Blythe Danner

In 2002 Danner, her husband Bruce Paltrow, and her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow worked together on a series of PSAs encouraging use of alternative energy sources and alternative fuel vehicles. Donna Douglas lives in Huntington Beach, California, but still considers Baton Rouge, Louisiana, her home. She was instrumental in implementing curbside recycling in Santa Monica and in retaining the New York City recycling program despite threatened budget cuts in 1991, has driven an electric car since the first General Motors EV1 was available, and has installed solar panels at her house. She has also appeared at conventions and trade shows. She has been active with INFORM, is on the Board of Environmental Activists and the Board of Directors of the Environmental Media Association, and won the 2002 EMA Board of Directors Ongoing Commitment Award. She has remained busy making appearances, speaking for church groups, youth groups, schools and colleges. In addition to her acting work, Blythe Danner has been involved with environmental issues such as recycling and conservation for over 30 years, having seen firsthand the contrast between her rural youth and her later residence in Los Angeles and New York. She has also written a children's book titled Donna's Critters & Kids: Children's Stories with a Bible Touch, which has Bible stories featuring animals and is combined with a coloring book for ages two to seven.

She often said the proudest night of her life was when Gwyneth won an Oscar for best actress, and her mother was the first person she thanked. She has a gospel album and a country album. Although she has worked frequently on TV and on stage, Danner put her film career on hold for a number of years to raise her children. A devoted Christian, Douglas is also a noted gospel singer. She is also the aunt of actresses Hillary Danner and Katherine Moennig, and sister-in-law (through brother Harry) of opera director Dorothy Danner. She was offered a role on a prime-time soap opera, but felt there were too many bad things in it, with not enough family values, and turned it down. Danner first co-starred with her daughter in 1992 in the TV movie Cruel Doubt, then again in the 2003 film Sylvia, playing the mother of the title character, played by her daughter. She did not work in that field long, however, as she remained in show business and found other projects.

She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and actor Jake Paltrow, and the widow of producer Bruce Paltrow. She received her real estate license after The Beverly Hillbillies went off the air in order to have something to fall back on. For twenty-five years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she also serves on the Board of Directors. Having no resentment about being so closely identified with one character, she still makes occasional public appearances in her hillbilly costume of blue jeans with trademark rope belt and a ruffled, pink blouse. She has appeared in two films based on the novels of Pat Conroy, The Great Santini (1979) and The Prince of Tides (1991), as well as two television movies adapted from books by Anne Tyler, Saint Maybe and Back When We Were Grownups, both for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Danner is more recently known for her role opposite Robert De Niro in the comedy hit Meet the Parents (2000) and its (2004) sequel, Meet the Fockers (with Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman), and for her work in 2004 in the cable TV series Huff. In 1981, she returned for a made-for-TV reunion movie. Her earliest starring film roles were opposite Alan Alda in To Kill a Clown (1972) and in the title role of Lovin' Molly (1974), directed by Sidney Lumet. Douglas remained with the The Beverly Hillbillies for the entire run of the series.

Due to Danner's WASPy apearance and husky voice, she most frequently is cast as a middle class or upper class wife, or more lately, matriarch; although in 1986 in Brighton Beach Memoirs, she portrayed a middle-aged Jewish woman, and in 1982 in the TV movie Inside the Third Reich, she played the wife of Albert Speer. Her final movie role was as Frankie in Frederick de Cordova's musical comedy Frankie and Johnny (1966) opposite Elvis Presley. Danner was a close friend of actor Christopher Reeve and appeared with him in several plays. She is extremely proud of her role and the show, which she says she loved doing. She also received Tony nominations in 1980 for the original Broadway production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, in 1988 for a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama A Streetcar Named Desire, and again in 2001 for a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. The turning point in Douglas' career came when she was chosen over 500 other actresses to play the role of Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. Cook's Garden. She and Bourgeois had one son.

The same year she appeared in her first film role, in a television production of Dr. Leeds (married late 1970s-divorced). She went on to win a Tony Award in 1970 for her Broadway debut in Butterflies Are Free, playing the role later portrayed by Goldie Hawn in the film adaptation. She had two husbands, Roland Bourgeois (married 1949-divorced 1954) and director Robert M. Danner first appeared on stage with the Theater Company of Boston and the Trinity Square Playhouse of Boston, and first gained national attention at age 25 by winning the Theatre World Award for her performance in the Lincoln Center Rep's production of The Miser. Douglas made numerous TV appearances, which includes a famous episode of The Twilight Zone titled The Eye of the Beholder (1960). She holds three honorary doctorates of fine arts from Bard, Williams College, and Hobart. This was followed by a bit part in the musical comedy Li'l Abner (1959) and the role of a secretary in the comedy/romance Lover Come Back (1961) starring Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall.