Shelley Long should not be confused with Shellie Long.
| Shelley Long | |
| Birth Date: | 23 August 1949[1] |
| Birth Place: | Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Northwestern University |
| Years Active: | 1971–present |
| Spouse: |
|
| Children: | 1 |
Shelley Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. For her role as Diane Chambers on the sitcom Cheers,[2] Long received five Emmy nominations, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.[3] She also won two Golden Globe Awards for the role.[4] Long reprised her role as Diane Chambers in three episodes of the spin-off Frasier, for which she received an additional guest star Emmy nomination. In 2009, she began playing the recurring role of Dede Pritchet on the ABC comedy series Modern Family.
Long has also starred in several films including Night Shift (1982), Irreconcilable Differences (1984), The Money Pit (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Hello Again (1987), Troop Beverly Hills (1989), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), A Very Brady Sequel (1996), and Dr. T & the Women (2000).
Shelley Long was born on August 23, 1949, in Indian Village, Fort Wayne, Indiana.[5] She is the only child of Ivadine (née Williams), a schoolteacher, and Leland Long who worked in the rubber industry before becoming a teacher as well.
Shelley was raised in the Presbyterian faith. She was active on her high school speech team, competing in the Indiana High School Forensic Association. In 1967, she won the National Forensic League's National Championship in Original Oratory.[6]
After graduating from South Side High School in Fort Wayne, she studied drama at Northwestern University[2] but left before graduating to pursue a career in acting and modeling. Her first job was at the university as a meal plan checker.
Long's break as an actress occurred when she began performing in local commercials for Homemakers furniture store in the Chicago area.[7]
In Chicago, Long joined The Second City comedy troupe. In 1975, she began writing, producing, and co-hosting the television program Sorting It Out on WMAQ-TV[8] and went on to win three Regional Emmys for her work on the show.[9] She also appeared in the 1970s in VO5 shampoo print advertisements and in commercials for Camay soap as well as more Homemakers furniture commercials. In 1978, she appeared in a vignette on The Love Boat.[10]
In 1979, Long appeared in the television film The Cracker Factory as a psychiatric inmate. In the same year she guest starred on Family and Trapper John, M.D. In 1980 she appeared in her first feature film role in A Small Circle of Friends.[11] The film about social unrest at Harvard University during the 1960s enjoyed a level of critical success.[12] [13] In 1981, she played the role of Tala in Caveman. She played Nurse Mendenhall in a 1979 episode of M*A*S*H.[14] In 1982, she starred as Belinda, the good-natured prostitute neighbor of the character portrayed by Henry Winkler in Ron Howard's comedy Night Shift (also co-starring Michael Keaton), and starred with Tom Cruise in Losin' It (1983). She was offered the role of Mary, the mother in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but turned it down because she had already signed on to appear in Night Shift.
Although she had already been in feature films, Long became famous for her role in the long-running television sitcom Cheers as the character Diane Chambers, who has a tempestuous on-and-off relationship with Sam Malone. The show was slow to capture an audience but eventually became one of the more popular on the air. Amid some controversy, Long left Cheers after season five in 1987.[15]
In the Cheers biography documentary, co-star Ted Danson admitted there was tension between them but "never at a personal level and always at a work level" due to their different modes of working. He also stated that Long was much more similar to her TV character than she might have liked to admit, but also said that her performances often "carried the show."[16] [17] Long said in later interviews that it did not occur to her, when deciding to leave, that she was going to "sabotage a show" and she felt confident that the rest of the cast could continue without her.[18]
In a 2003 interview with Graham Norton, Long said she left for a variety of reasons, the most important of which was her desire to spend more time with her daughter. In a 2007 interview on Australian television, Long said Danson was "a delight to work with" and talked of her love for co-star Nicholas Colasanto ("Coach"), who was "one of my closest friends on set". She said she left the show because she "didn't want to keep doing the same episode over and over again and the same story. I didn't want it to become old and stale." She went on to say that "working at Cheers was a dream come true...it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. So, yes, I missed it, but I never regretted that decision."[19]
While appearing on Cheers Long continued to appear in motion pictures. In 1984, she was nominated for a Best Leading Actress Golden Globe for her performance in Irreconcilable Differences. She also starred in the comedies The Money Pit and Outrageous Fortune. She was offered lead roles in Working Girl, Jumpin' Jack Flash, and My Stepmother Is an Alien but did not accept them.
