Constance Towers

Constance Towers

Trained at Julliard and the American Academy of Dramatic Art, actress Constance Towers made her first impression on the public as a film actress. Towers was seen as the resourceful Southern-belle leading lady of John Ford's The Horse Soldiers (1959), then essayed a similar characterization in Ford's Sergeant Rutledge (1960). For a brief period in the early 1960s, she was the pet actress of director Samuel Fuller, who effectively cast her in extremely demanding roles in Shock Corridor (1963) and The Naked Kiss (1965). With several film and TV appearances to her credit, Towers finally made her professional stage debut in a 1960 production of Guys and Dolls; one year later, she made her Broadway bow as star of Anya, a musicalization of Anastasia. Most closely associated with musicals, she has made hundreds of appearances in revivals of such Rodgers and Hammerstein classics as South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. During the 1960s and 1970s, Constance hosted a daily discussion show on New York radio station WOR. On TV, Towers has been seen as Clarissa McCandliss, daughter of JR-type patriarch Rory Calhoun, on the daytime drama Capitol (1982-87), and as Camilla, the mother of ex-call girl Jade O'Keefe (Lisa Hartman), on the heavy-breathing nighttimer 2000 Malibu Road (1992). Constance Towers is married to former actor and U.S. diplomat John Gavin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide