Carrie Snodgress (October 27, 1946 - April 1 2004) was an American actress.
Snodgress was born Caroline Snodgress in Park Ridge, Illinois. (Two other sources cite Chicago and Barrington, Illinois as her birthplace.) She attended Northern Illinois University before leaving to act. Snodgress trained for the stage at the Goodman Theatre, in Chicago. After a number of minor TV appearances, her film debut was an uncredited appearance in Easy Rider in 1969 and a credited appearance in 1970 in Rabbit, Run opposite James Caan.
Her next film, Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), garnered her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress and two Golden Globe wins, as Best Actress in a Comedy or a Musical (an odd category, given the dramatic nature of the film) and New Star Of The Year - Actress. She left acting soon after in order to live with rock musician Neil Young and care for their son Zeke, who was born with cerebral palsy, but returned in 1978 in The Fury. She and Neil Young split up about 1975. According to Sylvester Stallone, "The first choice for Adrian (in the movie Rocky) was a girl named Carrie Snodgress, who I wanted badly because, at the time, I wanted Adrian’s family to be Irish and Harvey Keitel would be the brother. She said there wasn’t enough money in it (we were getting paid $360 before taxes), so I said “I’ll give you my share, I truly want you.” She passed to do a part in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, which never happened for her." Neil Young's song "A Man Needs a Maid" was inspired by Snodgress, featuring the lyric "I fell in love with the actress/she was playing a part that I could understand."
Later she and film score composer Jack Nitzsche became lovers. The relationship ended in his arrest for a violent assault on her in 1979.
Her broadway debut came in 1981 with A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking. She also appeared in All the Way Home, Oh! What a Lovely War, Caesar and Cleopatra, Tartuffe, The Balcony, The Boor, all at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL; and Curse of the Starving Class at the Tiffany Theatre, Los Angeles.
Other films include Murphy's Law, White Man's Burden, Pale Rider, and Blue Sky.
She was hospitalized awaiting a liver transplant when she died suddenly at age 57 of heart and liver failure in Los Angeles, California.
A student of Northern Illinois University, Carrie switched to drama at Chicago's Goodman Theatre School where she won the Sarah Siddons Award as outstanding graduate. After graduating, Carrie worked in Television and also appeared in Television movies. She made her big screen debut in Rabbit, Run (1970), working with James Caan (I). Her next movie was Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) for which her role as Tina Balser gave her an Academy Award nomination. With similar Golden Globe nominations, Carrie was on the brink of stardom when she left it all to live with rock musician Neil Young (I), the father of her son, Zeke. It would be almost 8 years before she returned to the screen as a supporting actor in Brian De Palma's Fury, The (1978). After a few more films, Carrie debuted on Broadway in the 1981 play "A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking." She continued making movies in the 1980s, some of which were good; others that were not. In the '90s, most of Carrie's supporting actor roles are being filmed for Television. One of the big screen films that she made was the critically acclaimed Blue Sky (1994), which was released years after being made and gave Jessica Lange an Oscar. Carrie has also turned up on series Television in "X Files, The" (1993) and "Murder, She Wrote" (1984).