On August 12, 1986, Long signed a production agreement with The Walt Disney Studios through Itsbinso Long Inc. to produce three films for the Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Films labels.[20]
Long's first post-Cheers project was Hello Again, a comedy about a housewife who is brought back from the dead. This was followed by Troop Beverly Hills, a comedy about another housewife who takes leadership of a 'Wilderness Girl' troop to bond with her daughter and distract herself from divorce proceedings. Neither film was successful with critics or at the box office.
In 1990, Long returned to television for the fact-based miniseries . She received critical praise for the role, which required her to portray nearly 20 personalities. This introduced her to more dramatic roles in TV films, after which she starred in several more throughout the 1990s.[21]
Major feature film roles followed such as the romantic comedy Don't Tell Her It's Me with Jami Gertz and Steve Guttenberg and Frozen Assets, a comedy about a sperm bank, which reunited her with Hello Again co-star Corbin Bernsen.
In 1992, she starred in Fatal Memories: The Eileen Franklin Story, a veridical television drama about a woman who remembers the childhood trauma of being raped by her father and his cronies, and witnessing him murder her childhood friend to prevent the child from "telling on him."[22] The still-controversial "recovered memories" basis for the prosecution resulted in the conviction and sentencing of life imprisonment of George Franklin,[23] a conviction that was later overturned.[24]
Long starred in the 1992 film A Message from Holly with Lindsay Wagner. Long plays a workaholic who finds out that her best friend has cancer and only six months to live, then stays with her in her last months.[25]
In 1993, the actress returned to Cheers for its series finale, and picked up another Emmy nomination for her return as Diane.[26] She also starred in the sitcom Good Advice with Treat Williams and Teri Garr, a show that lasted two seasons.[27] She later resurfaced as Diane in several episodes of the Kelsey Grammer spinoff series Frasier, for which she was nominated for another Emmy Award.
Both Outrageous Fortune co-star Bette Midler and Paramount studio executive Richard H. Frank, who helped develop Cheers, described Long as being difficult to work with.[28] [29]
Long appeared as Carol Brady in the 1995 film The Brady Bunch Movie which is a campy take of the popular television show. In 1996, she reprised her role in A Very Brady Sequel which had modest success, and a 2002 television film sequel—The Brady Bunch in the White House. Some ventures followed including the TV remake of Freaky Friday and the family sitcom Kelly Kelly, which only lasted for a few episodes. She played the Wicked Witch of the Beanstalk in a 1998 episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
In 1999, she starred in another television film Vanished Without a Trace, about a woman who refuses to accept the kidnapping of her 13-year-old daughter and relentlessly pursues the villain's capture (not to be confused with the 1993 film of the same name about the 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping.) In 2000, she appeared as one of the women in the Richard Gere film Dr. T & the Women, directed by Robert Altman.
