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Sandy Dennis was a distinctive actress with a flighty demeanor who enjoyed popularity during the '60s and early '70s. The Nebraska-born Dennis began her career in local stock companies, then studied at New York's Actors' Studio, where she embraced method acting. She debuted onscreen in Splendor in the Grass (1961) with Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty. On Broadway, she won two Tony Awards in successive years, for A Thousand Clowns (1963) and Any Wednesday (1964). For her second screen performance, as George Segal's academic wife in the Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Dennis won the "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar. She went on to get leads and co-starring roles in a number of films, but remained primarily a stage actress; after 1971 her film work was sporadic. She died of cancer in 1992.