Kathleen Nolan

A lifelong professional performer, "born in a trunk," as they say in the theatrical world, Kathleen Nolan's debut commenced on a Mississippi showboat called "The Goldenrod" when she was a tot of 13 months. Her gutsy, confident personality was demonstrated on that showboat by her first salary negotiation - at age six! The whole family performed -- her father, Stephen Ellsworth, mother Clara Kennedy, and sister Nancy - and had their own Circle Stock Company. At 16, she went to New York and studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner: to get the money to go, she worked a day job at an electrical company, followed by a night shift as a waitress. As "Kathy" Nolan, two of her most notable roles were on Broadway as young "Wendy" in the 1954/55 production of Peter Pan opposite Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, and "Kate McCoy" in the popular TV series The Real McCoys (1957-1963). In 1975, she ran as an independent candidate for Guild President and defeated not only the nominating committee's official choice, Robert Hogan, but three other independents. This victory made her the Guild's first female National President. In 1977 she repeated her success by being elected to a second two-year term in which she again defeated the Nominating Committee’s choice, Bert Freed this time, and three independents. Confident and fearlessly outspoken, she supported revision of the United States Copyright Law; non-gender specific casting of roles in film and television, which would broaden opportunities for actresses; reduction in the number of TV re-runs; elimination of "TVQ" (a list of around 600 actors and actresses that a survey showed had the most "viewer appeal"); support for public broadcasting; federal government support of an "arts plank" to recognize the arts as not a luxury for the rich, but an "essential human right" for all. She presided over the Guild's 4th strike Dec. 1978 - Feb. 1979, over Commercials.