Equally at home on stage or screen, raspy-voiced character actress and sometime lead Brenda Vaccaro made her first professional appearance as an adolescent in a Dallas, TX production of "The Willow Tree" (1951). After training at NYC's Neighborhood Playhouse (1958-1960), she debuted on Broadway as Gloria Gulock in "Everybody Loves Opal" (1961) and went on to earn three Tony nominations for her efforts in "Cactus Flower" (1965), the musical "How Now, Dow Jones" (1967-68) and "The Goodbye People" (1968-69). She returned to Broadway after an absence of more than a decade to star as Olive Madison in the female version of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" (1985) and then acted opposite Alan Alda in an another Simon Great White Way opus, "Jake's Women" (1991).
Vaccaro's feature debut came in Garson Kanin's "Where It's At" (1969), but she really launched her career with a memorable performance as a sexually voracious Madison Avenue socialite who picks up Jon Voight in "Midnight Cowboy" (1969). She provided able support to Robert Mitchum as his sweetheart in the powerful but downbeat "Going Home" (1971), then, after four years away from the big screen, roared back with an Oscar-nominated turn as wisecracking magazine editor Linda in "Jacqueline Susann's 'Once Is Not Enough'" (1975). Proficient in both drama and comedy, she exhibited her over-the-top comic flair for "Zorro, The Gay Blade" (1989) and surfaced as Barbra Streisand's dumpy best friend Doris in "The Mirror Has Two Faces" (1996).
At the top of an impressive list of television credits is Vaccaro's Emmy-winning performance (Best Supporting Actress in a Variety Special) in the revue by and about women "The Shape of Things" (1974). She racked up two additional nominations, one for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for the short-lived "Sara" (1976), about a frontier schoolteacher, the other as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for the "Ebbtide's Revenge" episode of "The Golden Girls" (NBC, 1990), as the widow of Dorothy's brother. She presaged her feature best friend's role in two TV-movies, "Stolen: One Husband" (CBS, 1990) and "Following Her Heart" (NBC, 1994), and played Matt LeBlanc's mother (Mrs. Gloria Tribbiani) in "The One with the Boobies" episode of NBC's "Friends" (1995), among her many guest spots. Vaccaro has also lent her trademark voice to numerous animated TV projects, beginning with "Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey" (ABC, 1977) and including "The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones" (syndicated, 1987) and "Johnny Bravo" (The Cartoon Network, 1997).