Mary Lynn Carlin (née Reynolds) is an American retired actress. For her debut role in the 1968 John Cassavetes film Faces, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first nonprofessional performer to receive an Oscar nomination. She was later nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Milos Forman’s Taking Off (1971).
Lynn Carlin | |
|---|---|
Lynn Carlin in 1976 | |
| Born | Mary Lynn Reynolds January 31, 1938[1] Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1968–1987 |
| Spouses | Peter Hall
(m. 1958; div. 1960)Ed Carlin
(m. 1963; div. 1974)John Wolfe
(m. 1983; died 1999) |
| Children | 2, including Dan Carlin |
Life and career
editLynn Carlin was born as Mary Lynn Reynolds on 31 January 1938,[1] in Los Angeles, the daughter of socialite Muriel Elizabeth (née Ansley) and 'Larry Reynolds' (Laurence Kramer).[2][3] Her father was a Hollywood business manager, and her mother worked in radio. She grew up in Laguna Beach.[4]
Carlin made her stage debut in The Women at the Laguna Beach Playhouse.[5][6]
Carlin, Robert Altman's[7] secretary-turned-actress,[8][9] earned her only Academy Award nomination in 1968 for her first feature role as John Marley's suicidal wife Maria in John Cassavetes' Faces (1968). She is the first nonprofessional to be nominated for an Academy Award.[10] She subsequently played wives and mothers before retiring in 1987. She next appeared in ...tick...tick...tick... (1970) as George Kennedy's ambitious, henpecking wife and returned to offbeat roles as Buck Henry's wife, searching for her missing daughter amid the hippies and drug culture of 1970s New York in Miloš Forman's Taking Off (1971).[11] The same year, she appeared in Blake Edwards' western Wild Rovers. In 1972, she was re-teamed with John Marley, again as his wife, in Bob Clark's horror film Deathdream, and her other film roles include the British drama film Baxter! (1973) as the mother of Scott Jacoby, the 1979 comedy French Postcards, and the 1982 horror film Superstition.
Carlin is perhaps best remembered as the parent of growing teen Lance Kerwin in the TV-movie James at 15 (1977) and its subsequent spin-off James at 16. In 1977, she was cast in several episodes of The Waltons as a nurse who marries the county sheriff. She appeared in the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man Book II, and she had a recurring role on the short-lived television series Strike Force (1981–1982). She appeared in several other TV movies, including Silent Night, Lonely Night. In 1972, she appeared in an episode of Gunsmoke titled "Milligan" as the wife of Harry Morgan's character.
In 1971, she played the mother of teenage father Desi Arnaz Jr. in Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones. The same year, she played Peter Falk's wife in A Step Out of Line. In 1974, she appeared in both Terror on the 40th Floor and The Morning After. She played the wife of Sam Houston in the biopic The Honorable Sam Houston in 1975. The following year, she played Eve Plumb's mother in Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway.
In her last television movie, she played the mother of three young men manipulated into breaking their father (Robert Mitchum) out of jail in A Killer in the Family (1983). Her last acting role was a guest appearance on Murder, She Wrote in 1987 as the wife of the episode's murder victim, played by Cornel Wilde.
Personal life
editCarlin was married to Peter Hall from 1958 until their divorce in 1960. Her second marriage was to Edward Carlin, with whom she had two children. This union (1963–74) also ended in divorce. Her oldest child is podcaster/journalist Dan Carlin. She was married to John Wolfe[12] from 1983 until his death in 1999.[13]
Filmography
editFilms
edit- Faces (1968) - Maria
- ...tick...tick...tick... (1970) - Julia Little
- A Step Out of Line (1971) - Linda Connors
- Taking Off (1971) - Lynn Tyne
- Wild Rovers (1971) - Sada Billings
- Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971) - Mrs. Jones
- Baxter! (1973) - Scott Jacoby mother
- The Morning After (1974) - Fran Lester
- Deathdream (1974) - Christine Brooks
- Terror on the 40th Floor (1974) - Lee Parker
- The Honorable Sam Houston (1975) - Margaret Houston
- The Lives of Jenny Dolan (1975) - Nancy Royce
- Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976) - Dawn's Mother
- French Postcards (1979) - Mrs. Weber
- Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - Nell (voice)
- The Kid from Nowhere (1982) - Molly Edward
- Superstition (1982) - Melinda Leahy
- A Killer in the Family (1983) - Dorothy Tison
TV series
edit- Cannon (1971) - Helen Kern
- Hawaii Five-O (1973) - Maxine Taylor
- Rich Man, Poor Man Book II (1976) - Sarah Hunt
- The Waltons (1975-1977) - Sara Griffith Bridges/Eula Mae
- James at 15 (1977-1978) - Meg Hunter
- Strike Force (1981) - Lorraine Klein
Awards and nominations
edit| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | 3rd National Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actress | Faces | Nominated |
| 41st Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
| 1972 | 25th British Academy Film Awards | Best Actress in a Leading Role | Taking Off | Nominated |
References
edit- ^ a b "Mary Lynn Reynolds, born on January 31, 1938 in Los Angeles County, California". CaliforniaBirthIndex.org. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
- ^ "Lynn Carlin". Biographical Summaries of Notable People. myheritage.com. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ Muriel Reynolds LA Times obituary accessed 1-2-2016
- ^ Kleiner, Dick (July 5, 1969). "Lynn Carlin Nervous in Second Film Role". Cumberland Evening Times. Maryland, Cumberland. Newspaper Enterprise. p. 9. Retrieved January 17, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Lynn Carlin". female.com.au. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ "Lynn Carlin".
- ^ Ebert, Roger (December 19, 1968). "'Faces' movie review & film summary (1968)". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
- ^ Charity, Tom (26 June 2012). John Cassavetes: Lifeworks. Omnibus Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-85712-841-6.
... Lynn Carlin, a secretary who worked for another young, frustrated film-maker in the adjacent office at Screen Gems, Robert Altman. Carlin had done a little ...
- ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (July 13, 2001). "Faces". jonathanrosenbaum.net. Chicago Reader. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
- ^ Harford, Margaret (April 8, 1969). "Lynn Carlin: Memo Taker May Take Home an Oscar". The Los Angeles Times. California, Los Angeles. p. Part IV - 1. Retrieved January 17, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Klemesrud, Judy (April 18, 1971). "Movies". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
WHAT kind of woman would go on as the very last guest on the David Frost show, where she barely gets to utter a peep, and not let it bother her; would, at the age of 33, take movie roles that make people think she is in her 40's and not let it bother her; would let herself get typecast as a hysterical suburban housewife and not let it bother her; and would play a partially nude scene— even though she has one inverted nip ple—and not let it bother her? (Well, not much, anyway.)
- ^ "Looking into the LA radio connection to Carney's restaurant". Daily News. 9 May 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ "John M. Wolfe; Founded Carney's Restaurants". Los Angeles Times. 8 April 1999. Retrieved 23 October 2023.