Bonnie Bartlett

Bonnie Bartlett
Bartlett at the 39th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1987
Born	(1929-06-20) June 20, 1929 Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, U.S.
Education	Moline High School
Alma mater	Northwestern University
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1951–2017
Spouse	William Daniels ​ (m. 1951)​
Children	3

Bonnie Bartlett Daniels (born June 20, 1929) is an American actress. Her career spans seven decades, with her first major role being on a 1950s daytime drama, Love of Life. Bartlett is known for her role as Grace Snider Edwards on the Michael Landon television series Little House on the Prairie and as Ellen Craig on the medical drama series St. Elsewhere. Her husband, actor William Daniels, played her fictional husband Dr. Mark Craig, and they both won Emmy Awards on the same night in 1986—becoming the first married couple to accomplish the feat since Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1965.

Early life

Bartlett was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, the daughter of Carrie Archer and Elwin Earl Bartlett, and was raised in Moline, Illinois. Her father had been an actor in stock productions across the country, but he gave up acting because her mother wanted to settle in Wisconsin.

In 1947, she graduated from Moline High School. Afterward, she attended Northwestern University, where she earned her degree in 1951.

Career

Bartlett debuted in television playing the heroine Vanessa Dale Raven on the soap opera Love of Life from 1955 to 1959, replacing actress Peggy McCay. She then moved on to night-time roles in the 1960s.

She portrayed Grace Snider Edwards on Little House on the Prairie from 1974–1977 and as Ellen Craig on St. Elsewhere. Each role began as infrequently recurring characters. As Grace Snider Edwards, her character's prominence in the series gradually increased from 1975–1977 following the courtship by and marriage to Isaiah Edwards, played by Victor French. In St. Elsewhere, she took on greater prominence in the 1984–1985 season when the storyline included Ellen and Mark's marital problems. The storyline deepened in the next season when their son was killed and they had to raise their granddaughter. Further difficult material included Ellen and Mark's divorce and slow reconciliation following the loss of their granddaughter in a custody dispute with her birth mother. Bartlett won back-to-back Emmys for her portrayal of Ellen Craig.

For many years, Bartlett accepted only small guest appearances on such programs as The Golden Girls, Gunsmoke, The Rockford Files, and The Waltons. Her acting career picked up considerably in the 1980s, including the TV miniseries V and North and South: Book II, as well as the pivotal role as the mother of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito's characters in the 1988 film, Twins.

Bartlett and husband William Daniels made Emmy Awards history in 1986 when they became the second real-life married couple to win acting awards on the same night. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne first accomplished the feat in 1965. Bartlett and Daniels won for their portrayals of Dr. Mark and Mrs. Ellen Craig on the TV series St. Elsewhere. They later acted together again when she played a college dean who employed her husband's character, in a season of Daniels's ABC series Boy Meets World, and their characters later married.

When St. Elsewhere ended in 1988, Bartlett's career moved to a wide variety of guest-starring appearances, including major roles on Wiseguy as a tough and corrupt matriarch of a sewage business; as Andrea Drey, secretary general of the United Earth Oceans Organization on seaQuest DSV; on Home Improvement as Lucille Taylor (Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor's mother); and on ER as Ruth Katherine Greene. Bartlett had a feature-film role to in Valediction.

Screen Actors Guild

Bartlett and Daniels both served on the Screen Actors Guild's board of directors.

Awards and honors

Bartlett was added to the Hall of Honor at her alma mater, Moline High School in Moline, Illinois.

Personal life

Bartlett met William Daniels, at Northwestern University. They were married on June 30, 1951.

In 1961, she gave birth to a son, who died 24 hours later. They adopted two sons: Michael, who became an assistant director and stage manager in Los Angeles, and Robert, who became an artist and computer graphics designer based in New York City.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	The Last Tycoon	Brady's Secretary
1979	California Dreaming	Melinda Brooke
	Promises in the Dark	Nurse Farber
1982	Frances	Studio Stylist
1984	Love Letters	Maggie Winter
1988	Twins	Mary Ann Benedict
1993	Dave	Female Senator
1995	The Grass Harp	Mrs. Buster
1996	Ghosts of Mississippi	Billie DeLaughter
1998	Primary Colors	Martha Harris
2006	Saving Shiloh	Mrs. Wallace
2012	Valediction	Anabell	Short film
2016	Nina	Recital Stage Woman

