Maugham TV Theatre | 1951 | | Season 1, Episode 12: "The Treasure" |
| Lights Out | 1951 | Charlotte | Season 3, Episode 36: "Grey Reminder" |
| Cosmopolitan Theatre | 1951 | | Season 1, Episode 4: "Reward, One Million" |
| Hallmark Hall of Fame | 1952 (2) | Elizabeth Barrett / Louisa May Alcott | Season 1, Episode 3: "Love Story"; Season 1, Episode 21: "The Magnificent Failure" |
| The Web | 1952 | | Season 2, Episode 24: "Hear Footsteps" |
| Armstrong Circle Theatre | 1952 (2) | | Season 2, Episode 21: "Image"; Season 3, Episode 3: "Betrayal" |
| Kraft Theatre | 1952 (2), 1953 | | Season 5, Episode 42: "Thorn in the Flesh"; Season 6, Episode 10: "The Iron Gate"; Season 7, Episode 13: "Gavin" |
| Love Story | 1954 (2) | | Season 1, Episode 3: "The Matchmaker"; Season 1, Episode 7: "The Yo-Yo People" |
| Suspense | 1952, 1954 | Claire Trent / Mrs. de Spain | Season 4, Episode 19: "The Red Signal"; Season 6, Episode 47: "Barn Burning" |
| Inner Sanctum | 1954 | Louise | Season 1, Episode 34: "Pattern of Fear" |
| Omnibus | 1953, 1954 | Goneril / ** | Season 2, Episode 3: "King Lear"; Season 3, Episode 6: "Antigone" |
| You Are There | 1954, 1955 | Anne Boleyn / ** | Season 2, Episode 42: "The Crisis of Anne Boleyn"; Season 3, Episode 19: "The Torment of Beethoven" |
| Danger | 1955 | | Season 5, Episode 22: "The Dark Curtain" |
| Lamp Unto My Feet | 1956 | | Episode aired Oct 28: "Page From a Family Album" |
| Studio One in Hollywood | 1951 (2), 1957 | Kay / ** / Pamela Baxter / Deborah | Season 3, Episode 24: "The Target"; Season 3, Episode 29: "A Chill on the Wind"; Season 10, Episode 6: "Act of Mercy"; Season 10, Episode 8; "Bend in the Road" |
| The United States Steel Hour | 1955, 1958 | Daisy Jackson / Katherine Grant | Season 2, Episode 17: "The Roads to Home"; Season 5, Episode 15: "Top Secret Mission" |
| Look Up and Live | 1957 | Self / Narrator | Episode aired April 21: "The Way of the Cross" |
| The Investigator | 1958 | The Widow | Season 1, Episode 7: "#1.7" |
| Playhouse 90 | 1958 | Grace | Season 3, Episode 5: "Shadows Tremble" |
| Play of the Week | 1959 | Mlle. de St. Euverte | Season 1, Episode 6: "The Waltz of the Toreadors" |
| Alfred Hitchcock Presents | 1959, 1960 | Cynthia Fortnam / Ida Blythe | Season 5, Episode 10: "Special Delivery"; Season 5, Episode 27: "The Cuckoo Clock" |
| Diagnosis: Unknown | 1960 | Rhoda Clarence | Season 1, Episode 4: "Final Performance" |
| Route 66 | 1961, 1962, 1963 | Kitty Chamberlain / Mother Teresa / Elena De Amundo | Season, 1 Episode 24: "Most Vanquished, Most Victorious"; Season 2, Episode 26: "Kiss the Maiden All Forlorn"; Season 3, Episode 22; "The Cage Around Maria" |
| Dr. Kildare | 1961 | Pamela Rainey | Season 1, Episode 10: "For the Living" |
| Naked City | 1962 | Ann Johns | Season 3, Episode 32: "Memory of a Trolley Car" |
| The Doctors and the Nurses | 1962 | Ruth Martin | Season 1, Episode 10: "The Lady Made of Stone" |
| The Eleventh Hour | 1963 | Veronica Filmore | Season 1, Episode 14: "Where Have You Been, Lord Randall, My Son?" |
| Ben Casey | 1963 | Edith Bauer | Season 2, Episode 2: "Rigadoon for Three Pianos" |
| The Defenders | 1965 | Mrs. Campbell | Season 4, Episode 15: "Eyewitness" |
| Mission: Impossible | 1966 | Dr. Martha Richards Zubrovnik | Season 1, Episode 11: "Zubrovnik's Ghost" |
| Felony Squad | 1967 | Victoria Cahill | Season 2, Episode 10: "Who'll Take Care of Joey?" |
| Love of Life | 1970 | Vinnie Phillips | Season 13, various episodes |
| Matt Lincoln | 1970 | Barbara Miller | Season 1, Episode 8: "Doc" |
| The Wide World of Mystery | 1973 | Mother | Season 1, Episode 12: "The Haunting of Rosalind" |
| The Borrowers | 1973 | Mrs. Crampfurl | TV film |
| Beacon Hill | 1975 | Mrs. Hacker | Season 1, Episode 1: "The Pilot"; Season 1, Episode 2: "The Colonel and the Fawn"; Season 1, Episode 3: "The Marblehead Club"; Season 1, Episode 4: "The Poor Little Thing"; Season 1, Episode 5: "The Soldiers"; Season 1, Episode 6: "The Shining Example"; Season 1, Episode 7: "The Speakeasy"; Season 1, Episode:8 "The Million Dollar Gate"; Season 1, Episode 9: "The Suitors"; Season 1, Episode 10 "The Test"; Season 1, Episode 11: "The Pretenders" |
| Bicentennial Minutes | 1976 | Self / Narrator | Season 1, Episode 575: "Episode #1.575" |
| Straight Talk | 1977 | Self / Guest | Episode aired March 1: "Episode dated 1 March 1977" |
| The Andros Targets | 1977 | Mrs. Bendeson | Season 1, Episode 6: "Requiem for a Stolen Child, Part I" |
| The 49th Annual Academy Awards | 1977 | Self / Winner | TV special |
| The World of Darkness | 1977 | Joanna Sanford | TV film |
| Wonder Woman | 1977 | Hippolyta | Season 2, Episode 1: "The Return of Wonder Woman"; Season 2, Episode 4: "The Bermuda Triangle Crisis" |
| The Mike Douglas Show | 1977 | Self / Guest | Season 16, Episode 157: "Episode #16.157" |
| Killer on Board | 1977 | Beatrice Richmond | TV film |
| The 50th Annual Academy Awards | 1978 | Self / Past Winner | TV special |
| The Dain Curse | 1978 | Alice Dain Leggett | miniseries; Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Series |
| King's Crossing | 1982 | Louisa Beauchamp | Season 1, Episode 1: "Keepers of the Ring"; Season 1, Episode 2: "Friday's Child"; Season 1, Episode 3: "Ghosts"; Season 1, Episode 4: "Triangle"; Season 1, Episode 5: "Long Ago Tomorrow"; Season 1, Episode 6: "Confusion by Cupid"; Season 1, Episode 7: "The Home Front"; Season 1, Episode 8: "Family Reunion"; Season 1, Episode 9: "One Afternoon"; Season 1, Episode 10: "Strangers" |
| All-Star Family Feud Special: Heroes vs. Villains | 1982 | Self / Celebrity Contestant | TV special |
| Night of 100 Stars | 1982 | Self | TV special |
| The Making of "Poltergeist" | 1982 | Self (uncredited) | TV short film |
| Faerie Tale Theatre | 1984 | Queen Veronica / Woman in Museum | Season 3, Episode 2: "The Princess and the Pea" |
| Robert Kennedy and His Times | 1985 | Rose Kennedy | miniseries |
| Chiller | 1985 | Marion Creighton | TV film |
| Under Siege | 1986 | Margaret Sloan | TV film |
| Jack and Mike | 1987 | Mike's Mother | Season 1, Episode 18: "Spirits in the Night" |
| St. Elsewhere | 1988 | Marjorie Andrews | Season 6, Episode 18: "The Naked Civil Surgeon"; Season 6, Episode 19: "Requiem for a Heavyweight"; Season 6, Episode 20: "Split Decision" |
| Run Til You Fall | 1988 | Margaret | TV film |
| People Like Us | 1990 | Maisie Verdurin | TV film |
| 8th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards | 2002 | Self • In Memoriam (archive footage) | TV special |
| The 74th Annual Academy Awards | 2002 | Self • Memorial Tribute (archive footage) | TV special |
| Shakespeare Uncovered | 2015 | Goneril (uncredited - archive footage from King Lear) | Season 2, Episode 2: "King Lear with Christopher Plummer" |

