Alumni News

Taylor '64 Discusses Upcoming Solo Show on NPR

Emmy Award-winning actress Holland Taylor '64 was on NPR's Morning Edition this week to discuss her upcoming one-woman play about former Gov. Ann Richards of Texas, one of her personal heroes.

Image of Holland Taylor

Richards, the outspoken, progressive governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995, "has captured my attention," said Taylor, whose solo show, Money, Marbles and Chalk, premieres at The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston, Texas on May 14.

"To become governor of Texas—which was the ninth largest economy in the world, and it's a macho state, and it's a Republican state ... [Richards] had to affect a stance of strength even more than what was her own," Taylor said.  "She had to be unshakable."

Taylor, who is known for playing no-nonsense women such as Richards, was dubbed the "Grande Dame" of television by The New York Times. For her role as Evelyn Harper, the overbearing matriarch on the hit CBS comedy Two and a Half Men, she was nominated for three Emmy Awards for best supporting actress—an honor she won in 1999 for her work on ABC's The Practice.