Mary Kay Place

Born: 23 September 1947
Where: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Place moved to L.A. after college, where her first industry job was as a temp at CBS in Hollywood. On her first day she was seen by comic Tim Conway, who found her antics amusing, and hired her as an assistant during the brief run of The Tim Conway Comedy Hour.

This then led to a job as secretary to producer/creator Norman Lear on the set of Maude.

When Lear overheard Place and a co-worker singing one of her quirky compositions in the office, he decided to have her sing it on All in the Family. Place made her TV debut on the show singing "When Communism Comes Knocking On Your Door, Don't Answer It".

Rather than immediately pursuing an acting career, Place became a writer for several memorable 1970s sitcoms including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis, and M*A*S*H.

Place entered features with a small role in Bound for Glory and was the band singer in Martin Scorsese's New York, New York, but she may be best remembered as Meg, the career woman who wants one of her old college friends to father her baby, in The Big Chill.

Toards the end of the 90s, she appeared in a number of well-received independent films like Alexander Payne's Citizen Ruth. She appeared in Manny & Lo, was briefly seen as Nick Stahl's suicidal mother in Eye of God and had a role in the screen adaptation of John Grisham's The Rainmaker.

Place had a featured role as a secretary with a hearing problem in Being John Malkovich, and was cast in a lead role in My First Mister, which debuted at Sundance.

In 2001, she played Tim Robbins' mother in Human Nature, then went on to appear in Sweet Home Alabama and Nobody Knows Anything, starring Ben Stiller.