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Oscar-winning American actress Maureen Stapleton, who traded early success in the theater into a highly successful film career in movies like "Reds" and "Cocoon," has died. She was 80.
Stapleton died at around 7:30 am (1230 GMT) on Monday at her home in Lenox, Massachusetts of complications arising from a respiratory illness, said Ned Roche, head of the local Roche Funeral Home.
Born to an Irish Catholic family, Stapleton began acting in theater after finishing high school.
She came to New York City in 1943 and several years later enrolled in Lee Strasberg's famed Actor's Studio, where her contemporaries included Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando.
She made her Broadway debut in 1946 but it was her performance in Tennessee Williams' "The Rose Tattoo" in 1951 that brought her recognition and a Tony award, and began a long and fruitful connection with that particular playwright's work.
She won a second Tony award for her portrayal of an alcoholic singer in Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread Lady" in 1970.
That same year, she was nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actress for "Airport" as she embarked on a film career that would bring her a much larger audience.
There was another Oscar nomination, for supporting actress, for her work in Woody Allen's "Interiors" in 1978 and she finally won the same category in 1981, playing the anarchist Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's "Reds."
Her other film credits included "Cocoon" (1985) and its sequel, and "Nuts" (1987), in which she played Barbra Streisand's mother.
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AFPEntertainment-US-film-Stapleton
AFP 131953 GMT 03 06
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