Stockyard Channing Biography

Forever known for her role as Rizzo in the film 'Grease', Stockard was born in Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 1944.

Born Susan Williams Antonia Stockard Channing Schmidt, she was the daughter of a wealthy shipping executive and, upon his death in 1950, inherited the family fortune.

An academic star at New York’s Chapin School and Radcliffe College, she made her first performance in 'The Threepenny Opera' at Harvard University. She then joined Boston’s experimental Theatre Company in the mid 1960s, where she met contemporaries John Lithgow and Tommy Lee Jones.

After several false starts, her big break was in a television production of 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona'.

Her film debut was in 'Hospital' in 1971, and she also starred in Joan Rivers’ camp classic, 'The Girl Most Likely To..', in 1973. In 1975, Channing had her big break in 'The Fortune', alongside Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson.

It was in 1976 that she landed the timeless part of tough-girl Rizzo in the musical 'Grease'.

This led to her two short-lived sitcoms: 'Stockard Channing in Just Friends' and 'The Stockard Channing Show'.

Focusing on the theatre in the 1980s, she won a Tony award for her performance in 'A Day In The Life of Joe Egg' in 1983.

Channing really returned to screen form in 1993’s 'Six Degrees of Separation', for which she was awarded a Golden Globe.

Her most recent screen success has been in 'Where the Heart Is', in 2000.

In 1999, Channing took on the role of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the political drama The West Wing. She was a recurring guest star for the show's first two seasons, before she became a regular cast member in 2001. In the seventh and final season of The West Wing (2005-2006), Channing appeared in only six episodes because she was also starring in the sitcom Out of Practice at the same time. Out of Practice was cancelled by CBS after one season.

Channing has been married and divorced four times; she has no children. She has been in a long-term relationship with cinematographer Daniel Gillham for more than twenty years, after they met on the set of A Time of Destiny.