Elizabeth Wilson was especially good at women who expected to be listened to. We value her firm, distinctive supporting work in comedy and drama, while recognising that her authority could not compensate for thin plotting.
Fi1m perspective
Wilson often appears as a mother or an officious employee, someone with a clear idea of how other people ought to behave. She makes those women worth attending to, even when they are not the people we came to see. Her film breakthrough, Patterns (1956), grew out of her early television work; later came Mrs Braddock in The Graduate (1967) and secretary Roz Keith in 9 to 5 (1980). Across four films with director Mike Nichols and work elsewhere, she proved equally useful in comedy and drama.
In Barry Sonnenfeld's The Addams Family (1991), her Abigail Craven is a con-artist mother figure, a broad comic use of that familiar authority. She belongs in a cast that makes the film worth an evening, although Anjelica Huston and Raúl Juliá are its chief pleasures. The difficulty is the writing: Larry Wilson and Caroline Thompson provide individual jokes without enough story to keep us interested between them. Editors Dede Allen and Jim Miller leave room for the one-liners, but cannot disguise how little connects the comic highlights.
Quiz Show (1994) gives us the quieter side of her work as Dorothy Van Doren, mother of Ralph Fiennes's character. Robert Redford's drama is the stronger film, allowing its performances to complicate our judgement of the people caught up in television fraud. We were troubled by how readily some people are believed, because the film makes that unequal treatment central to the scandal. The film runs a little long; the care taken with the people is why we forgive it.
We would not turn the size of her parts into a complaint about her acting. Supporting work this dependable is worth noticing without pretending that it can make a weak story hold together. Start with Quiz Show for the more satisfying evening, then try The Addams Family if a few good jokes will excuse some waiting around.
Biography
Elizabeth Wilson (1921–2015) was an American actress whose career in film, television and theatre spanned nearly seven decades. She trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
She appeared in films including The Birds (1963), The Graduate (1967), 9 to 5 (1980), The Addams Family (1991) as Abigail Craven, and Quiz Show (1994) as Dorothy Van Doren. On stage she made her Broadway debut in Picnic (1953) and won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Sticks and Bones (1972). She received Emmy and BAFTA nominations and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2006.
