Thursday, January 26, 2012

01/26 Host: Robert Conrad, Guest: Marsha Mason

Marsha Mason’s distinguished and vibrant career in film, theater and television has
garnered her generations of fans, four Academy Award nominations, two Golden
Globe Awards, an Emmy and a Grammy nomination. A comedienne at heart with the
soul of a dramaturge, Ms. Mason is equally accomplished on the stage, in front of the
camera or in the director’s chair.

Always in demand, Ms. Mason just wrapped filming her popular reoccurring role on ABC’s hit comedy, The Middle where she plays Patricia Heaton’s zany mother; and this year she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gulf Coast Film Festival and co-starred in the Westport Country Playhouse’s production of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Circle under the direction of Nicholas Martin.

Ms. Mason’s extensive film career includes her iconic roles in 1973’s Cinderella Liberty where she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award and received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama and 1977’s Goodbye Girl for which she
received her second Academy Award Nomination and her second Golden Globe Award. In
1979, she starred in the critically acclaimed films, Promises in the Dark and Chapter Two where
she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe awards. Her role in the
film Only When I Laugh was recognized with a fourth Academy Award nomination. Other
feature film credits include The Cheap Detective, Stella, Max Dugan Returns, Heartbreak
Ridge, Nick of Time and Two Days in the Valley. She can also be seen in 2004’s Bride and Prejudice: A Bollywood Musical, directed by Gurinder Chadha. In 1987, Marsha directed the television film Little Miss Perfect and received the People’s Choice Award for Best Actress in both 1979 and 1981.

Marsha’s many theatre credits include Cyrano de Bergerac, You Can't Take It With You, A Doll’s
House, The Crucible and The Merchant of Venice at ACT in San Francisco. In New York, she
appeared in Norman Mailer's The Deer Park, Israel Horovitz's The Indian Wants the Bronx, Neil
Simon's The Good Doctor and Richard III. She directed Juno's Swans for The Second Stage. She
starred in 1996’s Night of the Iguana and the following year in Michael Cristofer's Amazing
Grace. In 1999, she was reunited with her Goodbye Girl co-star Richard Dreyfuss in Neil
Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue at the Royal Haymarket Theatre in London. The
subsequent recording was nominated for a Grammy in the best comedy category. In 2004,
she appeared in Charles Mee's Wintertime at the McCarter Theatre and the Second Stage in
New York. In 2005, she co-starred with Delta Burke, Christine Ebersole, Frances
Sternhagen, Rebecca Gayheart and Lily Rabe in Steel Magnolias on Broadway. In 2006,
Marsha starred in the Greek Tragedy "Hecuba" at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. She
appeared in 2007’s “A Feminine Ending” at Playwrights Horizons at the Lincoln Center and
starred most recently in the Shakespeare Theater Company’s performance of “All's Well
That Ends Well” in Washington, D.C.

In addition to her film and theater credits, Ms. Mason has guest starred on NBC’s Lipstick
Jungle, Lifetime’s Army Wives, Showtime's Bereft, NBC's Life with Judy Garland, and Hallmark
Channel's The Long Shot. She was featured on six episodes of Frasier for which she was
nominated for an Outstanding Guest Actress Emmy.

While taking a sabbatical from show business to explore other interests, Ms. Mason
purchased a spread of land in the Chama River Valley of Northern New Mexico and
transformed acres of overgrazed, infertile earth into a vibrant oasis of healing herbs and
flowers. Utilizing timeless biodynamic, holistic and organic practices that restore, maintain
and enhance the ecological harmony of the earth, the vitality of her Resting in the River
Farm ™ rewarded Marsha's tireless efforts by yielding an abundance of organic medicinal
herbs and flowers. Ms. Mason formed a holistic products line, Resting in the River where the
herbs and flowers are transformed into beneficial homeopathic and beauty products.

During her time in New Mexico, Ms. Mason authored her bestselling memoir, Journey (Simon
& Schuster 2000) and for several years pursued her long-time passion for car racing by
driving a Mazda RX-7 in SCCA events. Coming full circle to where her entertainment career
began, Ms. Mason is selling her farm in New Mexico and moving back East to focus on
acting.