Bonnie Bartlett is an American television and film actress.
Background
Bartlett was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, the daughter of Carrie and Electrical Engineer Bartlett, and raised in Moline, Illinois. Her father was an insurance salesman and a failed actor, and she was determined to live out his dream.
Education
In 1947, Bartlett graduated from Moline High School. Bartlett studied acting with Lee Strasberg, and first got her start in television playing the heroine "Vanessa Dale Raven" on the soap opera Love of Life from 1955 to 1959, replacing actress Peggy McCay.
Career
Her career spans over 60 years, with her first major role being on a 1950s daytime drama, Love of Life. She is best known for her role as Ellen Craig on the medical drama series Saint Elsewhere. Ironically, she had a previous role on the program, in which briefly she played the character of Ellie Crown, a role which was played for several years by Hildy Parks.
She then moved on to nighttime roles in the 1960s.
Her most widely known role was as Ellen Craig on Saint Elsewhere. Initially an infrequently recurring character, she took on greater prominence in the 1984–1985 season when the storyline included Ellen and Mark"s marital problems.
Foreign many years Bartlett accepted only small guest appearances on such programs as Gunsmoke, The Rockford Files, and The Waltons, as well as a recurring role as Grace Snyder Edwards on Little House on the Prairie from 1974 to 1977. Her acting career picked up considerably in the 1980s, including the miniseries V and North and South: Book World War II They later acted together again when she played a college dean who employed her husband"s character, in a season of Daniels"s American Broadcasting Company series Boy Meets World, and their characters later married.
When Saint Elsewhere ended in 1988, Bartlett"s career moved to a wide variety of guest-starring appearances, including major roles on Wiseguy as a tough and corrupt matriarch of a sewage business.
As Andrea Drey, Secretary General of the United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO) on seaQuest DSV. On Home Improvement as Lucille Taylor (Tim "The Tool-Manitoba" Taylor"s mother). And on Emergency as Ruth Katherine Greene.
Bartlett and Daniels both served on Screen Actors Guild"s Board of Directors. Bartlett appeared in the Valediction, which was scheduled to begin its film festival circuit in October 2011.