Moviestore Collection/Rex/REX USAElizabeth Wilson, who was known for her roles in The Graduate and 9 to 5, has died. She was 94.
Wilson passed away Saturday in New Haven, Conn., her friend, Elizabeth Morton, confirmed to The New York Times. Her nearly seven-decade career included multiple Tony and Emmy Awards nominations, and she even took home a Tony for her role in David Rabe's 1972 anti-war drama Sticks and Bones. She was also nominated for an Emmy for her role in NBC's miniseries Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder.
But she got her start on Broadway in 1953, when she appeared in Picnic. She would go on to return to the stage, nabbing roles in several plays including The Importance of Being Earnest, Threepenny Opera and You Can't Take It With You.
She also appeared on the silver screen throughout her career, appearing in Jane Fonda's classic 9 to 5 and Mike Nichols' The Graduate. She had scored the role of playing the mother to Dustin Hoffman's character, Benjamin Braddock. That was the first of four films she would go on to make with Nichols. She also played Ralph Fiennes' mother in Quiz Show as well as Christopher Lloyd's impostor in the 1991 version of The Addams Family.
Although she grew up to be a big star, she had once told Connecticut Magazine that she originally had no interest in obtaining fame; she just wanted to be an actress. "In the 1940s I was doing something called the Equity Library Theater in New York, when a movie company came to see the play I was in and offered me a contract," she told the magazine in 2012.
"But the deal was, my nose was too big and they wanted me to have surgery. My jaw was crooked, and I'd have to have that fixed, too. And they didn't like my name; it was too common. I was to change these things, and they'd sign me to a multiyear contract."
She continued, "I don't know how I managed to do this, but I said, ‘I don't think so.' Imagine! I can't believe I had the wisdom."
Ignoring that advice worked in her favor, as her career only took off from there.