Happy Mother's Day, Mom

I just spent a wonderful day with my Mom for Mother's Day. We checked out the new Anthony Hopkins flick Fracture and it was awesome. Mom and I are both big Hopkins fans, and we both found ourselves enjoying Ryan Gosling's performance as well. My friend David Robinette had told me about his work in the movie Half Nelson, which I have yet to see, and said that he's going to be the next real "actor" of our generation, as opposed to the "stars and celebrities" that are very famous but can't act their way out of a paper bag...but that's a whole other rant...

So. About Mommy.



I'd like to take a moment for Mother's Day to reflect on what an AWESOME mother my mom is. I'm going to have to put more photos up of her later, for there are so many that I have that I need to scan...the ones on the internet are tired - everyone uses mostly the same ones...



My mother is the most loving mother anyone could ever hope to have. She's kind-hearted, over-protective (sigh), and always tries to be there for her children (that would be me and my sister, Danae).




Most people know Mom from her role as Lana on Three's Company, or as Lahoma on the soaps Another World and Somerset from the 70's; some folks know her as Aunt Fern who baked the armadillo cake in Steel Magnolias; or her role as Merleen from the hit show Evening Shade with Burt Reynolds in the 90's. Film buffs will know her as Frenchie from Scarecrow with Al Pacino & Gene Hackman, or as Bobbie DeNiro's girlfriend in Bang the Drum Slowly. She came within a hair's breath of being nominated for an academy award for her performance in Sweet Dreams with Jessica Lange & Ed Harris.

They talk about six degrees of separation of Kevin Bacon, which is fun and interesting; but I betcha we could do six degrees or less of separation with my Mom. Easy. Most of the "favorite actors" like DeNiro, Pacino, Hackman, Hoffman, Duvall - she's either worked with them or they were all in the same acting class together with Sandy Meisner. I can't tell you how many actors have talked to me (we're talking Name-Actors) who say "Wow, how is Ann? Man, she was there when I got my first gig. She's awesome."

My mother is all those things; she is also a Tony-award-winning actress who won the Tony for Best Supporting Actress in Neil Simon's Chapter Two on Broadway back in '78. She starred in Sam Sheppard's A Lie of the Mind and was part of the original cast. You open a New Dramatist play script for several shows and you'll see my mother's name in the original cast. She has done more theatre, film, and tv combined than most people in Hollywood or New York could ever hope to - and she has done it WELL. She is a talented, gifted actress who is known to the masses as being a sex symbol but to those who understand The Work as being a brilliant actress dedicated to her craft.



Two of the greatest compliments I ever received in my life were 1)That I looked like her (I then proceeded to slip the guy $100) and 2) That my acting in Before the Next Blue Norther reminded someone of my mother's work. (I was so happy I dropped my wallet on that one.)

I've been trying to get a website up for her and it's still in the works...but we get a lot of fan mail sent there. That's one of the projects I have on the list to do this summer: get Mom's website done. Lots of sites like imdb and wikipedia have partial information...but some of it is incorrect and its all incomplete. There is so much more that mother has done than is listed. Like playing Abigail in "The Crucible" with Leslie Nielson as John Proctor. Or the fact that she played Vincent D'Onofrio's mother twice - once on an Equalizer episode in the 80's (remember that show? that rocked) and in Vincent's The Whole Wide World. Thanks to Vincent she recently had a role in The Hawk is Dying with Paul Giamatti.

So, Happy Mother's Day, Mom...and always know that the world has not forgotten Ann Wedgeworth, because someone as incredible, talented, beautiful, and charismatic as you is one of the people who keeps the world forever illuminated.