Eleanor Wilson on AllMovie

Though her film credits are slim, Tony-nominated actress Eleanor Wilson molded a successful career on Broadway in addition to being a noted contributor to the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge, MA. A native of Chester, PA, who majored in chemistry at Hollins College before studying at Boston's Museum of Fine Art and New York's New School for Social Research, Wilson may have seemed an unlikely candidate for a career on-stage before shifting her focus to acting at Pennsylvania's Hedgrow Theater. Following her Broadway debut in Watch on the Rhine, Wilson would continue to appear both on and off-Broadway in numerous productions throughout the 1950s. One of the first actresses to perform for troops during World War II, Wilson's later role as the landlady in Alice's Restaurant (1969) endeared the actress to those unfortunate enough to miss her numerous stage performances. Her sole other screen credit came as the mother of Warren Beatty's character in the 1981 film Reds. Retiring in 1984 to concentrate on mathematical abstract paintings, Eleanor Wilson died of lung cancer in her Williamstown, MA, home in May 2002. She was 93.