Carrie Snodgress

Caroline Snodgress was born in Barrington, Illinois on October 27, 1945. During her early years, she went to Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge and later attended Northern Illinois University for her graduation. She also took training at the Goodman School of Drama, in Chicago.

She left her career after just a year into her professional life to live with her then-partner, musician Neil Young with whom she had her only child, son Zeke, who was born with a slight brain aneurysm. She later had a relationship with songwriter Jack Nitzsche but he was accused of violently threatening to kill her. Jack pleaded guilty to the accusation and was handed a three years probation period as well as a hefty fine. She married painter Robert Jones in 1981.

After suffering from liver problems, Carrie Snodgress was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles and was supposed to receive a liver transplant. But unfortunately she died of liver and heart failure at the hospital on April 1, 2004, at the age of 58. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Carrie Snodgress started her professional career with an uncredited role in the film ‘Easy Rider’ back in 1969 and a year later she appeared in the film ‘Rabbit, Run’ in 1970. This was shortly followed by an iconic role in the film ‘Diary of a Mad Housewife’ as ‘Bettina Balser’ which earned her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress. She won two Golden Globe awards for the film. Her work in the film also won her two Laurel Awards for ‘Best Dramatic Performance, Female’ and ‘Star of Tomorrow, Female’, and a BAFTA Award nomination for ’ Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles’.

However, after this brilliant start to her professional journey, she took a sabbatical from her professional career and went to live with rock musician Neil Young. She came back after eight years and appeared in ‘The Fury’ as a supporting character.

Carrie Snodgress was the initial choice to play the character of ‘Adrian’ in the film 'Rocky’ but she could not come to an agreement with the production team due to payment issues.

She did a few more films and some television films before making her Broadway debut in 1981, in the play ‘A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking’. She continued making appearances in movies and in television shows in guest roles through the 1980s but most of them were not that popular or successful.

In the 1990s she did many supporting roles on television and appeared in the critically acclaimed movie ‘Blue Sky’ in 1994. The movie earned Carrie’s fellow actress Jessica Lange an Academic Award for her work. Carrie Snodgress continued working and appeared in some popular productions over the years like ‘White Man's Burden’, ‘Wild Things’, ‘The X-Files’, and ‘Murder, She Wrote’.