Mary Kay Place

Mary Kay Place (born September 23, 1947) is an American actress.

She was hired for The Tim Conway Comedy Hour in the 1970s as a production assistant to both Conway and producer Norman Lear.

Conway gave Place her first on-camera break, while Lear saw to it that Place received her first writing credit on his subsequent All in the Family.

On the episode, she and actress Patty Weaver sang "If Communism Comes Knocking on Your Door, Don't Answer It."

She appeared in the third-season episode of M*A*S*H titled "Springtime", for which she also received writing credits.

At the Capri Lounge Loretta Haggers and its follow up Aimin' To Please'' featured A-list country and pop performers from the 1970s.

Dolly Parton, on whom the Loretta character was loosely based, provided backing vocals as well as the song "All I Can Do" (which Parton also wrote).

Emmylou Harris, Anne Murray and Nicolette Larson sang backup as well.

Lear then cast her in the role of would-be country and western star Loretta Haggers on the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976–1977).

She is best known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a role that won her the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series.

She won an Emmy Award for her work as Loretta, and was nominated in 1977 for a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female for the associated music album ''Tonite!

At the Capri Lounge Loretta Haggers''.

Place wrote two of the songs on Tonite!: "Vitamin L" and "Baby Boy," both of which she sang on the television series as Loretta.

Both ''Tonite!

Aimin' to Please's "Something to Brag About," a duet with Willie Nelson, earned the pair a place on the music charts in 1977.

While working on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Place also wrote scripts for episodes of several TV situation comedies, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis and M*A*S*H, usually in collaboration with Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (who would later create Designing Women).

She appeared in the M*A*S*H episode "Springtime," which she co-wrote with Bloodworth.

She also made an appearance in the sitcom All in the Family in the episode "Archie Goes Too Far" as Betty Sue.

Place hosted Saturday Night Live in 1977 and was one of the few hosts who also appeared as the musical guest (with Willie Nelson on the duet "Something to Brag About").

In the 1977 musical drama New York, New York, directed by Martin Scorsese, Place sings "Blue Moon" with Robert De Niro, whose character also accompanies her on saxophone.

It is included in the original motion picture soundtrack.

In the 1979 Burt Reynolds romantic comedy, Starting Over, Place plays the first woman Reynolds dates after a divorce.

Her numerous film appearances include Private Benjamin (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Captain Ron (1992) and Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 drama The Rainmaker.

Place also recorded three studio albums for Columbia Records, one in the Haggers persona, which included the Top Ten country music hit "Baby Boy".

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the actress appeared in a number of television films and a starring role in the 1992 Kurt Russell and Martin Short comedy Captain Ron.

In 1983, Place had a key role in the Lawrence Kasdan ensemble piece The Big Chill as Meg, a single corporate attorney who wishes to be impregnated with her first child by one of her past college friends.

1994 saw her return to television in the recurring role of Camille Cherski on My So-Called Life.

In 1996, Place comically portrayed an evangelistic anti-abortion activist in Alexander Payne's debut feature film Citizen Ruth.

Place was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her work in the 1996 film Manny & Lo with Scarlett Johansson and Aleksa Palladino.

She plays the matronly Elaine, who would love to have a child and works in a maternity shop, but never married and is past her child-bearing years.

She directed episodes of the HBO sitcom Dream On, NBC's Friends and the series Baby Boom.

She provided at least two voices for Fox's animated show King of the Hill in an episode in which Peggy Hill competes in the Mrs. Heimlich County Pageant.

She voiced both a competitor and the coordinator of the pageant.

She appeared as Mrs. Betty Dustin in the made for TV drama “For my daughter’s honor”(a.k.a “Indecent Seduction”) in 1996 in which she plays a mom in her real life native Oklahoma whose daughter Amy (played by Nicholle Tom) is being sexually harassed by the school football coach.

Place also appeared in Being John Malkovich as the hard-of-hearing receptionist, Floris, and in Girl, Interrupted.

She had a strong dramatic role as Dot Black, mother of a terminally ill young man, in Francis Ford Coppola's version of John Grisham's The Rainmaker in 1997.

For her performance in Diane (2018), Place won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.

Place was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Gwendolyn Lucille (née Johnson) and Bradley Eugene Place.

She graduated from Nathan Hale High School and the University of Tulsa, where her father was an art professor; she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and received a speech degree.

Place moved to Hollywood with aspirations of becoming an actress and writer.