Versatile actress leaves long & lasting legacy

by BRYAN DAVIS

Bosque County Film Society Historian

My how I enjoyed watching Cloris Leachman in movies and on television my entire life. And I mean, literally, my entire life. When she died on Wednesday at age 94, she’d enjoyed a seven decades-long career.

Cloris was playing Timmy’s mother on “Lassie” when I was born in 1958. She won an Oscar for “The Last Picture Show,” the 1971 Larry McMurtry coming-of-age movie set in the 1950s Texas Panhandle. I was too young to see it when it came out, but I remember Mom, Dad, and some of the Valley Mills teachers slipping off to Waco one weekend to see what all the talk was about. It was pretty racy stuff 50 years ago.

I got to see it when I was grown, and it’s a powerful film with beautiful performances, and hers is one of the best. She plays Ruth Popper, wife of the small-town football coach who falls in love with Sonny, a high school senior. I still love the look and the feel of this black-and-white film, which we watched again recently.

Bosque County’s Marvin Grelle also has vivid memories of the film.

“The Last Picture Show was filmed in Larry McMurtry’s home town of Archer City, Texas. The name of the town in the movie was Anarene, which was a small community just south of Archer City. I was the store manager at C. D. Shamburger Lumber Co. in Archer City when the movie came out. Karen and I went to see it in Wichita Falls, about 25 miles north of Archer City.

“My lumber yard was in the movie, and they parked the old cars used in the movie in one of our warehouse buildings at night. I never met Larry, but I did know his Dad. The old movie theater had been burned, but the front was still there and that’s what you saw in the movie. I understand the building has since been renovated. I’ll never forget that movie!”

Then Cloris went on to win a record nine Emmy Awards from 22 nominations for her television work! That’s a record that still stands. Several of those were for her role as snotty Phyllis in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” She also did a lot of TV movies and several wonderful Mel Brooks classic screen comedies, my favorite being Frau Blucher in “Young Frankenstein.”

Amazingly, Cloris worked right up to the very end. What a long and wonderful legacy of work she leaves to enjoy. She’ll be missed.