Lois Nettleton papers

Lois Nettleton was an actress from the Chicago area who had a long and varied career in theater, television and film from 1949 to 2006. She was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1927. She attended the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago. She later moved to New York and attended the Actors Studio. In 1948, she won the Miss Chicago pageant and went on to compete in the Miss America pageant the same year. Her first professional acting role was her Broadway debut in "The Biggest Thief in Town" in 1949. From there, she went on to have an active theater career in the 1950s. . She continued to work in theater throughout her career, although her later roles tended more towards film and television. She was most prolific in television roles throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Highlights of her career included her performances as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1970), and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar named Desire (1973). She won a number of awards throughout her career, including two Emmys for The American Woman: Portraits of Courage (1976) and Insight: A Gun for Mandy(1982-1983). In 1977, she became the first female actor to be honored by the Masquers Club. Her last role was a TV movie, The Christmas Card in 2006 for which she won a CAMIE award. Lois Nettleton died on January 18, 2008.