Lesley Ann Warren

The 5-foot-8 inch Warren began her career as a ballet dancer, training at the School of American Ballet. She entered the Actors Studio at the age of 17 - reputedly the youngest applicant ever to be accepted. Her Broadway debut came in 1963 in the musical, 110 in the Shade. She won the Theatre World Award for her performance in the 1965 flop musical Drat! The Cat!. In 1973 she portrayed Scarlett O'Hara in the Los Angeles production of the musical Scarlett; however the play was poorly reviewed and didn't continue to Broadway as planned. Having failed to obtain the role of Liesl in the film version of The Sound of Music, Warren's first major television success was in the title role of Rodgers and Hammerstein's television special, Cinderella, in 1965. She later replaced Barbara Bain as the leading female in the Mission: Impossible team during the 1970-1971 television season. According to The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier by Patrick White, she was considered too inexperienced for the part and left after only one year. Despite her departure, throughout the 1970s Warren became a leading lady of TV Movies, TV Series and TV Mini-series. She even hosted her own episode of The Muppet Show and made an occasional feature film. For her portrayal of a dim-witted gangster's moll in the 1982 musical-comedy Victor/Victoria, Warren was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Warren is also a five-time Golden Globes nominee and won for the 1977 mini-series Harold Robbins' 79 Park Avenue. She was Emmy-nominated for the TV movie Family of Spies (1991). In the comedy film version of the popular board game Clue (1985), Warren starred as one of the prime murder suspects, Miss Scarlet. In 1989, she appeared in Aerosmith video Janie's Got a Gun where she played Janie's mother. Warren had recurring roles on Will & Grace as Will's father's mistress, and on Desperate Housewives as Susan's mother. Other television roles have included Lily Lebowski's mother on Crossing Jordan and Kip Stedman's mother in Less Than Perfect. Warren plays the role of Mary's mother in the USA Network original television series, In Plain Sight.

Source Here