Cloris Leachman

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Cloris Leachman

Photo credit: 
CBS Television

Cloris Leachman

Date of Birth: April 30, 1926
Date of Passing: January 27, 2021
Birthplace: Des Moines, Iowa
Obituary: Deadline

Cloris Leachman was an American actress.

In a career spanning over seven decades, Leachman won eight Primetime Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy Award, and one Academy Award for her role in The Last Picture Show.

Leachman's longest-running role was the nosy, cunning, self-centered, and manipulative landlady Phyllis Lindstrom on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and its subsequent spin-off series, Phyllis, in the 1970s.

Cloris Leachman was an American actress.

In a career spanning over seven decades, Leachman won eight Primetime Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy Award, and one Academy Award for her role in The Last Picture Show.

Leachman's longest-running role was the nosy, cunning, self-centered, and manipulative landlady Phyllis Lindstrom on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and its subsequent spin-off series, Phyllis, in the 1970s.

She also played the violin-playing Frau Blücher in Mel Brooks' 1974 classic horror spoof Young Frankenstein. She also appeared for Brooks as the evil Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety (1977) and as tavern owner Madame Defarge in History of the World: Part I (1987).

At age 82, Leachman competed on Dancing With the Stars, and just before she turned 90, she accepted the role of Zorya Vechernyaya, the eldest of three sisters who watch over the constellations, on the Starz fantasy drama American Gods. She appeared on television in every decade from the 1940s to the 2010s.

Cloris Leachman was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011.

Leachman died January 27, 2021, in Encinitas, California. She was 94.

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Awards & Nominations

22 Nominations | 8 Emmys | 1 Honor
Hall of Fame - 2011
  • Winner
  • Cloris Leachman, as Honoree
Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series - 2011
  • Nominee
  • Cloris Leachman, as Maw Maw
  • Raising Hope
  • FOX
  • Twentieth Century Fox Television
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie - 2006
  • Nominee
  • Cloris Leachman, as Tarnower's Sister
  • Mrs. Harris
  • HBO
Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series - 2005
Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series - 1998

The Television Academy database lists prime-time Emmy information. Click here to learn more

Cloris Leachman
The cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Cloris Leachman
Jane Lynch, Cloris Leachman
Charlie Sheen and Cloris Leachman attend the FOX Winter TCA All-Star Party
Cloris Leachman attends the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 2011 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Governors Ball
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
Diahann Carroll
Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman at the 20th Hall of Fame Induction Gala
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
Diahann Carroll, Cloris Leachman
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Cloris Leachman
The cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show
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Cloris Leachman
Jane Lynch, Cloris Leachman
Charlie Sheen and Cloris Leachman attend the FOX Winter TCA All-Star Party
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Cloris Leachman attends the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 2011 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Governors Ball
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
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Mathew Imaging
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
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Mathew Imaging
Diahann Carroll
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Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman at the 20th Hall of Fame Induction Gala
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Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
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Mathew Imaging
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
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Mathew Imaging
Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
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Cloris Leachman - 20th Hall Of Fame Induction Gala
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Diahann Carroll, Cloris Leachman
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