Michael Learned

Not to be confused with Michael Lerner (actor).

Michael Learned
Learned in 2020
Born	(1939-04-09) April 9, 1939 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1961–present
Spouses	Peter Donat ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1972)​ Glen Chadwick ​ ​ (m. 1974; div. 1977)​ William Parker IV ​ ​ (m. 1979; div. 1988)​ John Doherty ​ ​ (m. 1991)​
Children	3

Michael Learned (born April 9, 1939) is an American actress, known for her role as Olivia Walton in the long-running CBS drama series The Waltons (1972–1981). She has won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series four times, which is tied for the record of most wins with Tyne Daly. Three of the wins were for The Waltons (1973, 1974, 1976), while the other was for Nurse (1982).

Early life

Learned was born in Washington, D.C., the eldest daughter of Elizabeth Duane ("Betti", née Hooper) and Bruce Learned, a diplomat. Her maternal grandfather also worked for the United States Foreign Service (of the U.S. State Department), and was an attaché for the United States Embassy in Rome (Italy). She has five younger sisters: Gretl, Susan, Sabra, Dorit and Philippa. She lived on a Connecticut farm for the first 10 years of her life. Learned said that her parents never explained why she received a masculine first name, once saying of her father: "All he told me was that if I had been a boy, I would have been named Caleb, but I was a girl, so I was called Michael." When she was 11, Learned moved to Austria, where her father worked for the U.S. Department of State. At this time, she attended Arts Educational School, Tring, (now the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Tring, Hertfordshire, England, (United Kingdom). During this time, she discovered the theater and acting, and decided to make acting her life's work.

Career

Television and film

Learned in 1973

Her first substantial role in either film / motion pictures or television was as the character Olivia Walton, the mother and wife of John Walton, Sr. on The Waltons drama / nostalgia television series , which ran for nine seasons from 1972 to 1981. For the first five seasons of the show she was billed as "Miss Michael Learned" because she was relatively unknown at the time and producers wished to avoid confusion among viewers about her gender, that her "Michael" was a woman's name). By the sixth season, as the show continued its success after the departure of co-star Richard Thomas (born 1951), these fears of confusion about her sex had been alleviated and the "Miss" was dropped from Learned's billing in the credits. She was nominated for six Emmy Awards as Lead Actress in a Drama, winning three times. After the end of the sixth season, she agreed to appear for one more season on the condition that she would not have to work the full nine months schedule. After the seventh season she left the show. Her character's abrupt disappearance in Season 7 was explained by Olivia developing tuberculosis and entering a sanatorium in hot and dry Arizona. She returned briefly in Season 8 and later appeared in four of the six subsequent Waltons sequel / reunion made-for-TV films and specials made, with three during 1982 and during the 1990s (1993, 1995 and 1997). For her portrayal of Olivia Walton, Learned was also nominated for four Golden Globe Awards. During her run as Olivia Walton, Learned and The Waltons co-star, Will Geer, also appeared together in the 1974 made-for-TV movie Hurricane.

Learned made her big screen debut in 1980, playing the supporting role in the drama film Touched by Love. She later appeared in Power (1986) and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), and well as number of made-for-television movies. Learned starred as Nurse Mary Benjamin in the hospital drama Nurse, which ran on the CBS-TV network for six episodes in the spring 1981 and then for the following 1981–1982 seasons. Though the series was well received critically, it was not a big ratings success and lasted only two partial seasons. Nevertheless, Learned was nominated for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress and won yet another Emmy for this role in 1982. She later had starring roles in the unsuccessful 1988 series drama Hothouse and the 1989 sitcom Living Dolls and reprised her Waltons role for a number of television movies and reunions in the 1990s. In 2005, Learned played Judge Helen Turner on the ABC-TV network's daytime soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live as part of the "baby switch" storyline on both shows. In the second season of The Secret World of Alex Mack, she guest-starred as a ghost who regretted the decisions of her long-estranged granddaughter, revealed at the end to be the show's main villain, Danielle Atron (Louan Gideon). She guest-starred in Scrubs as Mrs. Wilk in five episodes from the show's fifth season. She played Shirley Smith on ABC's other long-running soap operaGeneral Hospital in 2010. In late 2011, Learned played Katherine Chancellor on the CBS daytime soap opera, The Young and the Restless, filling in for longtime actress Jeanne Cooper, who was on extended medical leave from the series. Several decades later in 2022, Learned made her return to television with starring role in the Netflix limited series, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story playing Catherine Dahmer, Jeffrey Dahmer's grandmother.

Theatre

In the late 1960's, Learned and her husband Peter Donat appeared in various roles with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California. She has appeared in many stage productions on Broadway in off Broadway, in New York City and elsewhere, including the 2006–2007 national touring production of the play On Golden Pond.

In the fall of 2008, she starred in the Innovation Theatre Works' production of Driving Miss Daisy, playing the title role of retired Atlanta, Georgia school teacher Daisy Werthen, opposite Willis Burks II as Hoke and Dirk Blocker as Daisy's son Boolie. She reprised the role opposite Lance E. Nichols as Hoke at the Judson Theatre Company in March 2013.

