---
name: "Maureen Stapleton"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/maureen-stapleton"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "21 June 1925"
died: "13 March 2006"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 66
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-20T06:17:10.516488+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Maureen Stapleton

Actor. Born 21 June 1925 in Troy, New York, United States. Died 13 March 2006.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 21 June 1925, Troy, New York, United States
- **Died:** 13 March 2006
- **Active:** 1970–1981
- **Also known as:** Lois Maureen Stapleton
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 3 nominated)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 66, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1970s 56 (1), 1980s 77 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_Stapleton, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q230841, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0822972/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/21151

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Reds*](https://film.one/film/reds.md) (77)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Maureen Stapleton

> Maureen Stapleton did not do glamour and did not do tricks. She played plain, unfooled women in other people's films and made them look like people who had wandered in off the street. Our one review, *Reds*, is enough to show how.

In *Reds* (1981) nearly everyone argues. Warren Beatty's John Reed cannot stop talking, Paul Sorvino's Louis Fraina argues at the top of his voice, and the committees outlast them all. Maureen Stapleton's Emma Goldman is gruff and unfooled, and she is the one character in the drama who talks the way the film's real old witnesses talk in the interviews between scenes: no speeches, no illusions, only what happened and what it cost. We relaxed whenever she appeared. For three and a quarter hours the film goes round in circles, and for her few minutes it stops and listens to somebody who has already been round them.

She came to films from the stage, and the stage kept most of her. She was on Broadway from 1946, in *The Playboy of the Western World*, and made her name as Serafina in Tennessee Williams's *The Rose Tattoo* (1951), a part Williams had wanted for Anna Magnani; Neil Simon later wrote *The Gingerbread Lady* (1971) for her. The films fitted round that. Her first was *Lonelyhearts* (1958), as Fay Doyle; then Inez Guerrero in *Airport* (1970), Pearl in Woody Allen's *Interiors* (1978), Goldman for Beatty, and later *Cocoon* (1985) and *Nuts* (1987). She kept working until 2003.

What she did was make acting disappear. She had no vanity about the camera and no interest in being liked by it. She played plain women in other people's stories and gave each of them the same flat, exact truthfulness, so that you could not see where the person ended and the part began. That is also why she was rarely asked to carry a film. A character actress who is believed every time is the most useful thing a picture can have and the last thing a studio thinks of building one round. She knew it and did not mind: "I never had that problem. People looked at me on stage and said, 'Jesus, that broad better be able to act.'"

We have reviewed her only once, and that is a fair reflection of the career: a minute here, a scene there, in films that belong to somebody else. Start with *Reds*, and watch not for what she does but for how little she needs to do while the men around her work so hard.

## Biography

Maureen Stapleton (also credited as Lois Maureen Stapleton) was an American actress. Born in Troy, New York, on 21 June 1925, she died on 13 March 2006. She made her Broadway debut in 1946 and won Tony Awards for *The Rose Tattoo* (1951) and *The Gingerbread Lady* (1971).

Stapleton received Academy Award nominations for *Lonelyhearts* (1958), *Airport* (1970) and *Interiors* (1978), winning for her role as Emma Goldman in *Reds* (1981). She also won a Golden Globe Award for *Airport* and a BAFTA Award for *Reds*, and is one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting with an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her other film credits include *Cocoon* (1985), *The Money Pit* (1986) and *Johnny Dangerously* (1984).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Reds* (1981), Fi1m 77, as Emma Goldman — [page](https://film.one/film/reds.md)
- *Airport* (1970), Fi1m 56, as Inez Guerrero — [page](https://film.one/film/airport.md)

