Michael Learned

Michael Learned (born April 9, 1939) is an American actress, known for her role as Olivia Walton in the long-running CBS drama series ''The Waltons'' (1972–1981). She has won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series four times, which is tied for the record of most wins with Tyne Daly. Three of the wins were for ''The Waltons'' (1973, 1974, 1976), while the other was for ''Nurse'' (1982).

Early life

Learned was born in Washington, D.C., the eldest daughter of Elizabeth Duane ("Betti"; née Hooper) and Bruce Learned, a diplomat. Her maternal grandfather also worked for the United States Foreign Service (of the U.S. State Department), and was an attaché for the United States Embassy in Rome (Italy). She has five younger sisters: Gretl, Susan, Sabra, Dorit and Philippa. She lived on a Connecticut farm for the first 10 years of her life. Learned said that her parents never explained why she received a masculine first name, once saying of her father: "All he told me was that if I had been a boy, I would have been named Caleb, but I was a girl, so I was called Michael." When she was 11, Learned moved to Austria, where her father worked for the U.S. Department of State. At this time, she attended Arts Educational School, Tring, (now the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Tring, Hertfordshire, England, (United Kingdom). During this time, she discovered the theater and acting, and decided to make acting her life's work.

Career

Television and film

Her first substantial role in either film / motion pictures or television was as the character Olivia Walton, the mother and wife of John Walton, Sr. on ''The Waltons'' drama / nostalgia television series , which ran for nine seasons from 1972 to 1981. For the first five seasons of the show she was billed as "Miss Michael Learned" because she was relatively unknown at the time and producers wished to avoid confusion among viewers about her gender, that her "Michael" was a woman's name). By the sixth season, as the show continued its success after the departure of co-star Richard Thomas (born 1951), these fears of confusion about her sex had been alleviated and the "Miss" was dropped from Learned's billing in the credits. She was nominated for six Emmy Awards as Lead Actress in a Drama, winning three times. After the end of the sixth season, she agreed to appear for one more season on the condition that she would not have to work the full nine months schedule. After the seventh season she left the show. Her character's abrupt disappearance in Season 7 was explained by Olivia developing tuberculosis and entering a sanatorium in hot and dry Arizona. She returned briefly in Season 8 and later appeared in four of the six subsequent ''Waltons'' sequel / reunion made-for-TV films and specials made, with three during 1982 and during the 1990s (1993, 1995 and 1997). For her portrayal of Olivia Walton, Learned was also nominated for four Golden Globe Awards. During her run as Olivia Walton, Learned and ''The Waltons'' co-star, Will Geer, also appeared together in the 1974 made-for-TV movie ''Hurricane''.

Learned made her big screen debut in 1980, playing the supporting role in the drama film '' Touched by Love''. She later appeared in '' Power'' (1986) and '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'' (1993), and well as number of made-for-television movies. Learned starred as Nurse Mary Benjamin in the hospital drama ''Nurse'', which ran on the CBS-TV network for six episodes in the spring 1981 and then for the following 1981–1982 seasons. Though the series was well received critically, it was not a big ratings success and lasted only two partial seasons. Nevertheless, Learned was nominated for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress and won yet another Emmy for this role in 1982. She later had starring roles in the unsuccessful 1988 series drama '' Hothouse'' and the 1989 sitcom '' Living Dolls'' and reprised her ''Waltons'' role for a number of television movies and reunions in the 1990s. In 2005, Learned played Judge Helen Turner on the ABC-TV network's daytime soap operas ''All My Children'' and ''One Life to Live'' as part of the "baby switch" storyline on both shows. In the second season of ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'', she guest-starred as a ghost who regretted the decisions of her long-estranged granddaughter, revealed at the end to be the show's main villain, Danielle Atron ( Louan Gideon). She guest-starred in '' Scrubs'' as Mrs. Wilk in five episodes from the show's fifth season. She played Shirley Smith on ABC's other long-running soap opera''General Hospital'' in 2010. In late 2011, Learned played Katherine Chancellor on the CBS daytime soap opera, ''The Young and the Restless'', filling in for longtime actress Jeanne Cooper, who was on extended medical leave from the series. Several decades later in 2022, Learned made her return to television with starring role in the Netflix limited series, '' Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story'' playing Catherine Dahmer, Jeffrey Dahmer's grandmother.

Theatre

In the late 1960s, Learned and her husband Peter Donat appeared in various roles with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California. She has appeared in many stage productions on Broadway in off Broadway, in New York City and elsewhere, including the 2006–2007 national touring production of the play '' On Golden Pond''.

In the fall of 2008, she starred in the Innovation Theatre Works' production of '' Driving Miss Daisy'', playing the title role of retired Atlanta, Georgia school teacher Daisy Werthen, opposite Willis Burks II as Hoke and Dirk Blocker as Daisy's son Boolie. She reprised the role opposite Lance E. Nichols as Hoke at the Judson Theatre Company in March 2013.

Personal life

Learned has been married four times. Her first husband was Canadian-American actor Peter Donat (1928-2018), whom she married in 1956 when she was 17 years old. The marriage was dissolved 16 years later in 1972. She had three sons by that marriage, one of whom is actor and business executive Lucas Donat (born 1962). Her second marriage, to Glen Chadwick, lasted only three years from 1974 to 1977 and also ended in divorce. In 1979, she married actor-screenwriter William Parker. That marriage ended in divorce as well. Since 1991, she has been married to lawyer John Doherty; the couple resides currently in California. In a 2002 article she wrote for the ''Daily Word'', a publication of the Unity Church, Learned states that at the time she was cast in ''The Waltons'' in 1971, she had "hit rock bottom". Then, at age 32, Learned realized she was an alcoholic. Taking herself to former husband Peter Donat's remote cabin on the California coast, she decided to "get sober" and that her time there was the beginning of a spiritual journey. Learned further stated in the article that she has been sober since 1977.

Filmography

Film

Television films

Television series

References

External links

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Image of Robert L. Jacks, Michael Learned, Richard Thomas and Lee Rich with their Emmys for "The Waltons," Los Angeles, California, 1973.
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Learned, Michael
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actors educated at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts
Actresses from Connecticut
Actresses from Washington, D.C.
American film actresses
American soap opera actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award winners