While Blair Brown may be best recalled for her award-winning starring role in "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" (NBC, 1987-88; Lifetime, 1988-91), she has also had a distinguished, albeit idiosyncratic career as a stage and film actress. Born and raised in the Washington, DC area, the petite, attractive auburn-haired performer had originally intended to pursue a medical career. She whimsically applied to the National Theatre School of Canada where she spent three years in training. A role in the revue "Love and Maple Syrup" in Ottawa led to several years of employment with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Company and other regional theaters, honing her craft in such stage productions as "The Merchant of Venice", "A Doll's House" and "The Crucible". Brown recreated her stage role of Lady Teazle in "The School for Scandal" for PBS' "Theater in America" in 1975. Moving to NYC, she found work with the New York Shakespeare Festival in "The Comedy of Errors" in Central Park and in "The Threepenny Opera" on Broadway.
Inevitable Hollywood beckoned and Brown was cast in several acclaimed TV productions ranging from the NBC miniseries "Captains and the Kings" (1976) to the award-winning "Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years" (ABC, 1977). She has continued to offer incisive and distinguished performances in the medium. In the 1983 NBC miniseries "Kennedy", Brown was applause for her sympathetic portrayal of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. She was the at first unsuspecting mother of a murderous child in the remake of "The Bad Seed" (ABC, 1985) and played the first female general who runs for the US Presidency in "Majority Rule" (Lifetime, 1992). While her finest TV role remains the independent Molly Dodd, Brown also excelled at tightly-wound, often wealthy matriarchs as in "A Season in Purgatory" (CBS, 1996) and "The Ultimate Lie" (NBC, 1996). She co-hosted (with Toukie Smith) the Lifetime talk show "Talk It Over" (1995) and briefly returned to series TV as a no-nonsense US attorney in the short-lived "Feds" (CBS, 1997).
Brown debuted in features in "The Choirboys" (1977) but came into her own as a leading lady opposite William Hurt in "Altered States" (1980), although her subsequent appearances have been infrequent. (Brown often put her family before her career.) One of her best screen roles was in 1981's "Continental Divide", playing a take-charge naturalist romanced by a newspaper reporter (John Belushi). David Hare wrote the leading role of Lillian Hempel, an expatriate American doctor living in London who begins a romance with a mysterious man, in "Strapless" (1989) for her. (He also penned the stage play "The Secret Rapture" for her as well). More recently, Brown returned to Broadway as star of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" (1995) and as Frau Schneider in "Cabaret" (1998-99) before returning to features in a key supporting role in "The Astronaut's Wife" (1999)
Family
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Father: Milton Henry Brown.
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Mother: Elizabeth Ann Brown.
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Son: Robert Jordan. Born in 1983; father, Richard Jordan
Significant Others
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Companion: David Hare. Involved in late 1980s; met when she appeared in his Broadway play Secret Rapture (1989)
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Companion: Richard Jordan. Met while filming the miniseries Captain and the Kings (1976); lived together from 1976 to 1985; died of a brain tumor in August 1993 at age 56
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Companion: David Hare. involved in late 1980s
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Companion: Richard Jordan. met while filming Captains and the Kings (1976); separated; died of a brain tumor in August 1993 at age 56
Education
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Madeira School, McLean, VA
Milestones
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1975 Moved to NYC
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1975 TV acting debut, the Guthrie staging of The School for Scandal (aired on PBS)
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1976 Co-starred in the NBC miniseries Captains and the Kings
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1976 NY stage debut in The Threepenny Opera at Lincoln Center
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1977 Screen debut, The Choirboys
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1980 Appeared at the Arena Theater in David Hare s Plenty
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1980 First starring film role, Altered States
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1981 Played leading lady to John Belushi in the feature comedy Continental Divide
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1983 Portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy in the NBC miniseries Kennedy
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1985 Played the unsuspecting mother of a murderous child in the small screen remake of The Bad Seed (ABC)
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1987 Starred the series, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (NBC, 1987-1988; Lifetime, 1989-1991)
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1989 Directed by Hare in Strapless ; role was written expressly for her by Hare
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1989 Played the leading role in the Off-Broadway production of The Secret Rapture ; written by David Hare
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1992 Cast as the first woman to lead troops into combat in the Lifetime TV-movie Majority Rule
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1992 Last feature for six years, Passed Away
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1994 Debut as TV producer on the NBC movie Moment of Truth: To Walk Again ; also co-starred
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1995 Co-starred in the Broadway production of Tom Stoppard s Arcadia
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1995 Hosted the National Public Radio series The Poet s Voice
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1995 With Toukie Smith, co-hosted the Lifetime talk show Talk It Over
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1996 Played the matriarch of a wealthy family in the CBS miniseries A Season in Purgatory
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1997 Returned to series TV as co-star of the short-lived CBS drama series Feds
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1997 Starred as the mother of a murder victim in the based-on-fact Lifetime movie Convictions
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1998 Succeeded Mary Louise Wilson as Frau Schneider in the acclaimed revival of the stage musical Cabaret
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1999 Returned to feature films in a supporting role in The Astronaut s Wife
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1999 Starred opposite Christopher Walken in the NYC stage musical James Joyce s The Dead
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2000 Played Gertrude in Campbell Scott s TV version of Hamlet (Odyssey)
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2000 Won a Tony Award for her performance as the female lead in Michael Frayn s play Copenhagen
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2002 Cast as Desiree in the Kennedy Center production of A Little Night Music
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2004 Played the lead role in The Clean House, by playwright Sarah Ruhl
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2006 Co-starred with Kyra Sedgwick in the Kevin Bacon directed Loverboy ; premiered at Sundance (lensed 2003)
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2008 Appeared in the murder drama, Dark Matter loosely based on the 1991 University of Iowa shootings
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2008 Cast as Nina Sharp in the FOX drama Fringe
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Joined the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Company in Ontario, Canada
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Professional stage debut in the Canadian production of Love and Maple Syrup
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Spent one season at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN