SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) - Hope Lange, who starred opposite Hollywood’s top actors over a decades-long career and earned an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in the 1957 film “Peyton Place,” died Friday. She was 70.
Lange starred in dozens of films and television shows and captured two Emmy awards in 1969 and 1970, both for lead actress in a comedy series for her role in “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.” Her big screen credits included “The Best of Everything” in 1959 with Joan Crawford, “The Young Lions” in 1958 with Marlon Brando and “Peyton Place” with Lana Turner. More recently, she was in 1986’s “Blue Velvet” and 1994’s “Clear and Present Danger.”
Thanks for posting this, Eve. Hope was a beautiful and talented actress–unfortunately, there will be a long list once more to be read at the Academy Awards.
What part did Ms. Lange play in Peyton Place? Was she Salina?
Yes, she was Selena Cross in Peyton Place—and Caroline Bender in one of my all-time favorite films, The Best of Everything.
Always liked her—she managed to project both warmth and elegance at the same time, not always easy.
Interesting recent quote from her, in her LA Times obit: “Work is hard to find for a woman my age. There just isn’t much around. You start to feel like a brontosaurus, not in your personal life, but professionally . . . You walk into meetings and all the producers and writers are in their 20s. They’re not writing roles for women my age. It never occurs to them . . . Fortunately, I don’t feel validated just when I work. For me, if I never worked again, it wouldn’t matter all that much.”
Although most people will probably remember Hope Lange for Peyton Place, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, or even The New Dick Van Dyke Show, there were two words that always popped into my head whenever I heard her name: Crowhaven Farm. It was an early ABC Movie of the Week (1969?, 1970?) that I saw once when I was about nine years old and images from that film have stayed with me all my life. Puritans still creep me out to this day.
Oh man, I was very sorry to hear that Hope had passed.
I had a major boyhood crush on her back in the 60s.
In the early 90s, a date and I went to an Italian restaurant in Santa Monica and who should be seated next to us but Hope and a companion. My date mortified me by asking “Aren’t you Hope Lange?”
After the initial awkwardness, we had a very pleasant conversation. I found her to be a delightful, witty lady. It was a very enjoyable evening.
I never heard of her until I read the newspaper this morning and was slightly mortified to find myself murmuring “hubba hubba!” while reading the obituaries page. The photo of Hope that they’d used - wow! - what an astonishingly beautiful woman she was! Small wonder Marilyn got jealous.
I was watching Peyton Place the other day, and had just got to the part where Selena admitted in court that her step father had been raping her, and the Dr was berating everyone in the court room for being vicious and gossipy and such. I was bawling my eyes out, cuz I do that with movies.
Then I looked out the window and saw that the tree guy had come by and was digging a hole for the tree in the wrong part of the yard. So I ran out there with my eyes all red, and tear tracks running down my cheeks and told him the tree-hole couldn’t be there. He looked really shocked and apologized profusely.
Its making me very sad that so many of my old “friends” from the movies I love so much are dying.
The old stars only have 6 more days to die if they want to be considered for a spot on the “Farewell” film at this year’s Oscars. The ovations for Katharine Hepburn and Gregory Peck will leave people’s hands too sore to clap for anybody else, unfortunately. (I wonder if they’ll clap for Elia Kazan?)
