A Time to Remember with Cloris Leachman
We had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Cloris Leachman at her home in Brentwood, CA. Leachman talks about how she started out in the business and shared some of her other adventures with us. She has such a passion for her profession and it really shows through in this interview.
Cloris Leachman is a veteran American comedian and actress. A versatile personality, she has crafted an incredibly diverse filmography over the course of her career. Leachman began her long journey at a slow pace.
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Born on April 30, 1926, in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., Cloris Leachman was the oldest daughter of Cloris Wallace and Berkeley Claiborne Leachman, who worked at the family-owned Leachman Lumber Company. Of English and Bohemian / Czech descent, she had two younger sisters, Claiborne Cary, who was an actress and singer, and Mary.
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She studied at the Theodore Roosevelt High School before attending Illinois State University to study drama. She later enrolled at the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where she joined the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.
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In 1946, she was crowned Miss Illinois which led to her Miss America appearance. She was a regular performer at the Des Moines Community Playhouse before moving to New York.
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Leachman was granted a scholarship for being a contestant in the Miss America pageantry and later took acting classes under Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in New York. She had previously appeared in a production of ‘Blithe Spirit’ in 1943 at the Northwestern University.
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Upon completion of the course, her background combined with her inherent talent made her venture into the New York theatre.
