Remick, Lee

▪ American actress

born Dec. 14, 1935, Quincy, Mass., U.S.

died July 2, 1991, Los Angeles, Calif.

      American actress, known especially for portrayals of sensual, often erotic women in crisis.

      Remick was raised by her actress-mother Patricia Remick (divorced) in New York City, attended an exclusive private school, and studied dancing. In 1952 she made her professional acting debut in summer stock in Hyannis, Mass. She made her Broadway stage debut in Be Your Age (1953) and her Hollywood film debut in A Face in the Crowd (1957). Her role as a flirtatious wife in The Long, Hot Summer (1958) established her as a star and was followed by such notable roles as a rape victim in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), a heavy-drinking rape victim in Sanctuary (1959), an uneducated, widowed mother in Wild River (1960), and a housewife turned alcoholic in Days of Wine and Roses (1963). Her Broadway stage role in Wait Until Dark (1966) as a blind woman being terrorized by three criminals in her own home earned her a Tony award nomination.

      After returning to film in the role of a nymphomaniac in The Detective (1968), Remick appeared as the adoptive mother of a devil-child in The Omen (1976), as a secret agent in Telefon (1977), and as naive American in The Europeans (1979). During the 1970s and '80s Remick played various roles in many television movies and miniseries, including the title role in Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill (1975), the “other woman” Kay Summersby in Ike: The War Years (1979), and the adulteress in The Letter (1982).

      Remick battled kidney and lung cancer for two years before her death.

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