Long guest-starred in several TV shows such as 8 Simple Rules, Yes Dear, Strong Medicine, and Boston Legal. She had a recurring role on the popular ABC sitcom Modern Family as DeDe Pritchett, the ex-wife of Jay Pritchett. She starred in television films, including Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door and Holiday Engagement. In 2012, she made a guest appearance on Switched at Birth. In 2016, Long produced and acted in the feature film Different Flowers.[30]
Long's first marriage, to Ken Solomon, ended in divorce in the 1970s after only a few years.[31] In 1979 she met her second husband, Bruce Tyson, a securities broker. They married in 1981 and had a daughter, Juliana.[32] Long and Tyson separated in 2003 and divorced in 2004.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | data-sort-value="Key, The" | The Key | Narrator | Voice role |
| 1980 | data-sort-value="Small Circle of Friends, A" | A Small Circle of Friends | Alice | |
| 1981 | Caveman | Tala | ||
| 1982 | Night Shift | Belinda Keaton | ||
| 1983 | Losin' It | Kathy | ||
| 1984 | Irreconcilable Differences | Lucy Van Patten Brodsky | Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical | |
| 1986 | data-sort-value="Money Pit, The" | The Money Pit | Anna Crowley Beissart Fielding | |
| 1987 | Outrageous Fortune | Lauren Ames | ||
| 1987 | Hello Again | Lucy Chadman | Nominated – Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actress | |
| 1989 | Troop Beverly Hills | Phyllis Nefler | ||
| 1990 | Don't Tell Her It's Me | Lizzie Potts | ||
| 1992 | Frozen Assets | Grace Murdock | ||
| 1995 | data-sort-value="Brady Bunch Movie, The" | The Brady Bunch Movie | Carol Brady | |
| 1996 | data-sort-value="Very Brady Sequel, A" | A Very Brady Sequel | ||
| 1998 | data-sort-value="Adventures of Ragtime, The" | The Adventures of Ragtime | Sam | |
| 2000 | Dr. T & the Women | Carolyn | ||
| 2007 | data-sort-value="Couple of White Chicks at the Hairdresser, A" | A Couple of White Chicks at the Hairdresser | Barbara Kisner | |
| 2007 | Trust Me | Mitzi Robinson | ||
| 2008 | Mr. Vinegar and the Curse | Ms. Persnickety | ||
| 2011 | Pizza Man | Mrs. Burns | ||
| 2011 | Zombie Hamlet | Shine Reynolds | Also co-producer | |
| 2013 | data-sort-value="Wedding Chapel, The" | The Wedding Chapel | Jeanie Robertson | |
| 2013 | Best Man Down | Gail | ||
| 2014 | data-sort-value="Matter of Time, A" | A Matter of Time | Nona | |
| 2017 | Different Flowers | Grandma Mildred | Also producer | |
| 2021 | data-sort-value="Cleaner, The" | The Cleaner | Sharon Enderly | |
| 2022 | Give Me Pity! | Baby Dog |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975–1978 | Sorting it Out | Host | (Local Chicago show) Won 3 Regional Emmy Awards | |
| 1978 | That Thing on ABC | Performer | Variety special | |
| 1978 | data-sort-value="Love Boat, The" | The Love Boat | Heather McKenzie | Episode: "Memories of You/Computerman/Parlez Vous?" |
| 1979 | data-sort-value="Dooley Brothers, The" | The Dooley Brothers | Lucy Bennett | Unaired pilot |
| 1979 | Young Guy Christian | Mia Mishugi | Unaired pilot | |
| 1979 | data-sort-value="Cracker Factory, The" | The Cracker Factory | Cara | Television film |
| 1979 | Family | Joan Phillips | Episode: "Sleeping Over" | |
| 1979 | Trapper John, M.D. | Lauren | Episode: "The Shattered Image" | |
| 1980 | data-sort-value="Promise of Love, The" | The Promise of Love | Lorraine Simpson | Television film |
| 1980 | M*A*S*H | Lt. Mendenhall | Episode: "Bottle Fatigue" | |
| 1981 | data-sort-value="Princess and the Cabbie, The" | The Princess and the Cabbie | Carol | Television film |
| 1981 | Ghost of a Chance | Jenny Clifford | Unaired pilot | |
| 1982–1987, 1993 | Cheers | Diane Chambers | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (1983) Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy (1985) Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1983) TV Land Awards (2006–2007) Viewers for Quality Television Award (1985–1986) Nominated – American Comedy Award for Funniest Female Performer in a Television Series (1987) Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (1984–1986) Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (1993) Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy (1984) Nominated – People's Choice Award for Favorite Female TV Performer (1984–1985) | |
