Background
Born in Durham, North Carolina, as Penelope Ann Fuller, Penny Fuller moved to Lumberton when she was 12 with her mother Helen and her stepfather Andy Roundtree.
Born in Durham, North Carolina, as Penelope Ann Fuller, Penny Fuller moved to Lumberton when she was 12 with her mother Helen and her stepfather Andy Roundtree.
She attended Northwestern University in Illinois.
She then went to New York City to make a name for herself on Broadway. Debuting in The Moon Besieged (1962), she later appeared as a replacement in the original productions of Barefoot in the Park (1963) and Cabaret (1966). Her last Broadway musical (to date) was Richard Rodgers" 1976 flop about Henry VIII, Rex, in which she appeared opposite Nicol Williamson and Glenn Close.
(She has continued to work in musicals, however, including the original production of William Finn"s A New Brain and a 1999 revival of Rodgers" Do I Hear a Waltz? at New Jersey"s George Street Playhouse) Recent years have found Mission Fuller back on Broadway, in the original productions of Wendy Wasserstein"s An American Daughter (1997) and Neil Simon"s The Dinner Party (2000).
She was Tony-nominated for the latter. Office-Broadway appearances have included Three Viewings (1995) and Nicky Silver"s unsettling Beautiful Child.
Penny Fuller has extensive television work to her cr, perhaps most memorably in her Emmy-winning performance as Mistress Kendal in the television version of Bernard Pomerance"s play The Elephant Manitoba (1982) and in another stage-to-television presentation, the 1985 version of Tennessee Williams" Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which she played Mae (aka "Sister Woman") opposite Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones.
She has guest-starred in dozens of television series, including The Edge of Night (1964), Love, American Style (1969), The Bob Newhart Show (1972), Banacek (1973), Trapper John, Doctor of Medicine (1979 and 1981), One Day at a Time (1983), The Love Boat (1983 and 1985), Matlock (1988), Los Angeles Law (1988), Murder, She Wrote (1988 and 1993), China Beach (1989-1990), Columbo (1990), Quantum Leap (1992), New York City Police Department Blue (1994), Mad About You (1994-1995), Melrose Place (1994-1995), Emergency (1995), Law & Order (1998) and Judging Amy (2002 and 2005).
Her big-screen work has been more limited but has included All the President"s Men (1976) and The Beverly Hillbillies (1993).