Eileen Brennan

I forgot to add:

Highly underrated.

Always a favorite of mine.

There is a horrible "pseudo-documentary" that some bozo made and put on youtube that is the most depressing and exploitative thing I have ever seen. She is declining with alzheimers and this jerk thinks he should pull out his DV camera and start rolling. It's mainly just raw footage, but it is heart-breaking. I thought of trying to track down her son to tell him about this footage so he could get it removed from youtube.

That's awful, R4. People are ghastly when it comes to celebrities. I hope he gets what is coming to him. I have a lesbian friend who swears Ms. Brennan's voice is the sexiest sound she's ever heard. I think it's a little over the top, but who am I to say?

Terrific comedic actress. She could sing, too. I think she must have felt frustrated by all the roles she didn't get in her life, mostly because she was not a conventional Hollywood beauty.

She roomed with Rue McClanahan in NYC as a young actress. Unlike Rue, she never quite found her MAUDE or GOLDEN GIRLS. She tested for the part of Laura on THE DICK VAN DYKE show, and did well--but we know how that ended.

She was in the original cast of LAUGH IN, but was cut part way through Season 1. A lot of her TV work never took off. After the success of the movie PRIVATE BENJAMIN (w/Goldie), Brennan did the TV series, only to be sidelined by an almost-fatal car accident.

Regardless, she was always working when she could. I loved her in CLUE, PRIVATE BENJAMIN, MURDER BY DEATH, and her recurring bits on WILL & GRACE.

Her brief glamour blonde period during LAUGH IN.

R5, I wonder if I'm your friend? I've said the same about her voice.

She was the best part of Private Benjamin (which was no great feat.) And she was excellent in Will and Grace. Also so many more. I just love her.

Well R8, I doubt you are the same friend, but I respect your opinion of Ms. Brennan. She certainly did have a way with women. All my lesbian friends, and I have many, think Eileen is the greatest. Cheers to you all! Naked

My dad loved her as the waitress in The Last Picture Show. I think she may have reminded him of mom—some physical resemblances and both were “good Jose.”

Well someone's got to break the ice and it might as well be me, I mean I'm used to being a hostess, it's part of my husband's work and it's always difficult when a group of new friends meet together for the first time to get acquainted so I'm perfectly prepared to start the ball rolling, I mean I have absolutely no idea what we're doing here or what I'm doing here or what this place is about but I am determined to enjoy myself and I'm very intrigued and oh my this soup's delicious, isn't it?

Upholstered balls.

Is this the video? It’s sad. Damn that man for posting this video of her

She was out dining with Goldie Hawn when the accident happened. She was leaving the restaurant and crossing the road when she got hit. I don't remember if Goldie actually saw the accident happen or not. I think she writes about it in her book.

Colorado Love Call

She was great in the much-maligned(at least here on DL) "At Long Last Love." Ditto as Paul Newman's one-time, and/or current squeeze in "The Sting."

Loved her in At Long Last Love (a major guilty pleasure of mine)

She may not have been a great beauty, but she had a magnificent face.

It served her well in comedy, but also lent her a striking appearance when shot well, as in The Last Picture Show.

On the screen she came off as smart with superb energy, arresting but never aloof.

I can see why lesbians like her.

La Vie En Rose....

I was thinking about her yesterday--I loved her in The Last Picture Show and Clue. She had a unique face an very expressive eyes that worked in both drama and comedy. She could convey a world-weariness like few others, often mixed with a dizzy, kooky quality. She was an underrated performer.

Precisely, well said R21.

She was more of a New York City stage actress than a movie/TV show actress. Americans don't like theatre actresses the way the UK does.

For people "in-the-know" she was very well respected. She was in the original cast of the Miracle Worker and Hello, Dolly!. Look at her movies- The Last Picture Show, The Sting, Murder by Death, The Cheap Detective, Private Benjamin, and, of course, Clue.

She could hold her own with the greatest of all time- Ellen Burstyn, Jeff Bridges, Cloris Leachman, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Peter Falk, Maggie Smith, Alec Guinness, David Niven, Madeline Kahn, Dom DeLuise, Goldie Hawn, Sam Wanamaker, Lesley Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd, and Tim Curry.

She was also a recurring character in some great TV shows later in her life. Her character on Will & Grace was hilarious! She was also in 7th Heaven.

She had steady work her entire life.

My godfather dated her for a couple of years and so I met her a few times when I was quite young. She was fun, she talked to me with much more grace and interest than most of my friends' parents, and I liked her. However, as my parents informed me later, I always met her before they went out for cocktails. They wouldn't let me near her afterwards.

She bearded for Sam Diamond

Was she a nasty drunk r24?

Not a nasty drunk. A sloppy one. The kind that gets all sentimental and cries about a cat who died ten years ago and then wants to kiss everyone and then politely vomits.

R26 well, she was Irish...

Watching Stevie on Schitt’s Creek, I couldn’t put my finger on it for the longest time, but her sardonic attitude & mannerisms reminded me of someone in the worst way. After numerous episodes, it finally got me: Eileen Brennan in Private Benjamin!! Annie Clark also channeled Brandi Glanville,it was uncanny.

Annie Murphy, oops

She appears briefly in the rarely seen horror satire PANDEMONIUM as a Margaret White type mother of a telekinetic girl (Carol Kane) and CARRIE actor Sydney Lassick. In the AIRPLANE tradition with castmates Paul Reubens in early Pee wee mode, Judge Reinhold, Tab Hunter, Phil Hartman, Eve Arden, Kaye Ballard, and Donald O'Connor for fuck's sake.

Yes.❤️