Michael Learned is known for her role as Olivia Walton in The Waltons. She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series four times! Three of the wins were for The Waltons (1973, 1974, 1976), while the other was for Nurse (1982).
Biography from the Elitch Theatre Program:
MICHAEL LEARNED (Linda) — achieved national recognition and won three Emmy Awards for her long-running role in The Waltons. Prior to starring in The Waltons, she won acclaim as a classical stage actress, playing the leading roles in Under Milkwood, Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Private Lives. She has starred off-Broadway in The Three Sisters and in A God Slept Here, in numerous productions for the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and with the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. After leaving The Waltons, she returned to the stage in a tour of Dear Liar, followed by starring roles in Mary Stuart at the Ahmanson Theatre, A Month In the Country at the Mark Taper Forum, Neil Simon’s Actors and Actresses at the Hartman Theatre, and Loves of Anatol and The Time of the Cuckoo in New York. In addition to her co-starring roles in the feature films, Touched By Love and Power, Ms. Learned has starred on television in Widow, Little Mo, Off the Minnesota Strip, Christmas Without Snow, the special and subsequent series of Nurse, for which she received her fourth Emmy Award, and Deadly Business.
Seasons at the Theatre
- 1987 – No Time For Comedy
Productions/Roles:
- 1987 – No Time For Comedy as Linda Easterbroom (character stage name Linda Paige)
Notable Roles, Awards, and Other Work:
- Olivia Walton in The Waltons, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series three times, and she was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards.
- Nurse Mary Benjamin in Nurse, for which Learned was nominated for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress and won yet another Emmy for this role in 1982.
Elitch Theatre Connections:
- Historic Elitch Theatre alumna, Mary Jackson, appeared with Learned in The Waltons as one of the Baldwin Sisters.
- Ms. Learned appeared in Mercy or Murder with Elitch Theatre alumni, James Whitmore, in the American Play-house production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.
- Alumni Steve Allen appeared in an episode of Nurse with Learned.
Wikipedia Link:
