Claim: Stockard Channing portrayed First Lady Abbey Bartlet.

Stockard Channing -LRB- born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard ; February 13 , 1944 -RRB- is an American stage , film and television actress . She is known for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease -LRB- 1978 -RRB- and First Lady Abbey Bartlet on the NBC television series The West Wing -LRB- 1999 -- 2006 -RRB- . She is also known for originating the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation , for which she was nominated for a Tony Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress .   A 13-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and seven-time Tony Award nominee , she won the 1985 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the Broadway revival of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg , and won Emmy Awards for The West Wing and The Matthew Shepard Story , both in 2002 . She won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2004 for her role in Jack . Her film appearances include The Fortune -LRB- 1975 -RRB- , The Big Bus -LRB- 1976 -RRB- , The Cheap Detective -LRB- 1978 -RRB- , Heartburn -LRB- 1986 -RRB- , Up Close & Personal -LRB- 1996 -RRB- , Practical Magic -LRB- 1998 -RRB- , and Woody Allen 's Anything Else -LRB- 2003 -RRB- . She also played the recurring role of Veronica Loy on the CBS drama The Good Wife -LRB- 2012 -- 16 -RRB- .