Versatile, award-winning character actress Eileen Heckart, with the lean, horsey face and assured, fervent gait, was born Anna Eileen Stark on March 29, 1919 in Columbus, Ohio, an only child. She lived with her mother after her parents separated when she was 2. Her childhood was an acutely unhappy one. Her mother, an alcoholic, was married five times, and her stern grandmother, whom Eileen was often shuttled off to stay with, was physically abusive. To survive, Eileen escaped into the joy and imaginary world of movies as an adolescent.
Somehow she managed to attend and graduate from Ohio State University in 1942 with a degree in English. That same year she married John Harrison Yankee Jr., an insurance broker. They had three sons in a union that lasted 53 years, unusual for a feisty, independent lady of show business. While her husband was off to the war having joined the Navy, Eileen moved to New York and toiled in a number of day jobs while trying to jump start a career in acting. Beginning in summer stock, Eileen took classes at the American Theatre Wing and apprenticed in a number of obscure plays or revues such as "Tinker's Dam" (1943) and "Musical Moment" (1943).
Following extensive work on the NY stage, which included her Broadway debut as an understudy and eventual replacement in "The Voice of the Turtle" (1945), she advanced to Broadway and live television character notoriety. Her first big break was under the Broadway lights as the arch, lonely schoolteacher in William Inge's "Picnic," which earned her the Outer Critic's Circle and Theatre World awards in 1953. Soon she was in demand as flinty, overwrought, down-to-earth or wise-to-the-bone old gals who, more than not, lived of a life of drudgery. Later award-worthy Broadway hits would include "The Bad Seed" (which earned her the Donaldson award), "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (Tony-nom), "Invitation to a March" (Tony-nom), "Barefoot in the Park" and "Butterflies Are Free" (Tony-nom). Intermixed were live performances on TV for such prestigious programming as "Goodyear Television Playhouse," "Kraft Television Theatre," "Studio One," "Suspense," "The Alcoa Hour," and "Playhouse 90."
Heckart was a dominant yet only intermittent force in films, making her debut in the so-so Miracle in the Rain (1956) featured as Jane Wyman's confidante. Although greatly disappointed losing the bid to recreate her Broadway role in "Picnic" (Rosalind Russell did the part), she did receive the satisfaction of transferring her stage role as the despairing, drunken mom whose son falls victim to young Patty McCormack's malevolent mischief in The Bad Seed (1956). For this she copped both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. during this period she fell into a number of dowdy matrons, dour moms and matter-of-fact gal friends with flashy roles in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Bus Stop (1956), Hot Spell (1958) and Heller in Pink Tights (1958). She was pregnant with her third child when the film version of her Broadway hit The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) started rolling and Angela Lansbury replaced her.
For the most of the 60s she was trading off TV (guest parts on "Ben Casey," "Dr. Kildare," "The F.B.I.," "The Defenders") with roles on the stage ("Pal Joey," "Barefoot in the Park," "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running"). She was finally rewarded on film as blind Edward Albert's busybody mom in the welterweight comedy Butterflies Are Free (1972), netting the Academy Award for "Best Supporting Actress." It was a role she had played on Broadway.
The Oscar did not bring her the pick of the litter roles afforded to some so fortunate, but the veteran continued on in all three mediums. While not fond of sitcom work, she won Emmy-style for her guest work on such shows as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Love & War," "Ellen," and "Cybill," and was part of her own short-lived ensemble series as one of "The 5 Mrs. Buchanans" (1994). She also put together a one-woman tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt.
Strangely enough, winning the Tony award eclipsed her during her long, eventful career, but the committee made up for the oversight in 2000 by awarding her a 'special' Tony for her "excellence in theater." It came right after her last theatre success as an Alzheimer's patient in "The Waverly Gallery" in 2000. In retrospect it was none too soon for Ms. Heckart, who worked nearly until the end, was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away on the last day of 2001. She was 82.