| 1990 | Truddi Chase | Television film | ||
| 1991 | data-sort-value="Real Story of..., The" | The Real Story of... | The Dame | Voice, episode: "Baa Baa Black Sheep" |
| 1991 | Memories of M*A*S*H | Host | Documentary | |
| 1992 | Fatal Memories | Eileen Franklin Lipsker | Television film | |
| 1992 | data-sort-value="Message from Holly, A" | A Message from Holly | Kate | Television film |
| 1993–1994 | Good Advice | Susan DeRuzza | 19 episodes | |
| 1993 | Basic Values: Sex, Shock & Censorship in the | Fay Sommerfield | Television film | |
| 1995 | Lucille Newtrich/Ultra Lucille | Episode: "Ultra Woman" | ||
| 1995 | Welcome to Paradise | Anne | Television film | |
| 1995 | Freaky Friday | Ellen Andrews | Television film | |
| 1996 | data-sort-value="Different Kind of Christmas, A" | A Different Kind of Christmas | Elizabeth Gates | Television film |
| 1996 | Susie Q | Penny Sands | Television film | |
| 1995, 1996 | Murphy Brown | Dottie Wilcox | 2 episodes | |
| 1994, 1996, 2001 | Frasier | Diane Chambers | 3 episodes Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (1996) | |
| 1996 | Life with Louie | Sally Tubbs | Voice, episode: "A Fair to Remember" | |
| 1996 | Boston Common | Louise Holmes | Episode: "Trustee and Sympathy" | |
| 1998 | Sabrina the Teenage Witch | The Wicked Witch | Episode: "Sabrina and the Beanstalk" | |
| 1998 | Kelly Kelly | Kelly Novack | 7 episodes; also co-executive producer | |
| 1998 | Kay Ludlow | Episode: "Write, She Murdered" | ||
| 1999 | Vanished Without a Trace | Elizabeth Porterson | Television film | |
| 1999 | Chicken Soup for the Soul | Teacher | Episode: "The Green Boots" | |
| 2000 | Beggars and Choosers | Pamela Marston | Episode: "Fasten Your Seatbelts" | |
| 2002 | data-sort-value="Brady Bunch in the White House, The" | The Brady Bunch in the White House | Carol Brady | Television film |
| 2002 | data-sort-value="Santa Trap, The" | The Santa Trap | Molly Emerson | Television film |
| 2003 | 8 Simple Rules | Mary Ellen Doyle | Episode: "The Doyle Wedding" | |
| 2003 | Strong Medicine | Lauren Chase | Episode: "Jeaneology" | |
| 2004 | Joan of Arcadia | Miss Candy | Episode: "Vanity, Thy Name Is Human" | |
| 2005 | Boston Legal | Miriam Watson | Episode: "Death Be Not Proud" | |
| 2005 | Yes, Dear | Margaret | Episode: "The New Neighbors" | |
| 2005 | Complete Savages | Judy | 2 episodes | |
| 2006 | Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door | Betsy Lucas | Television film | |
| 2006 | Honeymoon with Mom | Marla | Television film | |
| 2009 | Ice Dreams | Harriet Clayton | Television film | |
| 2009–2018 | Modern Family | DeDe Pritchett | 8 episodes Nominated – Gold Derby Awards for Comedy Guest Actress (2010) Nominated – OFTA Television Award for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (2011) | |
| 2010 | Family Guy | Carol Brady | Voice, episode: "Excellence in Broadcasting" | |
| 2011 | Holiday Engagement | Meredith Burns | Television film | |
| 2011 | Retired at 35 | Ginny | Episode: "Hit It and Quit It" | |
| 2011 | A.N.T. Farm | Mrs. Busby | Episode: "PhilANThropy" | |
| 2012 | Strawberry Summer | Eileen Landon | Television film | |
| 2012 | Merry In-Laws | Mrs. Claus | Television film | |
| 2012 | data-sort-value="Dog Who Saved the Hollidays, The" | The Dog Who Saved the Hollidays | Aunt Barbara | Television film; also co-producer |
| 2012 | Switched at Birth | Rya Bellows | Episode: "Game On" | |
| 2013 | Holiday Road Trip | Cynthia | Television film | |
| 2015 | Instant Mom | Magician | Episode: "Bawamo Shazam" | |
| 2017 | Christmas in the Heartland | Judy Wilkins | Television film | |
| 2017–2018 | Milo Murphy's Law | Grandma Murphy | Voice, 2 episodes |
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television | Cheers | [33] | |
| 1983 | Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy | ||||
| 1984 | |||||
| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Irreconcilable Differences | ||||
| 2011 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series | Modern Family | [34] | |
| 1983 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Cheers | [35] | |
| 1984 | |||||
| 1985 | |||||
| 1986 | |||||
| 1993 | Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series | Cheers | |||
| 1996 | Frasier |