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Brenda Vaccaro

Brenda Vaccaro has built a career around a voice and presence that are difficult to mistake for anyone else’s. Born in Brooklyn on November 18, 1939, and raised in Dallas, she returned to New York City at 17 to study acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Her work would eventually stretch across stage, film, television and animation, with that distinctive husky voice serving her equally well in sharp comedy and serious drama. Vaccaro made her Broadway debut in the 1961 comedy Everybody Loves Opal, earning a Theatre World Award. Further Broadway roles included Cactus Flower, How Now, Dow Jones and The Goodbye People, performances that brought her three Tony Award nominations across both plays and musicals. She later appeared in the female version of The Odd Couple and Jake’s Women. Her film career gained early momentum with Midnight Cowboy, in which she appeared alongside Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight and received a Golden Globe nomination for supporting actress. In 1975, her performance in Once Is Not Enough earned her an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win. Her other screen credits range from the tense conspiracy thriller Capricorn One and disaster sequel Airport ’77 to Supergirl, Zorro, The Gay Blade and The Mirror Has Two Faces. Television gave Vaccaro room to move between leading parts, regular roles and guest appearances. She starred in the 1976 series Sara, appeared in Paper Dolls and won an Emmy for The Shape of Things in 1974. Later credits included Friends, where she played the mother of Matt LeBlanc’s Joey, The King of Queens, Nip/Tuck and And Just Like That..., in which she plays Gloria Marquette. Her voice work adds another dimension to an already wide-ranging career. Vaccaro voiced Bunny Bravo, Johnny Bravo’s mother, and was the first voice of Ardeth on The Critic. Whether heard or seen, she brings a direct, textured quality to a role—the mark of a performer at home in nearly every corner of acting.