Constance Towers

About Constance Towers

Who is it?: Actress, Soundtrack
Birth Day: May 20, 1933
Birth Place:  Whitefish, Montana, United States
Birth Sign: Gemini
Occupation: Actress, singer
Years active: 1952–present
Spouse(s): Eugene McGrath (m. 1959; div. 1966) John Gavin (m. 1974; his death 2018)
Children: 2

Constance Towers Net Worth

Constance Towers was born on May 20, 1933 in  Whitefish, Montana, United States, is Actress, Soundtrack. This elegant singer/actress initially had designs on becoming an opera singer. Born in Montana on May 20, 1933, and christened Constance Mary Towers, she appeared on radio as a child singer. Her family moved to New York where she subsequently studied at the Julliard School of Music and the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts (AADA). A chance casting in a summer production of "Carousel" led her away from her operatic aspirations and into the musical theater arena. Before she settled into this, however, she gained early exposure on the chic nightclub circuit and fostered an attempt at stardom via films. She co-starred with Frankie Laine playing a school teacher in the modest movie musical Bring Your Smile Along (1955), and appeared in exceptionally strong ingénue roles in the movie dramas The Horse Soldiers (1959) starring John Wayne and Sergeant Rutledge (1960) opposite Jeffrey Hunter. Director Samuel Fuller cast her against type in some of his highly offbeat dramas in the early 1960s. She played a stripper girlfriend in Shock Corridor (1963) and in The Naked Kiss (1964) gave a no-holds-barred performance as a former prostitute trying to clean up her act. Films, however, were few and far between.By this time she was starting to settle in as a pristine musical leading lady. After a 1960 performance as missionary Sarah in "Guys and Dolls," Constance made her Broadway debut in the title role of "Anya" (1965), in which she played the title role of the Russian princess Anastasia. Heralded performances in "Carousel" (1966) and "The Sound of Music" (1967), in which she won the Outer Critic's Circle Award as Maria, not to mention a Broadway revival of "The King and I" opposite Yul Brynner truly put her on the musical map. Her run with Brynner lasted nearly 800 performances. She had earlier played the school teacher Anna off-Broadway opposite Michael Kermoyan in 1972. Other sterling stage appearances included "Kiss Me Kate," "42nd Street," "Oklahoma!," "Camelot" and "Mame." She also starred in the musical "Ari," an adaptation of the Leon Uris novel "Exodus."TV proved a sturdy medium as well. In her early days, she made singing appearances on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town (1948) and, in dramatic roles, was a frequent glamorous suspect on Perry Mason (1957). As she matured, her sharp, glacial, strikingly handsome features also worked very well for her in unsympathetic aristocratic roles on daytime. Winning regular spots on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967), The Young and the Restless (1973) and Sunset Beach (1997), she did her most consistent work on Capitol (1982), in which she played Clarissa McCandless for five seasons. She is currently courting favor with audiences and stealing scenes on a regular basis on General Hospital (1963), in which she plays, at age 72, the inherently wicked Helena Cassadine, a role originated by the legendary Elizabeth Taylor. Recent films have included The Next Karate Kid (1994), The Relic (1997) and A Perfect Murder (1998) starring Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow, in which she played Paltrow's mother. Constance also enjoyed a resurgence on prime-time TV with a sprinkling of guest parts on L.A. Law (1986), Designing Women (1986), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), "Caroline in the City," Frasier (1993), Baywatch (1989), and Providence (1999). She received an Emmy nomination for her role in the single episode drama special on CBS Daytime 90 (1974) entitled "Once in Her Life."Constance has been married since 1974 to one-time actor and former Mexican ambassador John Gavin. It was the second marriage for both. The handsome couple have two children: Cristina and Maria Gavin. Constance also has two children, Michael and Maureen McGrath, from her prior marriage to Panamanian businessman Eugene McGrath. As a result of her current husband's civic work, she became actively involved in a multitude of charities. "Project Connie" not only offered aid to those in need of medical and rehabilitation assistance after the Mexican earthquake of 1985, it has served as an adoption placement agency to hundreds of children from Mexico to El Salvador. She has also involved herself with the Children's Bureau of California, the National Health Foundation, and the Red Cross and the Blue Ribbon of Los Angeles.
Constance Towers is a member of Actress

💰Constance Towers Net worth: $1.5 Million

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Biography/Timeline

1940

Towers was born in Whitefish, Montana, the daughter of Ardath L. (née Reynolds) and pharmacist Harry J. Towers. Both of her parents were Irish immigrants. In 1940, when Towers was in first grade, she was discovered by talent scouts visiting Montana in search of child actors for radio programs.

