An endearing supporting player of film and TV, Mary Kay Place secured an Emmy Award and a special place in the hearts of fans of Norman Lear's nightly soap spoof "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" (syndicated, 1976-77). As aspiring Country & Western star Loretta Haggers, the actress avoided soft-pedaling the character's naivete and prejudices, while conveying the down home charm, common sense, and just plain goodness that made her an irreplaceable best friend to Louise Lasser's profoundly neurotic Mary Hartman. She wrote over 75 songs for her character and sang them with conviction in her charming Okie twang. Place also recorded three C&W albums including the Grammy-nominated "Tonite! At the Capri Lounge Loretta Hagers".
Place was on her first day as a receptionist/temp at CBS in Hollywood trying desperately to master the switchboard, when she was seen by comic Tim Conway, who found her antics amusing. Conway hired her as an assistant during the brief run of "The Tim Conway Comedy Hour" (CBS, 1970). This led to a job as secretary to producer/creator Norman Lear on the set of "Maude". When Lear overheard Place and a co-worker singing one of her quirky compositions in the office, he decided to have her sing it for Archie Bunker on "All in the Family". Place made her TV debut as a friend of Sally Struthers' Gloria singing "When Communism Comes Knocking On Your Door, Don't Answer It". Rather than immediately pursuing an acting career, however, Place became a writer for several memorable 1970s sitcoms including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "Phyllis", "The Paul Sand Show" and "M*A*S*H. She and her writing partner, Linda Bloodworth (who would later create "Designing Women" and "Evening Shade"), were nominated for an Emmy for a "M*A*S*H" episode entitled "Hot Lips and Empty Arms" (CBS, 1973).
Place entered features with a small role in "Bound for Glory" (1976) and was the band singer Bernice in Martin Scorsese's "New York, New York" (1977), in which she performed a dynamite rendition of "Blue Moon". But she may be best remembered in films as Meg, the successful career woman who wants one of her old college chums to father her baby, in Lawrence Kasdan's "The Big Chill" (1983). Place went on to play Martin Short's wife in the faulty "Captain Ron" (1992), with Kurt Russell as a leering boat captain. In the latter 90s, she appeared in a number of well-received independent films like Alexander Payne's "Citizen Ruth" (1996), as a Christian attempting to stop Laura Dern from having an abortion. The actress shone as the know-it-all hostage who ends up mothering her kidnappers in "Manny & Lo" (also 1996), was briefly seen as Nick Stahl's suicidal mother in "Eye of God" and played the parent of a dying child who decides to sue an insurance company when it fails to pay for her son's treatment in "John Grisham's 'The Rainmaker'"(both 1997).
Place has worked more often in TV, appearing in superior TV-movies (i.e., "Portrait of a White Marriage", a 1988 Cinemax comedy with Martin Mull) and miniseries ("Armistead Maupin's 'Tales of the City'", PBS 1994). She had the recurring role of Camille, Bess Armstrong's best friend, on "My So-Called Life" (ABC, 1995). Place has also established a secondary career as a sitcom director, helming episodes of such series as "Baby Boom", "Dream On" and "Friends".