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America’s Mom
This article by Nicole Plett was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on
March 18, 1998. All rights reserved.
Did we ever hear Olivia Walton yell at her boisterous
brood of freckled kids? Quiet exasperation, maybe. Yelling, never.
With "The Waltons," actress Michael Learned won her place
in America’s heart as everybody’s ideal mother, the lovely woman from
a simpler place and time, who never yelled. With cast member Ralph
Waite (currently appearing at Paper Mill Playhouse) as her husband,
Richard Thomas (currently at the Hartford Stage) as John Boy, and
the late great Will Geer as Grandpa, the family show about human kindness
that could beat Depression-era rural poverty was a long-running hit
throughout the 1970s. Fifteen years after the show died a natural
death in 1979 (immortalized, meanwhile, in re-runs), TV Guide readers
voted Learned their the second favorite dramatic actress in TV history.
And those nostalgic TV voters were not to be denied. In 1993 the
network staged a fictional family reunion for the Waltons in "A
Walton Thanksgiving." The single show earned close to top TV-movie
rating for the entire season. With demand running high for seeing
those Waltons all grown up, the Thanksgiving reunion was followed
by "A Walton Wedding" in 1995, and "A Walton Easter"
in 1996. After her "Waltons" success, she went on to a lead
role in the television series, "Nurse." Most recent among
Learned’s many appearances in made-for-TV movies was her role on CBS
last week in "A Father for Brittany" with Shirley Knight (McCarter’s
Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie").
Michael Learned comes to Princeton to play the role of Irene Landis,
in the world premiere of Richard Greenberg’s "Safe as Houses,"
directed by Emily Mann, at McCarter Theater.
Learned the dramatic actress, classically trained in England, began
her career in the 1950s, becoming well known in theater circles before
and after Olivia Walton. She served an apprenticeship with the Stratford
Connecticut Shakespeare Festival and has been an active member of
the American Conservatory Theater. Her theatrical roles have included
the leading heroines of Shakespeare, Shaw, and Chekhov, as well as
leading women in works by Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Tennessee
Williams.
Her lead role as Sara Goode in the Wendy Wasserstein Broadway success,
"The Sisters Rosensweig," kept her onstage for a 13-month
run in 1993-’94. She gathered raves on the national tour of Edward
Albee’s "Three Tall Women."
Learned’s motion pictures include "Power," and "Dragon."
But most everyone likes to remember her as that good mom who never
lost it.
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