Shelley Long
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| Shelley Long | ||||||||||
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| Birth name | Shelley Lee Long | |||||||||
| Born | August 23 1949 Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States | |||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Bruce Tyson (1981-2004) | |||||||||
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Shelley Lee Long (born August 23, 1949) is a Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award-winning American film, stage and television dramatic and comedic actress.
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[edit] Private life
[edit] Early life
Long was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana to Evandine, a school teacher, and Leland Long, who worked in the rubber industry before becoming a teacher.[1] She was active on her high school speech team, and won the National Championship in Original Oratory. She delivered a speech on the need for sex education in high school. After graduating from South Side High School in Fort Wayne, she studied drama at Northwestern University, but left before graduating to pursue a career in acting and modelling.
[edit] Personal life
In 1979, on a blind date, Long met securities broker Bruce Tyson whom she married in October 1981. This was her second marriage. She gave birth to her only child, her daughter Juliana on March 27, 1985. In 2004, after 23 years of marriage, Bruce Tyson filed for divorce.
[edit] Career
In Chicago, she joined The Second City comedy troupe and in 1975, she began writing, producing, and co-hosting the television program Sorting It Out. The local NBC broadcast went on to win three Emmy Awards for Best Entertainment Show. Her first notable role came in the 1979 television movie The Cracker Factory, in which she portrayed a psychiatric inmate opposite Natalie Wood. The following year she appeared in A Small Circle of Friends with Brad Davis and Karen Allen. The film about social unrest at Harvard University during the 1960s was a critical success. In 1981, she played the role of Tala in the Ringo Starr film Caveman, starring opposite Dennis Quaid.
She was also featured in the Henry Winkler comedy Night Shift, about life working on the night shift at a city morgue, and starred with Tom Cruise in the 1983 comedy film Losin' It.
Although she had starred in successful feature films, Shelly Long became a household name and famous as the character Diane Chambers in the long running and successful television show Cheers. The show was slow to capture an audience but eventually became one of the most popular shows on television and she became a most sought after actress. In 1984, Long was nominated for a Best Leading Actress Golden Globe for her performance in Irreconcilable Differences. She then appeared in a series of comedies, such as The Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks, 1986, Outrageous Fortune with Bette Midler and Peter Coyote, 1987 and Hello Again with Corbin Bernsen, 1987.
Amidst much public controversy and public disappointment, and declared by many as a fatal career move but what appeared to be a very personal choice, she left Cheers after Season 5 in 1987. Producers begged her to stay, offering her $400,000 just to stay but long refused,though they said in later interviews they had a feeling she was going to leave the show before she announced it as rumours were in circulation. Reports said that she left because she did not have good relations with her co-stars (who allegedly found her overbearing), and that she wanted to leave television roles for a film career.Long said in later interviews[cheers biography programme] her decision to leave was one of the hardest she ever made in her life and that she loved every minute of working on the show.She also defended the bad position she put producers in by saying she had no idea she could sabotage the show by leaving and that she thought the rest of the cast were capable of going it alone. In a 2003 interview on The Graham Norton Show, Long said that she left for a variety of reasons, the most important of which was her desire to spend more time with her newborn daughter. Her first post-Cheers project was Troop Beverly Hills, where she played a housewife who starts a "Wilderness Girl" troop as a distraction from her divorce proceedings.
Long took several roles in films, such as, Don't Tell Her It's Me and Frozen Assets, that turned out to be commercially unsuccessful. In 1993, she returned to Cheers for its series finale and starred in the short lived sitcom Good Advice with Treat Williams and Teri Garr, but the show was cancelled after two seasons. In 1995, she re-appeared as Diane Chambers in an episode of Frasier
Long achieved success when she appeared as Carol Brady in the hit film The Brady Bunch Movie, a campy take on the television show The Brady Bunch. In 1996, she reprised her role as Carol Brady in A Very Brady Sequel, which had more modest success.
A series of ventures followed such as the made for TV remake of Freaky Friday, and the family sitcom Kelly Kelly, which only lasted for a few episodes on The WB Television Network.
In 2000, Long took a supporting role in the Richard Gere film, Dr. T and the Women. In 2002 she reprised her role as Carol Brady in The Brady Bunch in the White House. In 2005 she played Mitzi Robinson in independent film Trust Me. In the early and mid 2000s, Long guest starred on several sitcoms such as 8 Simple Rules where she played John Ratzenberger's wife, and Yes, Dear where she and Alan Thicke portrayed a snobby couple interested in buying the house next door to Greg and Kim.
She has also had guest starring roles in many Television shows. In 1997, she played the Wicked Witch of the Beanstalk in the Sabrina, the Teenage Witch second season episode Sabrina and the Beanstalk.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Emmy Award
- 1983 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers
[edit] Emmy Award nominations
- 1984 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers
- 1985 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers
- 1986 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers
[edit] Filmography
- Sorting It Out (1975-1978; TV-series) also writer and producer
- A Small Circle of Friends (1980)
- Caveman (1981)
- Night Shift (1982)
- Cheers (1982-1987, 1993; TV-series)
- Losin' It (1983)
- Irreconcilable Differences (1984)
- The Money Pit (1986)
- Outrageous Fortune (1987)
- Hello Again (1987)
- Troop Beverly Hills (1989)
- Don't Tell Her It's Me (1990)
- Frozen Assets (1992)
- The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)
- Freaky Friday (1995; TV-movie)
- Susie Q (1996)
- A Very Brady Sequel (1996)
- Dr. T & the Women (2000)
- The Brady Bunch in the White House (2002; TV-movie)
- The Santa Trap (2002; TV-movie)
- The Last Guy on Earth (2006) (post production)
- Honeymoon with Mom (2006)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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