Kelly Bishop

Early life

Bishop was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Jane Lenore (née Wahtola) and Lawrence Boden Bishop. She grew up in Denver, Colorado, where she trained to be a ballet dancer, attending American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and the San Jose Ballet School. At eighteen, she headed to New York City and landed her first job dancing in a year-round ballet company at Radio City Music Hall. Bishop continued to dance in Las Vegas, summer stock and on television until she was cast in 1967 in Golden Rainbow, her first Broadway role.

Career

Bishop's big break came when she was cast as the sexy, hard-edged Sheila in the Broadway production of A Chorus Line. Her performance earned her the 1976 Tony Award as "Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Musical)" as well as the 1976 Drama Desk Award for "Outstanding Actress in a Musical". She also acted in the Broadway productions of Six Degrees of Separation, Neil Simon's Proposals, the Tony Award-winning The Last Night of Ballyhoo and Bus Stop. It wasn't long before she was cast opposite Jill Clayburgh in Paul Mazursky's big-screen drama An Unmarried Woman (1978). Bishop was initially cast in a much smaller part in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, but was called upon to play Mrs. Houseman when Lynne Lipton, the actress assigned the role, fell ill during the first week of shooting.

Bishop went on to play a "mom" to high-profile stars in features: Howard Stern's in the Betty Thomas-directed comedy Private Parts (1997), and Tobey Maguire's in Wonder Boys (2000). Additional feature credits include Ich und Er (USA: Me and Him, 1988), Queens Logic (1991), Café Society (1995), Miami Rhapsody (1995) and Blue Moon (2002). On television, Bishop starred in the Mike Nichols' The Thorns opposite Tony Roberts and Marilyn Cooper. She played Lisa Ann Walter's mother on My Wildest Dreams. She has guest-starred on Kate & Allie, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Murphy Brown.

From 2000 to 2007, Bishop starred in the CW Television Network series Gilmore Girls as wealthy New England matriarch Emily Gilmore, mother of Lorelai and grandmother of Rory.

Bishop was in Becky Shaw at the Second Stage Theatre in 2008. She then performed briefly in the 2011 revival of Anything Goes alongside Sutton Foster and Joel Grey. She replaced Jessica Walter in the role of Evangeline Harcourt.

Bishop co-starred as Fanny Flowers on the ABC Family program Amy Sherman-Palladino's Bunheads, in which she reunited with Sutton Foster. The show was canceled after one season.

She returned to the role of Emily Gilmore in the miniseries Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016) on Netflix.

Personal life

Bishop resides in South Orange, New Jersey, where she lives with her husband, TV talk show host Lee Leonard.