Actress
Betty Buckley
Interview
Coming soon!
Notes from Evan Smith
"She’s been stepmom and a prison mom, Mama Rose and the mother of our country, Robert Duvall’s country singer wife and Sissy Spacek’s gym teacher, not to mention the most famous glamour cat ever to appear on stage. And now, as she approaches her sixtieth birthday, she’s back in the role she was literally born to play: that of a Texan. Betty Buckley was born and raised in Fort Worth, where she first sang in front of a church congregation and took dance lessons from her professionally trained aunt before she was in kindergarten. By age 16, she was performing in as many as sixteen shows a day at Six Flags—which is some people’s definition of hell, but she absolutely loved. While enrolled at Texas Christian University as a journalism major, she was named Miss Fort Worth and finished as the runner-up in the 1966 Miss Texas pageant. The following year she performed on the Miss America telecast, where she was discovered by an agent—and her career was launched. Forty years later, she has appeared in thirteen films, including “Tender Mercies,” “Carrie,” and “Frantic”; on two TV series as a recurring character, Eight is Enough and Oz, plus many more as a guest star; and in nine Broadway productions, including “1776,” “Pippin,” and “Cats,” for which she won a Tony. She has also recorded twelve albums, the latest of which, “Betty Buckley with Quintessence,” will be released this fall. When she was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in March, most people think she traveled back to her home state, but, in fact, she lives here—on a ranch in a rural country west of Fort Worth. When you hear her talk about her beloved cutting horses, or her memories of Casa Manana and other Fort Worth hotspots, or her close relationship with her mother Betty Bob, who also still lives in Texas, you know she’s still and forever one of us—you just know it. And we should all be glad about that." - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 4.26.07