## Selected theatre credits
### Broadway

| Title | Date of Production | Role | Notes |
| Bitter Oleander | Feb. 11, 1935 – Mar. 02, 1935 | Spinning Girl | Lyceum Theatre |
| The Possessed | Oct. 24, 1939 – Nov. 4, 1939 | Lisa | Lyceum Theatre |
| Twelfth Night | Dec. 2, 1941 – Dec. 13, 1941 | Viola | Little Theatre |
| A Happy Ending | c. 1942 | -/- | Barbizon-Plaza Concert Hall |
| Land of Fame | Sep. 21, 1943 – Sep. 25, 1943 | Angela | Belasco Theatre |
| Pygmalion | c. 1945 | as producer | Ethel Barrymore Theatre |
| Playboy of the Western World | c. 1946 | as producer | Booth Theatre |
| The Wanhope Building | Feb. 9, 1947 – Feb. 16, 1947 | Felina | Princess Theatre |
| The Heiress | Sep. 29, 1947 – Sep. 18, 1948 | Catherine Sloper | Biltmore Theatre; Casting replacement |
| Eastward in Eden | Nov. 18, 1947 – Nov. 29, 1947 | Emily Dickinson | Royale Theatre |
| Macbeth | Mar. 31, 1948 – Apr. 24, 1948 | Lady Macduff | National Theatre |
| The Innocents | Feb. 1, 1950 – Jun. 3, 1950 | Miss Giddens | Playhouse Theatre |
| The Grand Tour | Dec. 10, 1951 – Dec. 15, 1951 | Nell Valentine | Martin Beck Theatre |
| The Crucible | Jan. 22, 1953 – Jul. 11, 1953 | Elizabeth Proctor | Martin Beck Theatre; Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play |
| Everything in the Garden | Nov. 29, 1967 – Feb. 10, 1968 | Mrs. Toothe | Plymouth Theatre |
| Who Am I? | 1971-1973 | as director | Young World Foundation Theatre Company |

