Careers are curious things, especially in Hollywood. Most actors are out of work or scramble to get enough work to ensure their SAG benefits. Success is a slippery thing to gauge: is it money, credits, steady work or popularity. The five actresses below had some good television, film and even stage roles, but still, their careers should have been larger with more A list roles. That’s my opinion.
How many of the five do you recall?
[See my other blog about the careers of Karen Black, Susan Anspaugh and Valerie Perrine, three other actresses who were underrated.]
Barbara Harris
One of the first members of the Second City improv group was Barbara Harris. She made her big screen debut in 1965 with A Thousand Clowns, then got back-to-back Tony nominations in 1966 and 1967 for two hit Broadway musicals, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and The Apple Tree, for which she was awarded the Tony.
Born in Evanston, IL but wanting to be an actor: college and improv in Chicago, theater in New York, and films in Los Angeles. “I was a small-town, middle-class girl who wore a cashmere sweater very nicely and ended up on Broadway because that’s the way the wind was blowing. I didn’t have my sights set there.’
In the 1960s she appeared in various television programs and the occasional films. Harris played strong-willed women, she was always a good match when paired with a strong male actor like Alan Alda, Jack Lemmon or Bruce Dern.
Harris was busy in the 1970s with starring roles in Plaza Suite, The War Between Men and Women, Altman’s Nashville, Freaky Friday, Hitchcock’s Family Plot, Movie Movie and The Seduction of Joe Tynan. Harris was nominated for a Golden Globe for Nashville. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
In her later career, Harris often played mother roles, as John Cusick’s mother in Grosse Pointe Blank and Kathleen Turner’s mother in Peggy Sue Got Married.
Harris retired from acting to teach. “I think the only thing that drew me to acting in the first place was the group of people I was working with,” she said in an interview with the Phoenix New Times in 2002. “I don’t miss it. I was in it for the process, and I really resented having to go out and do a performance for an audience, because the process stopped.” Harris passed away in 2018 at 83 years old.
Pamela Reed
Pamela Reed often was cast as someone’s ex-wife or girlfriend, but her career has featured a lot of stage work and roles you might have missed. She played tough, wisecracking, but warm characters in many films. Remember Kindergarten Cop? She played the cop, but who became ill and Arnold had to assume the undercover role. She played Kurt Russell’s ex-wife in The Best of Times, which also starred Robin Williams, who played her ex-husband in Cadillac Man, another ex-wife role. She played Danny DeVito’s ex-wife in the comedy, Junior, which also starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you needed a witty, tough comedy actress in the 1980s, Reed was your choice.
Reed is also an award winning stage actress and in later years moved to television where she played Amy Poehler’s mother in Parks and Recreation and had a recurring role on NCIS: Los Angeles. Reed has been a busy actress, but has the name and face that are difficult for many to connect.
Sharon Acker
Sharon Acker might be the least known of these actors. Born in Canada, Acker began her acting career in 1956 in a CBC adaptation of Anne of Green Gables and joined the Stratford Shakespeare Festival company, starring as Anne Page opposite future Star Trek co-star William Shatner in a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. She traveled to Europe to perform in Henry V, and made her big-screen debut in Lucky Jim (1957). Acker returned to Canada to star in Macbeth with Sean Connery. Her big break occurred when director John Boorman saw her performance and hired her for Point Blank, opposite Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson and John Vernon. I guarantee, that role is hard to forget.
In the 1970s, Acker guest starred in many American TV series including The Wild Wild West, Get Smart, It Takes a Thief, Lancer, Star Trek, Alias Smith and Jones, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Mod Squad, Marcus Welby, M.D., Cannon, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco, The Rockford Files, Police Story and Quincy, M.E. Acker joined the series The Bold Ones, and starred as Della Street on a reboot of Perry Mason.
Film roles dried up and her last television appearance was in 1992. Acker and husband relocated to Canada, where Acker lived a quiet life, painting and sculpting.
Acker passed away at age 87 in 2023.
Barbara McNair
Was she a singer or an actress? She was both, but better acting roles seemed to elude Barbara McNair. She hosted the syndicated variety series The Barbara McNair Show, which aired from 1969 to 1971. McNair guested on a number of TV shows including I Spy, Hogan’s Heroes, Mission: Impossible, The Mod Squad, McMillan & Wife, Policewoman and The Jeffersons. She also had a recurring role on the daytime drama General Hospital.
Her stage credits include the 1958 Broadway musical The Body Beautiful, the 1962 production No Strings, in which she replaced Diahann Carroll as the female lead, and a 1973 revival of The Pajama Game. On the big screen, McNair had small parts in If He Hollers, Let Him Go!, They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! and The Organization. She also played a nun in the Elvis Presley film, A Change of Habit.
McNair recorded a number of albums in the 1960s and continued to play nightclubs. She died of throat cancer in 2007.
Dorothy Provine
In the 1960s, Dorothy Provine was a big name. She co-starred in a variety of films like That Darn Cat!, Good Neighbor Sam, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Great Race, Never a Dull Moment and a handful of others. When she arrived in Hollywood she was immediately hired for the title role in The Bonnie Parker Story (1958). She starred in several TV series, The Roaring Twenties, where she got to sing and dance, and The Alaskans. She also teamed with George Burns for a summer tour of nightclubs.
Actor Dean Jones, who co-starred with Provine in That Darn Cat!, said, “Several times during lunch I’d just sit back and listen and watch her. She had a quicksilver personality and was always talking about interesting events and stories about her past. I felt she was a very underrated actress. She did everything, really.”
By the mid 1970s, her career slowed down, she got married, had a son, and she turned away from acting. Her director husband said that after they relocated to Bainbridge Island in 1981, his wife was totally retired. “She loved working in the garden until she got sick. Her love was that and animals, particularly dogs. She enjoyed the quiet life,” he said. Provine passed away in 2010.
While this list only includes five, there are many other actors that deserve to be remembered for their fine work. My next list will draw from some of these actors.
Sharon Farrell
Lee Purcell
Pamela Tiffin
Carol Lynley
Paula Prentiss
Susan Oliver
Nancy Kovack
Jean Seberg
Barbara Feldon
Carolyn Jones
Sean Young
Inger Stevens
Judy Pace
Diane Baker
Sherry North
Barbara Bain
Elke Sommer
Romy Schneider
Janis Paige
Joanna Barnes
Diana Hyland
Lee Remick
Martha Hyer
Mildred Natwick
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