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1955–1959	Love of Life	Vanessa Dale Raven	Unknown episodes
1965	The Patty Duke Show	Miss Castle	Episode: "My Cousin the Heroine"
1969	The Jackie Gleason Show	Donna Douglas	Episode: "The Honeymooners: The Honeymoon Is Over"
1973	Emergency!	Eunice Evans	Episode: "Computer Error"
1974–1979	Little House on the Prairie	Grace Snider Edwards	26 episodes
1974	Gunsmoke	Maylee Baines	Episode: "The Foundling"
	The Waltons	Martha Rudge	Episode: "The Car"
	Gunsmoke	Agnes Benton	Episode: "In Performance of Duty"
1975	Kojak	Joan Milner	Episode: "The Good Luck Bomber"
	The Legend of Lizzie Borden	Sylvia Knowlton	TV movie
1976	The Rockford Files	Casey Patterson	Episode: "The Oracle Wore a Cashmere Suit"
1977	Washington: Behind Closed Doors	Joan Bailey	2 episodes
	Killer on Board	Debra Snowden	Television movie
1979	Hart to Hart	Myra Bensinger	Episode: "Murder Between Friends"
	Salem's Lot	Ann Norton	Television movie
1980	Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case	Norma Joyce	Television movie
	Barney Miller	Ellen Milford	Episode: "The Delegate"
1981	ABC Afterschool Specials	Miriam Scott	Episode: "She Drinks a Little"
	Knots Landing	Dr. Ruth West	Episode: "Critical Condition"
	A Long Way Home	JoAnn Booth	TV movie
1982–1988	St. Elsewhere	Ellen Craig	70 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (1986–87) Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Quality Drama Series Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
1982	Barney Miller	Emily Loftis	Episode: "Inquiry"
	Lou Grant	Claire	Episode: "Unthinkable"
1983	V	Lynn Bernstein	2 episodes
1985	Hotel	Olga Petrovsky	Episode: "Passports"
1986	The Deliberate Stranger	Louise Bundy	TV movie
1987	Right to Die	Lillian	TV movie
1988	The Golden Girls	Barbara Thorndyke	Episode: "Dorothy's New Friend"
1989	Matlock	Lorraine Maslin	Episode: "The Blues Singer"
	Murder, She Wrote	Marilyn North	Episode: "Seal of the Confessional"
1989–1990	Midnight Caller	Hillary Townsend-King	4 episodes
1990	The Great Los Angeles Earthquake	Anita Parker
	Wiseguy	Harriet Weiss	2 episodes
1992	L.A. Law	Gloria Lee	Episode: "Diet, Diet My Darling"
	Room for Two	Francine Luboff	Episode: "Pilot"
	I'll Fly Away	Beth Lekatzis	Episode: "Fragile Truths"
1994	SeaQuest DSV	Secretary General of the UEO	Episode: "The Last Lap at Luxury"
1995	The Courtyard	Cathleen Fitzgerald	Television film
1995–1998	Home Improvement	Lucille Taylor	5 episodes
1996	The Faculty	Katherine	Episode: "Bus Stop"
1997–1998	ER	Ruth Greene	2 episodes
1997–1999	Boy Meets World	Dean Bolander	5 episodes
	The Practice	Joanne Oz	2 episodes
1997	Touched by an Angel	Emily	Episode: "Venice"
	Sleeping with the Devil	Stasha Dubrovich	Television movie
1998	Stargate SG-1	Linea	Episode: "Prisoners"
1999–2002	Once and Again	Barbara Brooks	7 episodes
2000	Touched by an Angel	Lucy Scribner	Episode: "The Grudge"
2002	Firefly	Patience	Episode: "Serenity"
	Strong Medicine	Edna Carlyle	Episode: "Discharged"
2003	Touched by an Angel	Loretta	Episode: "And a Nightingale Sang"
2004	NCIS	Dr. Sylvia Chalmers	Episode: "My Other Left Foot"
2005	Huff	Margaret	Episode: "All the King's Horses"
2006	Boston Legal	Marguerite Hauser	Episode: "Shock and Oww!"
	General Hospital	Miriam Spinelli	2 episodes
2008	Grey's Anatomy	Patient Rosie Bullard	Episode: "Rise Up"
2012	Of Two Minds	Kathleen	Television movie
2013	Parks and Recreation	Paula Horke	Episode: "Women In Garbage"
2017	Better Call Saul	Helen	2 Episodes

Book

• Bartlett Daniels, Bonnie (January 8, 2023). Middle of the Rainbow: How a wife, mother and daughter managed to find herself and win two Emmys. BearManor Media. ISBN 979-8-887-71044-0.

External links

• Bonnie Bartlett at IMDb 
• Bonnie Bartlett at AllMovie
• Bonnie Bartlett at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television