Shelley Long is an American actress known for playing roles in comedy series. The most successful way is considered Diane Chambers. This is the heroine of the television series "Merry Company". For this role, Shelley received five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. She played in other popular comedies. In 2009, Long appeared in the TV series "The American Family." There she played the ex-wife of Jay Pritchett. Recently, the actress has ceased to actively act in films, but the audience has not lost interest in her.
early years
Shelley Long was born in 1949 in the American city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her parents were school teachers. Mother was Ivadina, and father was Leland. Before becoming a teacher, he worked at a factory. While still at school, Shelley was successful in oratory. At the university, she specialized in drama theory, but then sometimes left this lesson for the sake of the modeling business. Photos of Shelley Long have appeared in many prestigious magazines. She also tried to open her own business in Chicago.
First roles
In 1975, Shelley Long joined the comedy troupe Second City. She became one of the producers of the local television program. National channels soon noted her talent. Later, the actress began to appear in various popular comedy shows as a guest star, as well as to appear in commercials. Her first significant work was in the film “Cracker Factory” in 1979, where she played a patient in a psychiatric clinic. Unexpected success came to her after the picture "A narrow circle of friends" about the riots at Harvard University in the 60s of the twentieth century. In 1981, she got the role of Tala in the comedy "Caveman". In 1982, she was invited to play Belinda in Ron Howard's "Night Shift." A year later, the actress starred with Tom Cruise in "Losing It."
Shelley Long: filmography
The series “Merry Company” brought a lot of awards to our heroine, namely the role of Diana Chambers. In this comedy, Shelley Long starred from 1982 to 1987. But participating in the filming of the series, the actress continued to work in various films. Some of them brought her even greater fame. For example, for the film Irreconcilable Contradictions, she received the Golden Globe. In other tapes, the actress starred with Tom Hanks, Bette Midler and Peter Coyote ("Breakthrough", "Crazy Money"). In 1987, for unknown reasons (the assumptions were strongly savored in the press, but Shelly refuted them) she left the Fun Company, but in 1993 she returned to the series.
At this time, she starred in several more films. In "Beverly Hills Rota", she played a housewife who is trying to improve relations with her daughter and recover after a divorce. Then followed “Frozen Assets,” “Don't Tell Her, It's Me.” Critics praised her for playing the role of a woman suffering from schizophrenia, in which twenty different people seem to live (Voices Inside. The Life of Trudy Chase). She perfectly played all these phantasmagoric personalities. After that, the career of a dramatic actress opened before Shelley Long, which she successfully used in the late nineties.
Latest films and personal life
One of the hits of the comedic heroine was the role of Carol in the film about the Brady family, which she played in 1995. The picture withstood two sequels, and Shelley participated in both. In 2000, she played with Richard Gere in the movie Doctor T and His Women. The actress was married twice, but not too well. The first marriage from which she had a son ended in divorce in 1979. Soon she met her second husband, Bruce Tyson. He was a broker and owner of securities. They married in 1981. And in 1985 they had a daughter, Julian. But since 2000, something has gone wrong. In 2003, Bruce and Shelley separated, and in 2004, they divorced.
In the same year, the actress was hospitalized due to an overdose of painkillers. Some believed that she tried to commit suicide, although Shelley always denied it. Since that time, she has sharply limited filming and devoted her life to children. Most often, she appears on screens for participation in television shows. Her last appearance in such projects is her role in the American Family. But films with Shelley Long have become a rarity. She played episodic roles in several series and sometimes in television productions - “They were mixed up in the hospital”, “Zombie Hamlet”, “Question of time”. The last film she participated in was Various Flowers, shot in 2016.