Betty Buckley, who has been called "The Voice of Broadway," is one of theater's most respected and legendary leading ladies. She is an actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She is a 2012 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and the 2017 recipient of the Julie Harris Awards from The Actor's Fund for Artistic Achievement. She won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. She received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a musical for her performance as Hesione in Triumph of Love, and an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway. Her other Broadway credits include 1776, Pippin, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Carrie. Off-Broadway credits include the world premiere of Horton Foote's The Old Friends for which she received a Drama Desk Nomination in 2014, White's Lies, Lincoln Center's Elegies, the original NYSF production of Edwin Drood, The Eros Trilogy, Juno's Swans and Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road. Regional credits include The Perfectionist, Gypsy, Threepenny Opera, Camino Real, Buffalo Gal, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Old Friends at Houston's Alley Theatre and Grey Gardens at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY and The Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles in 2016 for which she received an Ovation Award Nomination. In London she starred in Promises, Promises for which she was nominated for An Evening Standard Award and in 2013 the British premiere of Dear World. Ms. Buckley most recently appeared in the new M. Night Shyamalan hit film Split co-starring James McAvoy, released in January 2017. She was nominated for a Saturn Award for her work in the film. Her other films include her debut in Brian de Palma's screen version of Stephen King's Carrie, Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies, Roman Polanski's Frantic, Woody Allen's Another Woman, Lawrence Kaiden's Wyatt Earp and M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. On television, Buckley most recently guest starred in the NBC Series Chicago Med and in the HBO series The Leftovers and Getting On. She appeared in The Pacific also for HBO and twice on the Kennedy Center Honors. She also starred for three seasons in the HBO series Oz and as Abby Bradford in the hit series Eight Is Enough. She has appeared as a guest star in numerous television series, miniseries and films for television including Evergreen, Roses For The Rich, Without A Trace, Law & Order: SVU and Pretty Little Liars. Buckley tours in concert worldwide with her ensemble of musicians and recently was featured in the Royal Albert Hall concert of Follies in celebration of Stephen Sondheim's 85th birthday. She has recorded 17 CD's: including Ghostlight produced by T Bone Burnett released in 2014 and most recently Story Songs released in April 2017. She received a Grammy Nomination for Stars and The Moon, Betty Buckley Live at the Donmar. She received her second Grammy Nomination for the audio book The Diaries of Adam and Eve. For over forty years Ms. Buckley has been a teacher of scene study and song interpretation, giving workshops in Manhattan and various universities and performing Arts Conservatories around the country. She has been a faculty member in the theatre department of the University of Texas at Arlington and teaches regularly at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York City, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX and in Los Angeles, Denver and Oklahoma. In 2009, Ms. Buckley received the Texas Medal of Arts Award for Theater and was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2007. She has two honorary doctorates from The Boston Conservatory and Marymount College and has been honored with three Lifetime Achievement Awards for her contributions to theater from the New England Theater Conference, The Shubert Theater in New Haven and the Terry Schreiber School in NYC.
Graduated from Texas Christian University (Ft. Worth, TX)
Played Carries mother, Margaret White, in the Broadway musical version of "Carrie". In the film Carrie , Buckley played the gym teacher.
Member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
Sang backup on Roberta Flack s 1974 hit album "Feel Like Makin Love".
Won Broadways 1983 Tony Award as Best Actress for "Cats." In 1998, she was Tony-nominated as Best Actress for "Triumph of Love."
Along with her 1983 Tony Award and 1998 nomination, she has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and two Grammy Awards. "Over You", the song she sang in the 1983 movie, Tender Mercies , was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Song of the Year.
Worked for one year at a local Texas newspaper prior to going to New York to try her luck as an actress. On her first day after arriving in New York Buckley was cast in one of the two female roles for the Broadway musical "1776".
Inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 9, 2007 in Austin, Texas.
Practices therapy and spiritual meditation.
Was encouraged to participate in beauty pageants. She was crowned Miss Fort Worth, but lost the "Miss Texas" title. Nevertheless, she was asked to sing at the Miss America pageant in 1967.
Saw a production of "The Pajama Game" at the Casa Maana in Fort Worth at age 11 and during the classic "Steam Heat" dance number knew that acting was what she wanted to do.
Left New York after 9/11 and presently has a 35-acre ranch in Fort Worth, Texas, with her four dogs, two cats, three horses and an African gray parrot. She is learning how to ride cutting horses, a practice that dates back to the Old West.
Has taught courses and workshops emphasizing the role of meditation in actor training at the University of Texas at Arlington and elsewhere.
Replaced wife and mother Diana Hyland on the "Eight Is Enough" series after the actress became ill and died from breast cancer. Hyland had taped only four episodes and the series returned with father Dick Van Patten a widower.
Studied acting with Stella Adler after going to New York.
Studied journalism at Texas Christian University and worked at the Fort Worth Press for a year where she covered hard news and was a rodeo reporter.
Daughter of Ernest (a dean of engineering and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force) and Betty Bob Diltz (a dancer and journalist). Her father vehemently disapproved of her becoming an actress which caused her great emotional distress.
Once saved Rufus Wainwright from drowning in a hotel pool.
The awards given in her hometown of Fort Worth for Excellence in High School Musical Theater are called the Betty Lynn Buckley awards in her honor. They have been so named since 2000. The award ceremony is held at the Casa Manana Theater.
(May 2008) Lives on a ranch in Texas, where she trains and rides cutting horses.
(26 Nov 1996 - 8 Dec 1996) Stars in Andrew Lloyd Webbers: Music of the Night (Boston Colonial Theatre)
Performed New Years Day, 2000 at NYs Cafe Carlyle
My big dream was to be a world-champion [rodeo] barrel racer. My other,was to sing on Broadway. I did one of them.
The work that must be done for each woman to reconnect with her psyche and to give herself a chance to live her own life is essentially the same. The realization of the equality of all races, the equality of all beings is essential. .