Personal life

Learned has been married four times. Her first husband was Canadian-American actor Peter Donat (1928-2018), whom she married in 1956 when she was 17 years old. The marriage was dissolved 16 years later in 1972. She had three sons by that marriage, one of whom is actor and business executive Lucas Donat (born 1962). Her second marriage, to Glen Chadwick, lasted only three years from 1974 to 1977 and also ended in divorce. In 1979, she married actor-screenwriter William Parker. That marriage ended in divorce as well. Since 1991, she has been married to lawyer John Doherty; the couple resides currently in California. In a 2002 article she wrote for the Daily Word, a publication of the Unity Church, Learned states that at the time she was cast in The Waltons in 1971, she had "hit rock bottom". Then, at age 32, Learned realized she was an alcoholic. Taking herself to former husband Peter Donat's remote cabin on the California coast, she decided to "get sober" and that her time there was the beginning of a spiritual journey. Learned further stated in the article that she has been sober since 1977.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Touched by Love	Dr. Bell
1986	Power	Governor Andrea Stannard
1993	Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story	Vivian Emery
1997	Life During Wartime	—
2000	For the Love of May	Mary Lou	Short film
2005	Lethal Eviction	Elsa
	Loggerheads	Sheridan Bellamy
2007	The Killer	The Innkeeper	Short film
2009	An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong	Nana Louis Hanlon
2014	Unplugged	Grandma Katie	Short film
	The Parcel	Beverly
	After Life	Gloria
2018	Second Acts	Lee Marston	Short film

Television films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1963	The Other Man	—
1974	Hurricane	Lee Jackson
	It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy	Janet Walters
1978	Little Mo	Eleanor Tennant
1980	Nurse	Mary Benjamin
	A Christmas Without Snow	Zoe Jenson
1982	Mother's Day on Waltons Mountain	Olivia Walton
1984	The Parade	Rachel Kirby
1986	A Deadly Business	Ann
	Picnic	Rosemary Sidney
1986	All My Sons	Kate Keller	American Playhouse
1987	Mercy or Murder?	Skipper
1988	Roots: The Gift	Amelia Parker
1990	Gunsmoke: The Last Apache	Mike Yardner
1991	Aftermath: A Test of Love	Irene
	Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story	Judy Smart
	Keeping Secrets	Marion Mahoney
1992	Mattie's Waltz	Mattie
1993	A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion	Olivia Walton
1995	A Walton Wedding
1997	A Walton Easter
1998	A Father for Brittany	Edna Humphreys
2017	Life Interrupted	Marni Woodworth

Television series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	Wojeck	Nina Eden	2 episodes
1972–1979	The Waltons	Olivia Walton	168 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1973–1974, 1976) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama (1973–1976) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1975, 1978–1979)
1973	Gunsmoke	Mike Yardner	Episode: "Matt's Love Story"
		May Lassiter	Episode: "A Game of Death... An Act of Love Part 2"
	Match Game 73	Herself	Episode: "1.6"
1973–1974	Insight	Sister Janet	2 episodes
1974	Police Story	Linda Keitlinger	Episode: "Love, Mabel"
1981–1982	Nurse	Nurse Mary Benjamin	25 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
1984	St. Elsewhere	Sister Millicent Domencia	2 episodes
1988	Hothouse	Dr. Marie Teller	7 episodes
1989	Murder, She Wrote	Maria Hudson	Episode: "Trevor Hudson's Legacy"
	Who's the Boss?	Trish Carlin	2 episodes
	Living Dolls	Trish Carlin	12 episodes
1990	Wiseguy	Rachel	2 episodes
1994	Reading Rainbow	Herself	Episode: "Appelemondo's Dream"
1995	The Secret World of Alex Mack	Ghost of Paradise Valley	Episode: "The Secret"
1998	Profiler	Helen Waters	3 episodes
	Promised Land	Dolly Carstens	Episode: "The Secret of Bluestem"
2000	Pensacola: Wings of Gold	Congresswoman Benedict	Episode: "Article 32"
	So Graham Norton	Herself	Episode: "3.8"
2003	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Candace Lamery	Episode: "Privilege"
2005	All My Children	Judge Turner	Episode: "1.9044"
	One Life to Live	Hon. Judge Turner	2 episodes
2006	Scrubs	Mrs. Wilk	7 episodes
2009	Cold Case	Louise Patterson '09	Episode: "WASP"
2010	General Hospital	Shirley Smith	21 episodes
2011	Mr. Sunshine	Maggie	Episode: "The Best Man"
	The Young and the Restless	Katherine Chancellor	13 episodes
2022	Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story	Catherine Dahmer	Netflix series

External links

• Michael Learned at IMDb
• Michael Learned at the Internet Broadway Database
• Michael Learned at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Michael Learned at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Image of Robert L. Jacks, Michael Learned, Richard Thomas and Lee Rich with their Emmys for "The Waltons," Los Angeles, California, 1973. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.