Hope Lange(1933-2003)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
One of the most natural beauties of the 1960s with a gentle voice and
personality to match, blonde Hope Lange was born in Redding Ridge,
Connecticut, and performed on stage from the age of nine. She studied
both drama and dance under Martha Graham,
did some modeling and then worked in stock companies and on television,
dancing on Jackie Gleason shows.
She acted in just a handful of motion pictures, garnering an Academy
Award nomination for one, and later won two Emmys for her best-loved
role on television.
Hope was one of four children of an actress mother, upon whose
shoulders fell the responsibility of supporting the family after the
premature death of her father, the composer/arranger John Lange, at age 61 in
1942. Along with her siblings, she worked as a waitress in the
family's Greenwich Village restaurant,
'Minette's of Washington
Square'. By chance, she made the acquaintance of Eleanor Roosevelt,
who owned an apartment in the village, and ended up walking the former
First Lady's prized Scotch terrier, Fala. This got her photo into a
newspaper, which, in turn, led to an advertising job with pictures on
the June 1949 cover of 'Radio-Electronics', sporting the futuristic red 'Man
from Mars' pith helmet with built-in radio. Still just fifteen years
old, Hope spent the next two years at college in Oregon and New York,
then found her first job in television and was subsequently signed by
20th Century-Fox.
After successful screen tests, Lange made her motion picture
debut in Bus Stop (1956) (Barbara Eden
was one of her competitors for the part) opposite
Marilyn Monroe and husband-to-be
Don Murray. Even the great Marilyn
was said to have felt a little threatened by another blonde who was not
only beautiful but five years younger and could act as well. After
playing the wife of the titular character in
The True Story of Jesse James (1957),
a picture which she later referred to as a 'turkey', Lange was cast
as the fragile Selena Cross in the melodramatic but good-looking soap
opera Peyton Place (1957). This
movie was regarded as risqué and controversial at the time, dealing
with previously taboo subjects such as rape and incest. For her part of
the abused girl, raped by her alcoholic stepfather, whom she finally
kills in self-defense, Lange received an Academy Award nomination.
The glossy production values of
The Best of Everything (1959),
a film about ambitious New York career women working in a magazine
publishing house, overshadowed most of the character development.
However, Lange (who was billed above the established star
Joan Crawford) was dealt with most
favorably by the critics. According to
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times:
"Simply because she has the most to do, and does it gracefully, Miss
Lange comes off best' (October 9,1959). The following decade was to be
a period of mixed fortunes for Hope Lange.
In 1961, Lange began a long-standing relationship with fellow actor
Glenn Ford and left husband
Don Murray. Ford, in his dual role of
star and associate producer, put pressure on director
Frank Capra to cast Lange as the female
lead in his next motion picture, the whimsical
Damon Runyon-inspired comedy
Pocketful of Miracles (1961),
even though Shirley Jones had
already been assigned to the role. Capra reluctantly gave
way, though Hope Lange was likely miscast as the wisecracking showgirl.
Lange again co-starred with Ford in the glossy romantic melodrama
Love Is a Ball (1963), wherein acting took a back seat to sumptuous costumes and the French Riviera. On
the negative side of the ledger, Lange had unsuccessfully auditioned
for the part of Maria in
West Side Story (1961), which
ultimately went to Natalie Wood.
Instead, she was cast as Elvis Presley's
psychiatrist in
Wild in the Country (1961),
which was generally panned by critics, except for Variety singling out
her performance above the rest as
'intelligent'
and 'sensitive'. Lange was also slated to appear as love interest to George Peppard
in
How the West Was Won (1962),
but her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.
Turning increasingly towards television, Hope Lange achieved her most
lasting fame as the popular star of the amiable sitcom
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968) as a widow who (with two kids and a housekeeper) takes up residence in
a quaint cottage also inhabited by the cantankerous ghost of a sea
captain (Edward Mulhare). The show ran
for three seasons and Lange won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding
Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy
Series (1969 and 1970). In her only other recurring TV role, she played
Dick Van Dyke's wife in
The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971),
but with less rewarding results. She received good notices for
portraying Charles Bronson's
dying wife, the victim of the original
Death Wish (1974) and its raison
d'etre. She then acted primarily on television, with few exceptions, including Blue Velvet (1986) and
Clear and Present Danger (1994) as a U.S. senator. In 1977, she replaced Tony Award-winning
Ellen Burstyn in the starring role of
Doris in 'Same Time, Next Year' on Broadway.
