Smart On Stage

By: Milton Bass
Source: Berkshire Eagle - July, 2005

Self-sufficient and Smart with a capital S. That's Jean Smart who is featured in Lady Windermere's Fan at the Williamstown Theatre Festival through Sunday.

The apartment to which Ms. Smart was assigned during her stay in Williamstown had no shades in the bedroom and every morning at 5:30 the sun shone directly in the actress' eyes. Having been part of the Designing Women TV sitcom for five years, Smart took immediate action. She drove to Wal-Mart, purchased dense material at $1 a yard and sewed herself a set of drapes.

This tall (5 feet, 10 inches, 1.78 meters) actress, who could get by on her classic blonde looks alone, has also put together a completely rounded acting career that encompasses all aspects of the genre, ranging through stage, screen and television and going as far as directing a school play for her son's middle-school class. She paid her dues after her graduation from the University of Washington where she received a bachelor of arts degree in fine arts. She started at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and put in seasons at the Hartford Stage Company, the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Alaska Repertory Theatre and the Alliance Theatre.

And she made her bones in 1980 by starring in an off-Broadway drama titled Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, for which she garnered an Off-Broadway Drama Desk nomination. This play about a gathering of a group of lesbian friends who discover that one of them is dying brought Smart enthusiastic reviews, and she repeated her success in Los Angeles in 1983.

In 1981, she made her Broadway debut in Piaf, in which she portrayed Marlene Dietrich. When she repeated the role for a television production, she attracted Hollywood attention and moved there to pursue her career. She was featured in four television series that failed before making her mark as Charlene Frazier on the hit sit-com Designing Womem in 1986.

"I cried for two weeks when I accepted that job," she confessed in Williamstown. "I don't want to do the same thing every day, and I knew I was selling my soul." It wasn't all tears, however. "It was enormous fun to work there, and I met my husband."

Her husband is actor Richard Gilliland, who played the boyfriend of co-star Annie Potts for two seasons. They dated and wed and their son, Connor, worked on the show unpaid because he was hiding in his mother's tummy. Connor was worked into the plot and the viewers got to see him get bigger and bigger incognito.

Jean left the show after her fifth year and Designing Women went on for two more seasons.

"It was time to move on," Jean concluded.

Then came a series of television movies before a return to Broadway in The Man Who Came to Dinner with Nathan Lane, and this earned her a Tony Award nomination. And her two guest appearances on the sit-com Frasier won her two Emmy Awards. Anyone who has seen those two classic episodes doesn't need any coaching on the versatility of Jean Smart's acting talent.

Smart worked with Williamstown artistic director Roger Rees several years ago and was most pleased when he invited her to do Windermere as part of his first season there.

"Most of my career has been classical theater," said Smart. "I love Oscar Wilde but I have never done a Wilde play. I do have to wear an industrial strength corset but that is a small price to pay. My family will be here for most of the run, including Connor, who is now 15 and 6 feet, 1 inch tall."

Smart was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 13 and has been very active in publicizing awareness of the disease. "I am still involved with that," she said, "but mostly now I spend time at the Hillsides Home for Children in Pasadena. When I was working on the Frasier show, I became close friends with David Angell and his wife, Lynn."

Angell was the co-creator of the Frasier sit-com and had worked on many hit television shows. He and his wife were on the American Airlines Flight 11 when it was hijacked on 9/11, and both died when the plane was crashed into the World Trade Center.

The Angells were major contributors to the Hillside organization which provides refuge and care for abused children and were also active in its day-to-day operations.

"There are 10 pre-teen kids in each house," said Smart, "and I visit there for the day every six or seven weeks. They do wonders with these damaged kids." From Williamstown, Smart goes back to Los Angeles where she is developing a movie script for Lifetime and is contemplating taking on a recurring role in a one-hour dramatic series on television. And she would like very much to return to Williamstown, sun in her eyes or not.

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