Biography

Maureen Stapleton

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Academy Award-winner Maureen Stapleton was born June 21, 1925 in Troy, New York, to Irene (née Walsh) and John P. Stapleton. Her family was of Irish descent. Maureen moved to New York City at the age of eighteen and did modeling to pay the bills. Already a Tony Award-winner, she made her Academy Award-nominated film debut in Lonelyhearts (1958) supporting four-time Academy Award-nominee Montgomery Clift, and Myrna Loy in Lonelyhearts (1958). Maureen was was nominated for an Oscar again for her performance in Airport (1970). She played the wife of D. O. Guerrero (played by Academy Award-winner Van Heflin). Eight years later she went on to earn a third Oscar nomination for her performance as Diane Keaton, Kristen Griffith, and Mary Beth Hurt's stepmother Pearl, in the Woody Allen drama Interiors (1978). Apparently, four times worked as a charm when Maureen took the Oscar home for her performance in which she portrayed the Lithuanian-born anarchist Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's Reds (1981).
- IMDb mini biography by: tony.r.vario@gmail.com

Contrary to popular belief, she was not related to All in the Family (1971) star Jean Stapleton.
She admitted to having a drinking problem and confessed that she would head for the vodka right after the curtain went down. Liquor was a fixture in her dressing room but she claims that she never appeared on stage drunk.
She did not travel by air or elevator. She traveled by rail across the country, and traveled by ship across the ocean, instead of by plane.
Stapleton had an airline phobia and turned down parts that required her to fly. She took a freighter to get to London for "Reds" as passenger boats don't run in winter.
Took over the role of Serafina delle Rosa in "The Rose Tattoo" because Anna Magnani (who was old enough to be her mother) didn't speak English well enough to essay the role on Broadway, so this young Irish Catholic from Troy played an Italian "Earth Mother" to critical and popular acclaim.

[when asked, after winning her Oscar, how it felt to be recognized as one of the greatest actresses in the world] Not nearly as exciting as it would be if I were acknowledged as one of the greatest lays in the world.
[on acting] I do a job. I get paid. I go home.
Watching Manhattan (1979), it almost makes you forget all the dog poop on the streets.
There are many roads to good acting. I've been asked repeatedly what the "key" to acting is, and as far as I'm concerned, the main thing is to keep the audience awake.
[finishing her acceptance speech after receiving her Oscar for Reds (1981)] I would like to thank everyone I've ever met.

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