<P> Moving to New York City, Parsons worked as a writer, producer and commentator for The Today Show . She made her Broadway debut in 1956 in the ensemble of the Ethel Merman musical Happy Hunting . She began performing Off - Broadway in 1961, and received a Theatre World Award in 1963 for her performance in Whisper into My Good Ear / Mrs. Dally Has a Lover (1962). </P> <P> In 1964, Parsons won an Obie Award for Best Actress for her performance in two Off - Broadway plays, Next Time I'll Sing to You and In the Summer House . In 1967, she starred with Stacy Keach in the premiere of Joseph Heller's play We Bombed in New Haven at the Yale Repertory Theater . </P> <P> Parsons has received Tony Award nominations for her work in The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968), And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (1971), Miss Margarida's Way (1978), and Morning's at Seven (2002). She played the Widow Begbick in the American premiere of the Weill--Brecht opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1970), and performed as Mrs. Peachum to Lotte Lenya's Jenny in Threepenny Opera on tour and in New York City . In 1978 she played Lady MacBeth in the Kauai Community Players production . She also played Ruth in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway in 1981 . From June 17, 2008 through May 17, 2009, she played the role of Violet Weston in August: Osage County . She continued playing the role during the show's national tour beginning July 24, 2009, in Denver . </P> <P> As a director, Parsons has a number of Broadway credits, including a production of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and As You Like It in 1986 . Off - Broadway, she directed Dario Fo's Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo (1983). She also served as the Artistic Director of the Actors Studio for five years, ending in 2003 . In 2016, she starred in Israel Horovitz's new play Out Of The Mouths Of Babes along with Judith Ivey directed by Barnet Kellman at The Cherry Lane Theater in New York City . </P>

Who played blanche in all in the family