Parsons returns to her alma mater to address the Class of 2005

Estelle Parsons '49

Awards, fame and recognition don’t resonate much with actress Estelle Parsons ’49, whose list of accolades boasts an Academy Award, four Tony nominations and induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Rather, it’s the thrill of entertaining her audience that inspires her performances, she says.

While Parsons is best-known for her Oscar-winning performance in the movie “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) and for playing Roseanne Arnold’s neurotic mother from 1988 to 1997 on the ABC sitcom “Roseanne,” her preference is for theater and the stage.

“You have an audience,” she explained. “It’s about people and entertaining them, it’s not about machinery.”

Parsons’ next performance will be on the College green when she returns to her alma mater to address the Class of 2005 during CC’s 87th Commencement exercises May 22. She will also receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree during the ceremony.

In preparation for Commencement, she made an early visit to campus May 12 to meet students and faculty and teach a theater class.

Parsons shares the College Medal she was awarded with her daughters Abbie, left, and Martha on Commencement day in 1969.

“I'm thrilled to be speaking at my alma mater,” said the 77-year-old.

Parsons’ connection to the College has evolved over time. She has attended several of her class reunions, performing at some, and has stayed in touch with many of her classmates. They often go to her performances.

In 1969, Parsons was one of the first recipients of the College Medal, the highest honor for service to the College. The medal was created that year to mark the 50th anniversary of CC’s first commencement. In 1999, she performed at the opening of the College’s Tansill Theater and has also visited with acting students to impart some of her knowledge and experience from working in the field.

“No matter how old or young you are, it’s a funny business to be in,” she said.

Born in Marblehead, Mass., Parsons attended a Quaker boarding school in Vassalboro, Maine. At CC, she majored in government and went on to Boston University Law School for a year.

“Harvard didn’t take women at the time,” she recalled.

Parsons abandoned law school to launch her career in show business in New York. She joined NBC’s “Today Show,” starting out as a production assistant and later working her way up to staff writer and eventually feature producer. She became the first female political reporter for a television network.

Her accomplishments in a “man’s world” were no small feat in the 1950s, and Parsons considers herself fortunate to have attended an all-girls’ boarding school and college.

“It was good to be treated as an ascending intellectual by teachers and professors,” she said. “It gives a wonderful sense of confidence.”

She still values the education she received from the College.

“I’m a big advocate of a wide-ranging liberal arts education. I think it helps a person develop their ability to think critically,” she said, adding that a liberal arts education also helps students develop close relationships with professors and classmates. “It’s terribly important to have these contacts with people you’ve known throughout life.”

Parsons, who has taught at several institutes and universities, including Yale and Columbia, has been nominated for a “Distinguished Performance Award” for her role in the off-Broadway production of Horton Foote’s play, “The Day Emily Got Married.”

Parsons is in the midst of working on several other theater projects as well. She directed a Broadway reading of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome” starring Al Pacino and Marisa Tomei and is now preparing to take the show to California. She also directed an adaptation of Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” in New York and is working on renewing the production.

Parsons has a featured role in “Empire Falls,” an HBO miniseries scheduled to debut May 28 about a mill town in Maine and its residents. The miniseries, which is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of Richard Russo, also stars Ed Harris, Helen Hunt and Paul Newman.

Not that Parsons plans on watching it – she doesn’t watch TV.

“I haven’t seen a lot of jobs I've done. Once I do them I lose interest,” she said. “I’m totally focused on theater.”