In the early '90s, Lange underwent surgery for a brain tumour. While
the operation was successful, her health remained precarious and she
limited her screen appearances, retiring altogether in 1998. She died
of an intestinal infection in December 2003, aged 70.
personality to match, blonde Hope Lange was born in Redding Ridge,
Connecticut, and performed on stage from the age of nine. She studied
both drama and dance under Martha Graham,
did some modeling and then worked in stock companies and on television,
dancing on Jackie Gleason shows.
She acted in just a handful of motion pictures, garnering an Academy
Award nomination for one, and later won two Emmys for her best-loved
role on television.
Hope was one of four children of an actress mother, upon whose
shoulders fell the responsibility of supporting the family after the
premature death of her father, the composer/arranger John Lange, at age 61 in
1942. Along with her siblings, she worked as a waitress in the
family's Greenwich Village restaurant,
'Minette's of Washington
Square'. By chance, she made the acquaintance of Eleanor Roosevelt,
who owned an apartment in the village, and ended up walking the former
First Lady's prized Scotch terrier, Fala. This got her photo into a
newspaper, which, in turn, led to an advertising job with pictures on
the June 1949 cover of 'Radio-Electronics', sporting the futuristic red 'Man
from Mars' pith helmet with built-in radio. Still just fifteen years
old, Hope spent the next two years at college in Oregon and New York,
then found her first job in television and was subsequently signed by
20th Century-Fox.
After successful screen tests, Lange made her motion picture
debut in Bus Stop (1956) (Barbara Eden
was one of her competitors for the part) opposite
Marilyn Monroe and husband-to-be
Don Murray. Even the great Marilyn
was said to have felt a little threatened by another blonde who was not
only beautiful but five years younger and could act as well. After
playing the wife of the titular character in
The True Story of Jesse James (1957),
a picture which she later referred to as a 'turkey', Lange was cast
as the fragile Selena Cross in the melodramatic but good-looking soap
opera Peyton Place (1957). This
movie was regarded as risqué and controversial at the time, dealing
with previously taboo subjects such as rape and incest. For her part of
the abused girl, raped by her alcoholic stepfather, whom she finally
kills in self-defense, Lange received an Academy Award nomination.
The glossy production values of
The Best of Everything (1959),
a film about ambitious New York career women working in a magazine
publishing house, overshadowed most of the character development.
However, Lange (who was billed above the established star
Joan Crawford) was dealt with most
favorably by the critics. According to
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times:
"Simply because she has the most to do, and does it gracefully, Miss
Lange comes off best' (October 9,1959). The following decade was to be
a period of mixed fortunes for Hope Lange.
In 1961, Lange began a long-standing relationship with fellow actor
Glenn Ford and left husband
Don Murray. Ford, in his dual role of
star and associate producer, put pressure on director
Frank Capra to cast Lange as the female
lead in his next motion picture, the whimsical
Damon Runyon-inspired comedy
Pocketful of Miracles (1961),
even though Shirley Jones had
already been assigned to the role. Capra reluctantly gave
way, though Hope Lange was likely miscast as the wisecracking showgirl.
Lange again co-starred with Ford in the glossy romantic melodrama
Love Is a Ball (1963), wherein acting took a back seat to sumptuous costumes and the French Riviera. On
the negative side of the ledger, Lange had unsuccessfully auditioned
for the part of Maria in
West Side Story (1961), which
ultimately went to Natalie Wood.
Instead, she was cast as Elvis Presley's
psychiatrist in
Wild in the Country (1961),
which was generally panned by critics, except for Variety singling out
her performance above the rest as
'intelligent'
and 'sensitive'. Lange was also slated to appear as love interest to George Peppard
in
How the West Was Won (1962),
but her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.
Turning increasingly towards television, Hope Lange achieved her most
lasting fame as the popular star of the amiable sitcom
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968) as a widow who (with two kids and a housekeeper) takes up residence in
a quaint cottage also inhabited by the cantankerous ghost of a sea
captain (Edward Mulhare). The show ran
for three seasons and Lange won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding
Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy
Series (1969 and 1970). In her only other recurring TV role, she played
Dick Van Dyke's wife in
The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971),
but with less rewarding results. She received good notices for
portraying Charles Bronson's
dying wife, the victim of the original
Death Wish (1974) and its raison
d'etre. She then acted primarily on television, with few exceptions, including Blue Velvet (1986) and
Clear and Present Danger (1994) as a U.S. senator. In 1977, she replaced Tony Award-winning
Ellen Burstyn in the starring role of
Doris in 'Same Time, Next Year' on Broadway.
In the early '90s, Lange underwent surgery for a brain tumour. While
the operation was successful, her health remained precarious and she
limited her screen appearances, retiring altogether in 1998. She died
of an intestinal infection in December 2003, aged 70.