Regardless of what life hands out, there is always hope. Life has a way or correcting itself, says Michael Learned, television and theatre actress, best known as matriarch Olivia on the 1970s TV series The Waltons.
Learned, herself, has had a life filled with both turmoil and pleasure.
“I had a turbulent young life, but my older years have been glorious,” says the 71-year-old actress, who’s appearing in Driving Miss Daisy this summer at the Starbright Summer Festival in Sarnia, Ont.
Born April 9, 1939 in Washington, D.C., Learned was the eldest of six girls. Her family had a farm in West Norwalk, Conn. but moved to Austria when Learned was 11. She recalls driving through Europe in an old Dodge station wagon, assuming the family was travelling. Later she discovered her father, whom she describes as “bit of a renaissance man,” had worked for the U.S. World War II intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), now the CIA.
It was while attending the Arts Educational School, a boarding school in Hertfordshire, England well known for its exceptional drama department, that Learned was bitten by the drama bug. Her first role was as the witch Hecate in Macbeth, for which she won the school’s drama cup.
“It was a big surprise,” she recalls. “I didn’t have a clue I had won.”
Neither did she realize that her fate was sealed. She would never be able to turn her back on an acting career.
At 17, Learned married Canadian actor Peter Donat. They first lived in New York where two of their sons were born – Caleb in 1957 and Christopher in 1959 – but later moved to Canada, spending 10 years in Toronto, where she worked extensively for CBC and where their youngest son, Lucas, was born in 1963.
“I loved Toronto,” she says.
During this period, Learned and her husband spent their summers in Stratford, Ont. Both performed at the Stratford Festival Theatre, although Learned to a lesser degree, contending that, “I was mostly Peter Donat’s mousey little wife.” She did, however, play opposite British actor Paul Scofield in Coriolanus.
She tells a story about living in a haunted house one Stratford summer. While she never saw the ghost – although she says she felt its presence – all three of her sons saw “a lady with grey hair and ridges in her face” standing in a doorway one night. They assumed it was a babysitter and wondered where their mother was going. Learned explained the lady must have been a ghost, since she wasn’t going anywhere.
Although reluctant to leave Canada, Learned and Donat next set up home in San Francisco and joined the respected American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), becoming the company’s leading man and lady, a period she describes as “an incredible time.”
“I’m more comfortable in the theatre because that’s where I’ve grown up,” she says. “I love the rehearsal process and looking for a sub-text. TV drains the energy out of you while theatre puts the energy into you.”
Nevertheless, it was television that made her a household name.
While performing with ACT, Learned was observed by the head of CBS casting, Ethel Wynant, who decided that the 32-year-old would be perfect to play the mother of seven children in an about-to-launch Depression-era show about a family growing up in rural Virginia. It was, of course, The Waltons.
Initially, Learned didn’t want the part. Her family life was in an uproar with a pending divorce. But at the urging of her agent, she followed through with an audition with Richard Thomas and Ralph Waite, during which she says she kept missing cues and couldn’t understand the director’s “jive talk.”
Four days later she was offered the role that would last for eight years. “Ethel (Wynant) was in my corner and I owe her a tremendous amount,” she says.
Today, Learned lives happily with her fourth husband, John Doherty, in Beverly Hills. She continues to act on television — winning four Emmy Awards along the way — and also performs in her beloved theatre.
This summer, she will again return to her theatrical roots in the starring role of Daisy Werthan in “Driving Miss Daisy,” opposite Canadian actor Walter Borden as the chauffeur Hoke.
Learned notes that Daisy isn’t very likeable at the beginning of the play. “But the audience sees that Hoke loves her.
“In the mad scene, (towards the conclusion) Daisy tries to work out how she could have been so blind. I think in her own demented way she realizes Hoke was her best friend.” For Learned, this play is a case of art imitating life. Growing up, she watched a performance of the story unfold in her own life. “My grandma had a chauffeur, confidante — lover, maybe — like Daisy and Hoke.” His name was Ambrose Lewis, like Hoke an African American. “She was a domineering and brilliant woman and he was the only person who stood up to her. He had great dignity. He cared for her when she got old and he was wonderful to us as a family. He was the only stable person in our childhood.”
Driving Miss Daisy runs from July 17 to Aug. 20 at the Imperial Theatre in Sarnia. Visit starbright.ca or call 877-344-7469 for more information.
Did you know?
Michael Learned:
• is Godmother to actor Christopher Plummer’s daughter, Amanda Michael Plummer
• has five sisters: Gretl, Susan, Sabra, Dorrit and Philippa and a half-brother Tarquin.
• is married four times to: Peter Donat, Glenn Chadwick, William Parker and John Doherty.
• hoped to become a Canadian citizen while living in Canada.
• was billed as “Miss Michael Learned” on The Waltons because she was relatively unknown at the time and the producers did not want viewers confused about her sex.
• left The Waltons a year prior to its ending as she didn’t think there was much left for her character to say. “Fourteen hours of ‘pass the salt’ can become very old.”
• has remained friends with The Waltons cast members, in particular Ralph Waite.
