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Barbara Hershey is an United States|American
actress (b. 5 February 1948) known for her many
film roles.

==Biography==

One of America's most accomplished
actor|actresses, Barbara Hershey was born Barbara
Herzstein on February 5, 1948 in Hollywood,
California where her father was a professional
gambling|gambler. She attended Hollywood High
School and quickly found her vocation. Her debut
was guest starring in three episodes of Gidget in
1965, which she followed up with roles in the
television series The Monroes (1966). She found
working on The Monroes to be such a dispiriting
experience that she wrote pseudonym|pseudonymous
letters to the producers asking that the show be
cancelled.

Her feature film debut was in the 1968 comedy With
Six You Get Eggroll - which also marked Doris
Day|Doris Day's final screen appearance. This was
followed by the 1969 Glenn Ford Western
movie|western Heaven With A Gun, where one of her
co-stars was future Kung Fu (TV series)|Kung Fu
star David Carradine. They became a romantic
couple and a prominent symbol of the Hollywood
counterculture - famously naming their child Free.
(He later chose the name Tom for himself.)

Later that year came the shocking drama Last
Summer, based on the novel by Evan Hunter (better
known for his police procedurals written under the
pseudonym Ed McBain) and directed by future Mommie
Dearest (movie)|Mommie Dearest helmsman Frank
Perry. The film received an X rated|X rating for
an unflinching rape scene and earned a Academy
Award|Best Supporting Actress nomination for
co-star Cathy Burns. Hershey's powerful
performance as a manipulative queen bee made a
large impression on Woody Allen, who would later
foster her mid-80s career revival by casting her
in his greatest commercial success Hannah and Her
Sisters. During the filming of a scene for Last
Summer, a gull|seagull was killed. Hershey felt a
sense of personal responsibility for its death and
went by the name of Barbara Seagull for several
years in the early 1970s as a tribute to the
creature.

Her 1970 film The Baby Maker explored the idea of
Surrogate_mother|surrogate motherhood many years
before it became a mainstream reproductive option
and cemented her image as a free-spirited hippie.
This image helped secure her the starring role in
the 1972 Roger Corman production Boxcar Bertha,
which was being directed on the cheap by a
fresh-out-of-film-school talent named Martin
Scorsese. During filming, Hershey gave Scorsese a
copy of her favorite book - Nikos
Kazantzakis|Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last
Temptation of Christ. Adapting that book into a
film would become a 16 year labor of love for
Scorsese, who would eventually cast Hershey as
Mary Magdalene - though not before making her
audition, to prove that she had earned it.
Hershey's co-star in Boxcar Bertha was once again
David Carradine. In characteristically
free-spirited fashion, they would later recreate
their love scene in a hay-filled boxcar for a
Playboy magazine pictorial.

However, the hippie label soon became a career
impediment and by the late 1970s she was reduced
to appearing in made-for-TV embarrassments like
Flood! and Sunshine Christmas. But her excellent
work in Richard Rush (director)|Richard Rush's
1980 critical favorite The Stunt Man - her first
big screen appearance in four years - served as a
reminder to Hollywood that there was still a
notably beautiful and talented actress in their
midst. 

The road back to industry acceptance would not be
short or smooth. She would still need to pay dues
in unglamorous vehicles like 1981's exploitation
shocker The Entity, where she played a woman
repeatedly raped by an unseen supernatural force.
Yet even in such uninspiring material, Hershey
found the means of a giving committed, affecting
performance - sufficiently impressing Michael
Douglas to have him later fight to have her cast
as his estranged wife in Falling Down.

Her performance as Glynnis Yeager in Philip
Kaufman|Philip Kaufman's 1983 film of The Right
Stuff marked the true beginning of her career
renaissance. In mid-decade, she followed the
commercial success of Hannah and Her Sisters with
unprecedented back-to-back wins for Best Actress
at the Cannes Film Festival and Scorsese's
long-awaited but fatally controversial The Last
Temptation of Christ. For her role in the 1988
Bette Midler sudser Beaches (movie)|Beaches, she
injected collagen into her lips - an act that drew
a ridiculous amount of negative media coverage.

In 1990 she won an Emmy Award|Emmy for Outstanding
Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special for her
harrowing turn as real-life murderer Candy
Morrison in A Killing in a Small Town. But as an
actress in her forties, she was once more forced
into smaller independent films and television
work. In what one hopes will not be her last
hurrah as a film actress, she gave an
unforgettable performance as Madame Merle in Jane
Campion|Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of the
Henry James novel The Portrait of a Lady
(film)|The Portrait of a Lady - earning an Oscar
nomination and winning the Best Supporting Actress
award from the National Society of Film Critics. 

In 2001, Hershey was part of a largely
Australia|Australian ensemble cast for the
critically successful Australian film Lantana,
which also starred Kerry Armstrong, Anthony
LaPaglia and Geoffrey Rush playing a troubled
psychiatrist.

Her most recent credit was on The WB's 2004 series
The Mountain (television series)|The Mountain
which was harshly reviewed by critics, and
cancelled during its first season.
==Awards==

1967 - Winner - Western Heritage Awards -
Fictional Television Drama - The Monroes (shared
with cast and crew)

1970 - Nominee - Laurel Awards - Female New Face -
Last Summer

1987 - Nominee - BAFTA Awards - Best Supporting
Actress - Hannah and Her Sisters

1987 - Winner - Cannes Film Festival - Best
Actress - Shy People

1988 - Winner - Cannes Film Festival - Best
Actress - A World Apart  (shared with Jodhi May
and Linda Mvusi)

1989 - Nominee - Golden Globes - Best Supporting
Actress - The Last Temptation of Christ

1990 - Winner - Emmy Awards - Outstanding Lead
Actress In A Miniseries/TV Film - Killing in a
Small Town

1991 - Nominee - Emmy Awards - Outstanding Lead
Actress in A Miniseries/TV Film - Paris Trout

1991 - Winner - Golden Globes - Best Actress in a
TV Film - Killing in a Small Town

1996 - Winner - Los Angeles Film Critics
Association Awards - Best Supporting Actress - The
Portrait of a Lady_(film)|The Portrait of a Lady

1997 - Nominee - Golden Globes - Best Supporting
Actress - The Portrait of a Lady_(film)|The
Portrait of a Lady

1997 - Nominee - Academy Awards - Best Supporting
Actress - The Portrait of a Lady_(film)|The
Portrait of a Lady

1997 - Winner - National Society of Film Critics
Awards USA - Best Supporting Actress - The
Portrait of a Lady_(film)|The Portrait of a Lady

1999 - Nominee - Golden Satellite Awards - Best
Actress in a TV Film - The Staircase

2001 - Winner - If Awards - Best Actress - Lantana
(shared with Kerry Armstrong, Rachel Blake,
Daniella Farinacci and Leah Purcell)

2002 - Winner - Munich Film Festival - CineMerit
Award