Kitty Winn

Kitty Winn
Born	(1943-02-21) February 21, 1943 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1969–1984, 2011

Katherine Tupper "Kitty" Winn (born February 21, 1944) is an award-winning American actress. She is best known for her recurring role of Sharon Spencer in the horror film franchise The Exorcist.

Early Life and Career

Kitty Winn was born in Washington, D.C. As the daughter of an army officer James J. Winn and Molly Brown Winn. Winn traveled widely during much of her childhood, including, time spent in United States, England, Germany, China, India and Japan. Her mother is the step-daughter of U.S. Army General George Marshall.

Her career has spanned a wide range of drama productions on stage, in motion pictures and on television. She studied acting at Centenary Junior College and Boston University, graduating from the latter in 1966. During her college years Winn acted in student productions at Centenary Junior College, Boston University, and Harvard College and summer stock for two summers at The Priscilla Beach Theatre south of Boston. Shortly after college she joined the company at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco where she remained for four years under the artistic direction of William Ball.

In the fall of 1970 Kitty left American Conservatory Theater to play opposite Al Pacino in the film Panic in Needle Park for which she won the Best Actress award at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. Although she went on to do several more films, such as The Exorcist, she always returned to her great love, the theatre.

Kitty retired in 1978 but returned to play Cordelia in The Tragedy of King Lear for KCET in 1983. She did not return to the stage again until 2011 when she played the lead in The Last Romance at the San Jose Repertory Theatre. For this performance she was nominated for a best actress award by the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.

Body of Work

Theatre

Year	Production Location	Play	Role
1961	Centenary Junior College	Antigone	Antigone
1963	Priscilla Beach Theatre	Curious Savage	Florence
1963	Priscilla Beach Theatre	Song of Bernadette	Bernadette
1964	Priscilla Beach Theatre	Night of the Iquana	Miss Jenks
1964	Priscilla Beach Theatre	Gigi	Gigi
1964	Priscilla Beach Theatre	Shot in the Dark	Josefa Lantenay
1964	Boston University	Measure for Measure	Mistress Overdon's girl
1964	Boston University	Toys in the Attic	Lily
1965	Boston University	The Rose Tattoo	Rosa
1965	Harvard College	The Beggars' Opera	Polly Peachum
1966	Boston University	The Playboy of the Western World	Pegeen Mike
1967	American Conservatory Theater	The Crucible	Mary Warren
1967	American Conservatory Theater	Thieves' Carnival	Juliette
1967	American Conservatory Theatre	Charley's Aunt	Kitty
1968	American Conservatory Theater	Long Day's Journey into Night	Cathleen
1968	American Conservatory Theater	Le Misanthrope	Celemene
1968	American Conservatory Theater	Under Milkwood	Lily Smalls
1969	American Conservatory Theater	Rosencrantz and Gilderstern Are Dead	Ophelia
1969	American Conservatory Theater	Charley's Aunt	Kitty
1969	ANTE Theatre and American Conservatory Theater	The Three Sisters	Irina
1969	The Mineola Playhouse	Our Town	Emily (also with Henry Fonda) Michael York (actor)
1970	American Conservatory Theater	Glory Hallelujah	Nantelle Bowden
1970	American Conservatory Theater	The Rose Tattoo	Rosa
1970	American Conservatory Theater	The Tempest	Miranda
1972	Long Wharf Theatre, New York Shakesphere in the Park, and Mark Taper Forum	Hamlet	Ophelia (also with Stacy Keach, James Earl Jones and Colleen Dewhurst)
1975	The Phoenix Theatre	Knuckle (off Broadway premier)	Jenny Wilbur (opposite Perry King)
1975	Ahmanson Theatre	Ring Around the Moon	Isabelle (opposite Michael York)
1977	Long Wharf Theatre	St. Joan	Joan
1978	Coconut Grove Playhouse	Othello	Desdemona
1982	Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis	Romeo and Juliet	Juliet
2011	San Jose Repertory Theatre	The Last Romance	Carol

Motion Pictures

Year	Name of Film	Role	Other Actors
1971	They Might be Giants	Grace	Joanne Woodward, George C. Scott
1971	The Panic in Needle Park	Helen	Al Pacino
1973	The Exorcist	Sharon Spencer	Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair
1976	Peeper	Mianne Prendergast	Michael Caine, Natalie Wood
1977	Exorcist II: The Heretic	Sharon Spencer	Linda Blair, Richard Burton
1978	Mirrors	Marianne	Peter Donat

Movies for Television

Year	Name of Film	Role	Other Actors
1970	The House That Would Not Die for ABC		Barbara Stanwyck
1972	The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe for NET	Harriet
1973	Message to My Daughter	Miranda Thatcher	Martin Sheen
1974	The Carpenters for KCET	Sissy	Vincent Gardenia
1975	Miles to Go Before I Sleep
1977	The Last Hurrah for Hallmark Hall of Fame	Maeve Skeffington	Carroll O'Connor
1983	The Tragedy of King Lear for KCET	Cordelia

Series for Television

Year	Name of Series	Role	Other Actors
1973	The Streets of San Francisco for ABC	Barbara Talmadge	Michael Douglas, Karl Malden
1975	Beacon Hill for CBS	Rosamond Lassiter	Nancy Marchand, Beatrice Straight
1977	Kojak - "Kojak Days: Part 1"	Carla Magid	Telly Savalas, Kevin Dobson, Dan Frazer, George Savalas
1977	Kojak - "Kojak Days: Part 2"	Carla Magid	Telly Savalas, Kevin Dobson, Dan Frazer, George Savalas

Awards

Cannes Film Festival

Year	Performance	Award
1971	Helen in The Panic in Needle Park	Best Actress Award

Trivia

• Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1971" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 33.
• Her performance as Helen in The Panic in Needle Park (1971) is ranked #76 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Film Performances of All Time (2006).
• The star-studded cast for Joe Papp's New York Shakesphere in the Park production of Hamlet included Stacy Keach (Hamlet), James Earl Jones (Claudius), Colleen Dewhurst (Gertrude), and Kitty Winn (Ophelia).
• After a stage absence of 29 years Kitty is nominated for a best actress award by the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle for her performance at San Jose Repertory Theatre in 2011.
• Step-granddaughter of General of the Army and Secretary of State George C. Marshall.

External links

• Kitty Winn at the Internet Movie Database