Show notes
Betty Buckley is a legendary, multi-award-winning actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She is a 2012 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and the 2017 recipient of the Julie Harris Awards from The Actor’s Fund for Artistic Achievement and received The Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Songbook Association in 2023.
She won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a musical for her performance as Hesione in Triumph of Love. She received an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway.
Ms. Buckley is featured in the film By Design, written and directed by Amanda Kramer, and it made its debut at The Sundance Film Festival in January 2025. She is also featured in the film Eternity for A24 Studios, starring Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen, released in November 2025. In March 2024, she co-starred in Imaginary for Blumhouse Productions and released by Lionsgate. She co-starred with James McAvoy in the M. Night Shyamalan hit film Split, one of the top international box office hits of 2017. She received a Saturn Award Nomination for Best Featured Actress for her work in the film.
Her other films include her debut in Brian de Palma’s screen version of Stephen King’s Carrie, Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies, Roman Polanski’s Frantic, Woody Allen’s Another Woman, Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening.
In 2024, The Mayfly, an animated short film written, produced and narrated by Ms. Buckley played the film festival circuit and won several awards, including Best of Festival, Best Director and Best 2D Character Based Animation at The Los Angeles Animation Festival. The film also won Best Animation at The Lady Filmmakers Festival in Los Angeles. A love letter to New York City and music, The Mayfly is a lyrical tale that was inspired by a true event at the Café Carlyle, with a score composed by seven-time GRAMMY® nominee Christian Jacob.
Her other Broadway credits include 1776, Pippin, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Carrie. She headlined the first National Tour of the new Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! in 2018/2019. Off-Broadway credits include the world premiere of Horton Foote’s The Old Friends, for which she received a Drama Desk Nomination in 2014, White Lies, Lincoln Center’s Elegies, the original NYSF production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Eros Trilogy, Juno’s Swans. Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road. Regional credits include The Perfectionist, Gypsy, The Threepenny Opera, Camino Real, Buffalo Gal, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Old Friends at Houston’s Alley Theatre and Grey Gardens at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY and The Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles in 2016 for which she received an Ovation Award Nomination.
In London, she starred in Promises, Promises for which she was nominated for An Evening Standard Award and in the 2013 British premiere of Dear World.
On television, Buckley had a recurring role on Law & Order SVU for NBC. She co-starred in the third season of AMC’s hit series Preacher and has guest starred on the Fox/Warner Bros. TV shows: The Cleaning Lady, The CW hit Supergirl, the NBC Series Chicago Med and ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars. For HBO, she has appeared on Getting On, The Leftovers, The Pacific and for three seasons had a recurring role on OZ. She starred as Abby Bradford in the hit series Eight is Enough.
For more information, visit www.bettybuckley.com
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