Madeleine Sherwood (Reverend Mother Superior Placido) 1922-2016

[Zoneboy]

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Madeleine Sherwood, who starred in the stage and film versions of the Tennessee Williams classics Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth, has died. She was 93.

Sherwood, perhaps best known as the non-nonsense Reverend Mother Superior Lydia Placido on the 1967-70 ABC sitcom The Flying Nun starring Sally Field, died Saturday at her childhood home in Lac Cornu, Quebec, family spokesperson Melissa Fitch told The Hollywood Reporter.

A native of Montreal, Sherwood studied under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York. She made her Broadway debut in 1952 replacing Kim Stanley in Horton Foote's The Chase, and a year later, she played Abigail, who accuses many in the town of Salem of witchcraft, in Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

Sherwood portrayed Mae Pollitt/Sister Woman in the Pulitzer Prize- winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Elia Kazan, then reprised the role for Richard Brooks in the 1958 film adaptation. In Sweet Bird of Youth, she starred as Miss Lucy on Broadway in 1959-60 and in the 1962 movie.

Her other Broadway credits include Camelot (1961), Williams' The Night of the Iguana (1962) — where she stepped in for Bette Davis — Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965), Inadmissible Evidence (1965) and Edward Albee's All Over (1971). Her final stage performance was in a play about Williams’ mother, Miss Edwina.

Sherwood also worked for Kazan in the 1956 film Baby Doll, playing a nurse. Her movie résumé includes Otto Preminger's Hurry, Sundown (1967), Pendulum (1969), The Changeling (1980), Resurrection (1980) and Teachers (1984).

She also appeared in the TV soap operas One Life to Live, The Guiding Light and As the World Turns.

In the 1980s, she, Cicely Tyson and Joanne Woodward were the first actresses to receive a grant from the American Film Institute to direct short films (she wrote, directed and acted in a film called Good Night Sweet Prince).

Blacklisted during the McCarthy era, Sherwood was an active participant in the civil rights movement (she was arrested during a Freedom Walk in Alabama) in the 1960s and in the women’s movement in the '70s. She twice was nominated for the Order of Canada.

Survivors include her daughter Chloe, two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

[AB]

Rest in peace.

[Zoneboy]

[D-Dey]

This is a woman who I've always been surprised to find has lived as long as she did. I honestly can't say I've seen her in anything since "Teachers." Recently TCM showed "Baby Doll." The next time they show that movie, I'm going to look for her.


So she marched with Civil Rights workers, eh? I'd love to see some footage of that.

[ABlairican Pie]

I remember her appearning on a few episodes of "The Fugitive". She played a sort of bumpkin-y sort of mom type in these episodes. Interesting, I had not known she was a main character on '"The Flying Nun". I remember watching the show a lot when I was a kid, but the nuns except for Sally Field as Sister Bertrille were all rather straight-laced.

On "The Fugitive" she had a distinctive look and accent.

[Marvo301]

I never realized that Madeleine Sherwood was a fellow Canadian. She had an amazing and diverse career spanning Broadway, movies, and TV. And through all that was also an activist for causes she believed in. Truly a remarkable woman. Madeleine Sherwood

[Coffeecup]

I saw her in a show, can't remember what at the moment, but was surprised she wasn't as tall as I thought. She looked to be about 5'5. Just a few days ago, saw her in a Bonanza episode of 1970 when Mitch Vogel was on the show. She played an abusive aunt to young girl.

[OH Nuts!]

She was great as the Rev. mother in The Flying Nun. May she RIP.