### Off-Broadway

| Title | Date of Production | Role | Notes |
| Henry IV, Part I | c. 1946 | as producer | Century Theatre (also produced in the U.K.) |
| Henry IV, Part II | c. 1946 | as producer | Century Theatre (also produced in the U.K.) |
| Uncle Vanya | c. 1946 | as producer | Century Theatre (also produced in the U.K.) |
| Oedipus | c. 1946 | as producer | Century Theatre (also produced in the U.K.) |
| The Critic | c. 1946 | as producer | Century Theatre (also produced in the U.K.) |
| Sing Me No Lullaby | c. 1954 | -/- | Phoenix Theatre |
| The River Line | Jan. 2, 1957 - Jan. 13, 1957 | Marie Chassaigne | Carnegie Hall Playhouse |
| Phedre | Feb. 10, 1966 - May 8, 1966 | Phedre | Greenwich Mews Theatre |
| Ghosts | Mar. 13, 1973 - May 27, 1973 | Mrs. Helene Alving | Roundabout Stage II |
| All My Sons | Sep. 27, 1974 - Nov. 17, 1974 | Kate Keller | Roundabout Stage (23rd Street Theatre) |
| Hamlet | Dec. 12, 1979 - Feb. 10, 1980 | Gertrude | Circle Theatre |

### Other stage credits

| Title | Date of Production | Role | Notes |
| Henry IV, Part I | c. 1946 | as producer | The Old Vic Theatre - London, U.K. (also produced in the U.S.) |
| Henry IV, Part II | c. 1946 | as producer | The Old Vic Theatre - London, U.K. (also produced in the U.S.) |
| Uncle Vanya | c. 1946 | as producer | The Old Vic Theatre - London, U.K. (also produced in the U.S.) |
| Oedipus | c. 1946 | as producer | The Old Vic Theatre - London, U.K. (also produced in the U.S.) |
| The Critic | c. 1946 | as producer | The Old Vic Theatre - London, U.K. (also produced in the U.S.) |
| A Streetcar Named Desire | c. 1967, 1969-1970 | Blanche du Bois | Berkshire Theatre Festival - Stockbridge, MA; various other U.S. cities during the production's tour |
| The Right Honorable Gentleman | c. 1971 | Mrs. Lila Rossiter | The Cape Playhouse - Dennis, MA; Ogunquit Playhouse - Ogunquit, ME; various other U.S. cities during the production's tour |
| The Palace at 4 A.M. | c. 1972 | The Mother | John Drew Theatre - Easthampton, NY |
| Old Times | c. 1977 | Kate | Academy Festival Theatre - Lake Forest, IL |

## Selected radio credits

| Title | Date of Production | Role | Notes |
| Great Scenes from Great Plays | October 15, 1948 | Elizabeth Barrett | Program #3: "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" |
| Lights Out | April 30, 1951 | Charlotte | Season 3, Episode 36: "Grey Reminder" |
| Suspense | January 22, 1952 | Claire Trent | Season 4, Episode 19: "The Red Signal" |
| CBS Radio Mystery Theater | March 20, 1974 | Alice Emery | Season 1, Episode 60: "#60 — Ghost at the Gate" |
| CBS Radio Mystery Theater | July 25, 1974 | Sybil Carter | Season 1, Episode 123: "#123 — My Sister, Death" |
| CBS Radio Mystery Theater | January 20, 1975 | Mrs. Vortic | Season 2, Episode 15: "#208 — The Precious Killer" |
| CBS Radio Mystery Theater | May 12, 1975 | Jesse Craig | Season 2, Episode 79: "#272 — For Tomorrow We Die" |
| CBS Radio Mystery Theater | February 26, 1976 | Ellen Gardner | Season 3, Episode 33: "#438 — The Providential Ghost" |

## Accolades

| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Results |
| 1976 | Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Network | Won |
| 1986 | Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Supporting Actress | Power | Nominated |
| 1978 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Series | The Dain Curse | Nominated |
| 1953 | Tony Awards | Distinguished Supporting or Featured Dramatic Actress | The Crucible | Won |