Mildred Dunnock

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Dunnock graduated from Western High School. She developed an interest in theater while she was a student at Goucher College where she was a member of Alpha Phi sorority and the Agora dramatic society. After graduating, she taught English at Friends School of Baltimore and helped with productions of plays there.

While teaching school in New York, she earned her Master of Arts degree at Columbia University and acted in a play while she was there. She also studied at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg, Robert Lewis and Elia Kazan. After roles in Broadway productions of Life Begins (1932) and The Hill Between (1938), Dunnock won praise for her performance as a Welsh school teacher in The Corn is Green in 1940 — a role that she performed while she was a full-time teacher at Brearley School. The 1945 film version marked her screen debut. During the 1940s she performed mainly on stage, in such dramas as Another Part of the Forest (1946) and Death of a Salesman (1949) and in the musical Lute Song (1946). She also performed in regional theatrical productions, including those of the Long Wharf Theatre and the Yale Repertory Theatre.

In 1947, she became a founding member of the Actors Studio.

Dunnock reprised her role as Linda Loman, Willy's wife, in the 1951 film version of Death of a Salesman. She originated the role of Big Mama on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, although she lost the film role to Judith Anderson. Several of her films include The Trouble with Harry (1955), Love Me Tender (1956), Baby Doll (1956), Peyton Place (1957), The Nun's Story (1959), Butterfield 8 (1960), Something Wild (1961) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). She was the woman in the wheelchair pushed down a flight of stairs to her death by the psychotic villain Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in Kiss of Death (1947). She also appeared in guest roles on numerous TV series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Ponds Theater, and, later in her career, several television movies.

Dunnock was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for Death of a Salesman in 1951, and for Baby Doll in 1956. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for Baby Doll, as well as Viva Zapata! in 1952 and Peyton Place in 1957.

In 1960 she appeared in the play The Crystal Heart at the East 74th Street Theater with Virginia Vestoff (in her first professional appearance), with top seats selling for $4.96 ($51 in current dollar terms).

In 1966, she played Linda Loman for the third time in the television film adaptation of Death of a Salesman, alongside her original Broadway co-star, Lee J. Cobb. This earned Dunnock a nomination for an Emmy Award in 1967, in the category of Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama.

Her final film was The Pick-up Artist (1987), which starred Robert Downey Jr. and Molly Ringwald.

Dunnock has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures, at 6613 Hollywood Boulevard. She is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, which she was inducted into in 1983.