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Barbara Hershey
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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Actress. (b. Feb. 5, 1948, Hollywood, as Barbara Herzstein.) Beautiful brunette typecast early in her career as a loving flower child, but who matured into a versatile actress who has taken on more varied roles. Hershey, who lived with actor Da- vid Carradine from 1969-75 and changed her name to Barbara Seagull (1973-75), made her first major impression on moviegoers as a promiscuous, manipula- tive teen inLast Summer (1969). She ap- peared inWith Six You Get Eggroll (1968),The Baby Maker (1970), andThe Pursuit of Happiness (1971) before star- ring in the Roger Corman production ofBoxcar Bertha (1972), during which she showed director Martin Scorsese a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis calledThe Last Temptation of Christ Scorsese filmed it some 16 years later, rewarding Hershey with the plum role of Mary Magdalene. During the 1980s her career took an up- swing with her work inThe Stunt Man (1980), The Entity (1983), The Right Stuff (also 1983, as the wife of test pilot Chuck Yeager),The Natural (1984),Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Hoosiers (also 1986, as a mild-mannered schoolteacher),Shy People (as a backwoods matri- arch),Tin Men (both 1987),A World Apart (1988), andBeaches (also 1988, as long-suffering best friend to Bette Midler) to name a few. Shy People and A World Apart earned her unprecedented back-toback Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
Still a beautiful woman, Hershey eschews meaningless, conventional leading-lady roles in favor of offbeat leads and colorful supporting parts. She won an Emmy playing a murderess in the TV movie A Killing in a Small Town (1990). Recent credits include EB> (1990), Defenseless Paris Trout (both 1991), The Public Eye (1992), Swing Kids, Splitting Heirs, Falling Down and A Dangerous Woman (all 1993). |  |