1955

Towers made her film debut in a supporting part in the Technicolor film Bring Your Smile Along (1955), followed by a supporting part in the crime thriller Over-Exposed (1956). In 1958, Towers was cast in her first lead role as Hannah Hunter in John Ford's civil war film The Horse Soldiers (1959), opposite John Wayne and william Holden. The following year, she appeared in Ford's follow-up film Sergeant Rutledge (1960), a racially themed crime Western.

1960

From the mid-1960s until the 1990s, Towers' career was primarily focused on theatre, though she did appear in films occasionally. She starred in the 1974 television film Once in Her Life, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Special Program. She also appeared on television, playing Marian Hiller, the wheelchair-bound wife of Dr. Sanford Hiller in Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1971–72).

1961

The same year, Towers appeared in the thriller Fate Is the Hunter, which chronicles the investigation of an airline crash. She also worked as a model model for the Heart Fund Benefit at a fashion show held in Reno, Nevada. Between 1961 and 196, she had five guest roles on the series Perry Mason; In her first two appearances she played the murderer: Jonny Baker in "The Case of the Missing Melody" (1961) and Esther Metcalfe in "The Case of the Prankish Professor" (1963).

1963

In 1963, Towers was cast in a supporting role in Samuel Fuller's experimental thriller Shock Corridor (1963), which tells the story of a Journalist who commits himself to a psychiatric hospital to solve a murder. Her role as a stripper in the film was described by Bosley Crowther of The New York Times as "hard, driving and realistic." In preparation for the role, Towers spent time at exotic dance clubs in Los Angeles.

1964

Fuller cast Towers again in a lead role in his following film The Naked Kiss (1964), another lurid and hard-edged thriller, in which she plays a crazed prostitute who attempts to assimilate in suburbia after having battered her pimp. Though critics remarked the film's outrageous subject matter, it received some critical acclaim; Eugene Archer of The New York Times commented on the film, saying: "Patently absurd as the plot may be, Mr. Fuller has filmed it with flair, and he has drawn a richly amusing performance from Miss Towers. Between his stylish handling of sensational nonsense and Mr. Marton's turgid floundering around a serious theme, Mr. Fuller's wild little movie has a decided edge."

1965

After several film, television and stage roles (including a West Coast tour of Guys and Dolls), Towers made her Broadway debut playing the title role in Anya, a short-lived 1965 musical.

1966

Towers appeared as Julie in a 1966 production of Show Boat at Lincoln Center. She also starred in Carousel in 1966 and The Sound of Music in 1967, which she would reprise in 1970 and 1971 at the Jones Beach Theater in Long Island, New York.

1968

She briefly played Anna Leonowens in 1968, and later she played opposite Yul Brynner in a long-running revival of The King and I on tour and then on Broadway (1976–1978). Clive Barnes praised Towers in the role, and theatre Writer John Kenrick calls her performance on the 1977 cast album "great."

1982

She had a starring role as noble widow Clarissa McCandless in Capitol (1982–87, the show's entire run), playing rival to the scheming matriarch Myrna Clegg (Carolyn Jones, Marla Adams, Marj Dusay) in trying to see her son succeed in politics and the long-term love of powerful Senator Mark Denning (Ed Nelson). A memorable storyline had her being shot by Mark's mentally ill wife Paula (Julie Adams) and later finding out that her husband Baxter (Ron Harper) was still alive. For this part, she received a Soap Opera Digest Nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

1993

Towers guest-starred in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Forsaken" in 1993. She also appeared in Designing Women, Frasier, Baywatch and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Other television roles include State Trooper, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, L.A. Law, The 4400, and Cold Case.

1994

Towers had a supporting part in the film The Next Karate Kid (1994) and appeared on television as John Abbott's former secretary, Audrey North, on The Young and the Restless (1996). She later played Madame Julianna Deschanel on Sunset Beach (1997). In 1998, Towers had supporting parts in the horror film The Relic (1998), and the thriller A Perfect Murder (1998), playing the mother of Gwyneth Paltrow's character.

1995

In 1995 she played the role of Phyllis in the TUTS production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.

1997

Towers' best-known soap part is as villainous Helena Cassadine on General Hospital which she began playing late in 1997, continuing on and off ever since.

2008

In 2008, Towers starred in the Los Angeles revival of Arthur Allan Seidelman's production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks; the play premiered at the Geffen Playhouse in 2001 with Uta Hagen and David Hyde Pierce in the two roles.

2018

Towers was first married to Eugene McGrath from 1959 until their divorce in 1966. In 1974, she married actor and former ambassador to Mexico John Gavin. She has two children from her first marriage: Michael (born 1960) and Mary (born 1961). She also has two stepchildren from her marriage to Gavin. John Gavin died on February 9, 2018, aged 86.