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Acclaimed actress Sada Thompson gained widespread praise for her portrayals of noble, strong-willed matrons on stage and television, but her most compelling and challenging roles revealed darker, more neurotic aspects of her characters.
Born in Des Moines, Iowa, she was the oldest of three children to magazine editor Hugh Woodruff Thompson and Corlyss Gibson. After her family relocated to New Jersey, Sada developed a passion for acting through school plays and later studied drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
Graduating in 1949, she built her early career in regional stock and repertory companies, performing in productions such as Hay Fever, The Little Foxes, Born Yesterday, The Clandestine Marriage, and The Cocktail Party. Her off-Broadway debut came in 1955 with the first concert reading of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood. In 1957, she received a Drama Desk award for her performances in The Misanthrope and The River Line. Thereafter, she focused heavily on classical theater, appearing in plays including Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, and Richard II. The 1970s marked the peak of her career with acclaimed performances in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the Moon Marigolds, earning both Drama Desk and Obie awards, and Twigs, where she portrayed four roles—three sisters and their elderly mother—winning the Tony, Drama Desk, Obie, and Sarah Siddons awards.
Despite her stage success, Sada's transition to film was limited due to her dark hair, fuller figure, and distinctive features, which were considered less marketable. Still, she delivered memorable supporting roles in the films Desperate Characters (1971) and The Pursuit of Happiness (1971). Television, however, brought her the recognition she sought and deserved. She received her first Emmy nomination for portraying Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln (1974) alongside Hal Holbrook. The following year, she earned another nomination as Jack Lemmon's beleaguered wife in the TV remake of The Entertainer (1975). She won an Emmy for her role as Kate Lawrence, a sensible, intelligent, and somewhat reserved mother of three, in the drama series Family (1976), becoming a television emblem of strength, courage, and integrity over the show's four seasons. Additional Emmy nominations followed for her roles as Rhea Perlman's mother on Cheers (1982) and as Virginia McMartin, a California schoolteacher on trial for sexual abuse, in the mini-movie Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995). Her performance, alongside co-stars James Woods, Shirley Knight, and Henry Thomas, elevated the material beyond its tabloid origins.
Alongside socially relevant mini-movies, Sada periodically returned to theater, winning a second Sarah Siddons award for the lead in Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and making a Broadway comeback in Any Given Day (1993) after nearly two decades. Her warm, soothing voice was also featured frequently in documentary narrations and audiobooks. Sada Thompson lived in Connecticut with her husband of over sixty years, Donald Stewart, and their daughter, Liza Stewart, a costume designer. She passed away from lung disease in a Danbury hospital on May 4, 2011, at the age of 83.
