| Lorraine Gary | |
| Birth Date: | 16 August 1937 |
| Birth Name: | Lorraine Gottfried |
| Birth Place: | Forest Hills, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1967–1979, 1987 |
| Alma Mater: | Columbia University |
| Other Names: | Lorraine Sheinberg |
| Children: | 2 |
Lorraine Gottfried (born August 16, 1937), better known by her stage name Lorraine Gary, is a retired American actress, best known for her role as Ellen Brody in the Jaws film series. She also appeared in 1941 and Car Wash.
Gary was born as Lorraine Gottfried in Forest Hills, Queens, to Belle and George Gottfried, an entertainment business manager.
At an early age, she moved with her family to Los Angeles, California, where she was raised. At age 16, she won a best actress award in a competition at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. She was offered a scholarship to enroll at the Pasadena Playhouse, but declined and attended Columbia University[1] as a political science major instead.
A life member of the Actors Studio,[2] Gary began her acting career in the late 1960s doing guest appearances on several popular TV shows. These include Night Gallery, Dragnet 1968, in an episode entitled "The Big Shipment", McCloud, The Marcus-Nelson Murders (the pilot for Kojak), and The F.B.I.. She began her first major acting role when she was a guest star on seven episodes of the TV series Ironside, among them "Tom Dayton Is Loose Among Us", in which she played the substitute librarian Miss Kirk, who pushes the unstable Tom Dayton too hard, and "In Search of an Artist", as a woman with a drinking problem who may have been involved in a murder.
In addition to her work as an actress, Gary owned New Hope Productions, a company that produced television programs.[3]
Gary is a member of the Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Advisory Committee, for whom she produced and directed a series of fourteen educational videotapes, and an Advisory Board Member of Ms. Magazine and Girls Learn International.[4]
In 1995, together with her husband, Gary received the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Award.[5]
Gary married entertainment industry executive Sidney Sheinberg on August 19, 1956, at the age of 19,[6] [7] with whom she has two sons named Jonathan J. and William David.[8]
She retired from acting after her appearance in the film 1941 (1979), only briefly returning to reprise the role of Ellen Brody in (1987). Her sons, Bill Sheinberg and Jonathan Sheinberg, are both film producers.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Jaws | Ellen Brody | ||
| 1976 | Car Wash | Hysterical Lady | ||
| 1977 | I Never Promised You a Rose Garden | Ester Blake | ||
| 1978 | Zero to Sixty | Billy-Jon | ||
| Jaws 2 | Ellen Brody | |||
| 1979 | Just You and Me, Kid | Shirley | ||
| 1941 | Joan Douglas | |||
| 1987 | Ellen Brody | Final film role |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Dragnet 1967 | Mrs. Frank | "The Big Shipment" | |
| Martha Young | "Without Mercy" | |||
| 1968 | Ironside | Nancy Lewin / Nurse Green | "All in a Day's Work", "Split Second to an Epitaph: Parts 1 & 2" | |
| 1969 | Ironside | Leona Stuart | "In Search of an Artist" | |
| Laura | "The Stranger" | |||
| Carla Frazier | "Breakout to a Fast Buck" | |||
| Margaret Sheehan | "A Case of Good Whiskey at Christmas Time" | |||
| 1970 | Dr. Marion Lester | "If I Can't Sing, I'll Listen" | ||
| McCloud | Joan Stanford | "Horse Stealing on Fifth Avenue" | ||
| San Francisco International Airport | "The High Cost of Nightmares" | |||
| "The Men From Shiloh" rebranded name for | Mrs. Nelson | "Hannah" | ||
| Ironside | Patricia Kirk / Elaine Potter | "Tom Dayton Is Loose Among Us", "Noel's Gonna Fly" | ||
| 1971 | Victoria Ulysses | TV film | ||
| O'Hara, U.S. Treasury | Mrs. Madrid | "Operation: Crystal Springs" | ||
| Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law | Norma Pruitt | "A Lonely Stretch of Beach" | ||
| McMillan & Wife | Connie | "Husbands, Wives, and Killers" | ||
| 1972 | McMillan & Wife | Monica Fontaine | "Cop of the Year" | |
| Hec Ramsey | Bella Grant | "Mystery of the Green Feather" | ||
| Night Gallery | Barbara Morgan | "She'll be Company for You" | ||
| 1973 | Annie Harker | "They've Got to Blame Somebody" | ||
| Partners in Crime | Margery Jordan | TV film | ||
| ABC's Wide World of Entertainment | Liz Elliott | "A Prowler in the Heart" | ||
| Ironside | Ellen Wills | "Fragile Is the House of Cards" | ||
| Angela Norton | "The Confession" | |||
| 1973-74 | Kojak | Ruth Gardner | "The Marcus-Nelson Murders", "Marker to a Dead Bookie" | |
| 1974 | Pray for the Wildcats | Lila Summerfield | TV film | |
| Marcus Welby, M.D. | Jean Wainwright | "The Mugging" | ||
| Lynn Corey | "Rolling Thunder" | |||
| 1975 | Man on the Outside | TV film | ||
| 1976 | Lanigan's Rabbi | Myra Galen | "Pilot" | |
| 1978 | Crash | Emily Mulwray | TV film |