Ann Wedgeworth

Active - 1965 - 2006  |   Born - Jan 21, 1934 in Abilene, Texas, United States  |   Genres - Drama, Comedy, Romance

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Biography by AllMovie

Hailing from Texas, actress Anne Wedgeworth first appeared on Broadway in the 1958 production Make a Million. She began making film appearances playing slightly tarnished golddiggers and seductresses in the early '70s. One of Ms. Wedgeworth's best appearances in this vein was in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), in which she portrays the fading "baseball groupie" who hopes to leech off dying ballplayer Robert De Niro. For her performance as Joyce Rissley in 1977's Citizen's Band (aka Handle with Care), Wedgeworth won the National Society of Film Critics award. Wedgeworth's TV credits include the same role on two separate '70s soap operas: she was Lahoma Vane Lucas on both Another World and its spin-off, Somerset. She also had recurring roles on the weekly series Three's Company (appearing in the 1979-80 season as neighbor Lana Shields) and 1982's Filthy Rich (as Bootsie). Ann Wedgeworth came full circle when she played a supporting role in another "dead baseball player" opus, the made-for-cable Cooperstown (1993).

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Factsheet

  • Attended high school in Texas with Jayne Mansfield.
  • Made her Broadway debut in the play Make a Million in 1958.
  • Established herself on the daytime soap opera Another World and its spinoff, Somerset, in the late 1960s and early '70s. 
  • Played the recurring role of Lana, an older neighbor with an interest in Jack Tripper, during season 4 of Three's Company.
  • Co-starred with ex-husband Rip Torn in Birch Interval in 1976, 15 years after they had divorced.