Biography

Mary Kay Place

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Mary Kay Place (born September 23, 1947) is an American actress, singer, director, and screenwriter. She is known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a role that won her the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series. Her numerous film appearances include Private Benjamin (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Captain Ron (1992) and Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 drama The Rainmaker. Place also recorded three studio albums for Columbia Records, one in the Haggers persona, which included the Top Ten country music hit "Baby Boy." For her performance in Diane (2018), Place won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bonitao

She wrote three M*A*S*H (1972) episodes, in conjunction with Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. They were broadcast between December 1973 and December 1974. One of those episodes, Hot Lips and Empty Arms (1973), was nominated for a comedy writing Emmy.
Never married and has no children. Divides her time between her home in Los Angeles and New York apartment.
First big break came in playing wannabe country-western singer Loretta Haggers on cult TV's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) .
Character actress who has found a niche on film and TV playing quirky country moms, including Reese Witherspoon's in Sweet Home Alabama (2002) in both serious and comical settings.
She worked with pop artist, John Stewart, on his 1979 album, "Bombs Away Dream Baby", featuring the hit song, "Gold". She sang background vocals on this LP.

Instead of being a waitress, when I first moved to LA, I got entry-level jobs at CBS Television City because I figured if you're going to be at the bottom of the barrel why not be in the business that you're interested in learning about.
I have a history of doing what I call Martian projects, as opposed to civilian projects or mainstream projects.
[on Diane (2018)] This was a miracle and I'm not expecting more than one.
I was in certain movies for certain people as favors or because I thought it was a worthy cause.

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