## Complete filmography (67)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Wilbur Falls* (1998), as Wilbur Falls High Secretary
- *Snow Cat* (1998), as Grandma (voice)
- *Addicted to Love* (1997), as Nana
- *The Last Good Time* (1994), as Ida Cutler
- *Trading Mom* (1994), as Mrs. Cavour, the Gardener
- *Lincoln* (1992), as Sarah Bush Lincoln (voice)
- *Miss Rose White* (1992), as Tanta Perla
- *Passed Away* (1992), as Mary Scanlan
- *Last Wish* (1992), as Ida Rollin
- *B.L. Stryker* (1989), series, as Auntie Sue
- *Liberace: Behind the Music* (1988), as Frances Liberace
- *Doin' Time on Planet Earth* (1988), as Helium Balloon Saleslady
- *Cocoon: The Return* (1988), as Mary Luckett
- *Nuts* (1987), as Rose Kirk
- *Made in Heaven* (1987), as Aunt Lisa
- *Sweet Lorraine* (1987), as Lillian Garber
- *Heartburn* (1986), as Vera
- *The Cosmic Eye* (1986), as Mother Earth (voice)
- *The Money Pit* (1986), as Estelle
- *The Equalizer* (1985), series, as Emmy Rutherford
- *Cocoon* (1985), as Mary Luckett
- *Private Sessions* (1985), as Dr. Liz Bolger
- *Johnny Dangerously* (1984), as Mom
- *America and Lewis Hine* (1984), as Voice
- *Family Secrets* (1984), as Maggie Lukauer
- *Sentimental Journey* (1984), as Ruthie
- *Alice in Wonderland* (1983), as White Queen
- *Little Gloria... Happy at Last* (1982), series, as Nurse Emma Kieslich
- *The Electric Grandmother* (1982), as Grandmother
- *Reds* (1981), as Emma Goldman — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/reds.md)
- *The Fan* (1981), as Belle Goldman
- *On the Right Track* (1981), as Mary the Bag Lady
- *The Gathering, Part II* (1979), as Kate Thornton
- *Letters from Frank* (1979), as Betty Miller
- *The Runner Stumbles* (1979), as Mrs. Shandig
- *Arthur Miller on Home Ground* (1979), Actor
- *Lost and Found* (1979), as Jemmy
- *Interiors* (1978), as Pearl
- *The Gathering* (1977), as Kate
- *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* (1976), as Big Mama
- *Laurence Olivier Presents* (1976), series, as Big Mama
- *A Mother's Tale* (1976), as Narrator
- *Queen of the Stardust Ballroom* (1975), as Bea Asher
- *Voyage to Next* (1974), as Mother Earth (voice)
- *Tell Me Where It Hurts* (1974), as Connie
- *NOVA* (1974), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *A Sunday Dinner* (1974), Actor
- *Tennessee Williams' South* (1973), Actor
- *Dig: A Journey Into Earth* (1972), as Mother (voice)
- *Plaza Suite* (1971), as Karen Nash
- *Summer of '42* (1971), as Hermie's Mother (voice) (uncredited)
- *Great Performances* (1971), series, as White Queen
- *Airport* (1970), as Inez Guerrero — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/film/airport.md)
- *Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall* (1969), as Ruthie Maxwell
- *Trilogy* (1969), as Mary O'Meaghan
- *Bye Bye Birdie* (1963), as Mama Mae Peterson
- *A View from the Bridge* (1962), as Beatrice Carbone
- *The Fugitive Kind* (1960), as Vee Talbot
- *For Whom the Bell Tolls* (1959), as Pilar
- *Lonelyhearts* (1959), as Fay Doyle
- *Naked City* (1958), series, as Abilene Hutchinson Bick, Ruth Callan
- *All the King's Men* (1958), Actor
- *Playhouse 90* (1956), series, as Pilar
- *General Electric Theater* (1953), series, as Ethel
- *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Tanta Perla
- *Studio One* (1948), series, as Rachel Jackson
- *The Philco Television Playhouse* (1948), series, as Daughter, Mrs. Johnson

## Gallery

- ![Maureen Stapleton](https://film.one/media/person/1244230/gallery-d07c11e62bf7.jpg) Maureen Stapleton — Frank Goodman Associates, publicity agency for Mobil Showcase (sponsor was Mobil Oil Company)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Maureen_Stapleton_Queen_of_the_Stardust_Ballroom_1975_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Maureen Stapleton (from the television anthology program The Seven Lively Arts. The presentation is "Blast in Centralia #5".) (1958)](https://film.one/media/person/1244230/gallery-1327de814a27.jpg) Maureen Stapleton (from the television anthology program The Seven Lively Arts. The presentation is "Blast in Centralia #5".) (1958) — CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Maureen_Stapleton_%28Seven_Lively_Arts%2C_1958%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![This is a vintage press photo from (AP), showcasing actress Maureen Stapleton in the play Toys in the Attic in (1960); published and distributed for the purpose](https://film.one/media/person/1244230/gallery-c7989bfd54a1.jpg) This is a vintage press photo from (AP), showcasing actress Maureen Stapleton in the play Toys in the Attic in (1960); published and distributed for the purpose — N/A studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Maureen_Stapleton_-_Toys_in_the_Attic_%281960%3B_front%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Photo of Maureen Stapleton and Don Murray from the 1951 Broadway presentation of The Rose Tattoo.](https://film.one/media/person/1244230/gallery-a74a4ab86f40.jpg) Photo of Maureen Stapleton and Don Murray from the 1951 Broadway presentation of The Rose Tattoo. — Photo by George Karger, Pix, Inc, New York, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Maureen_Stapleton_Don_Murray_The_Rose_Tattoo_1951.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Photo of Jason Robards and Maureen Stapleton from the television anthology program The Seven Lively Arts. The presentation is "Blast in Centralia #5". (1958)](https://film.one/media/person/1244230/gallery-5ba72a432683.jpg) Photo of Jason Robards and Maureen Stapleton from the television anthology program The Seven Lively Arts. The presentation is "Blast in Centralia #5". (1958) — CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Maureen_Stapleton_Jason_Robards_Seven_Lively_Arts_1958.jpg/1280px-Maureen_Stapleton_Jason_Robards_Seven_Lively_Arts_1958.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 1 won, 3 nominated

- 1982: Best Supporting Actress (won), for *Reds*
- 1979: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *Interiors*
- 1971: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *Airport*
- 1959: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *Lonelyhearts*

### Other awards — 3 won, 4 nominated

- Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play 1981: Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (nominated)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play 1971: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (won)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play 1968: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (nominated)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play 1960: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (nominated)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play 1959: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (nominated)
- Theatre World Award 1951: Theatre World Award (won)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play 1951: Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/maureen-stapleton