'Presidio Med' Star
Blythe Danner may be known to some as the mother of two — actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow. But to many others, Danner is familiar as an accomplished Tony-award winning actress and film star.
Currently, she plays Dr. Harriet Lanning in the CBS series "Presidio Med," and she drops by The Early Show to talk about it.
"Presidio Med" refers to Presidio Medical Group, composed of physicians who, as part of a medical group next to a hospital in San Francisco, put their patients first, forming trusting, long-term relationships.
Danner's character, Dr. Lanning, is a veteran ob/gyn who loves getting up in the middle of the night to deliver babies.
Others in the cast and their characters:
- Dr. Rae Brennan (Dana Delany), an oncologist with a passionate, adventurous side
- Dr. Letty Jordan (Anna Deavere Smith), a headstrong, in-your-face cardiologist
- Dr. Jackie Colette (Sasha Alexander), a brash young plastic surgeon
- Dr. Jules Keating (Julianne Nicholson), a confident and fiercely independent pediatrician
- Dr. Nicholas Kokoris (Oded Fehr), a surgeon who has just moved to San Francisco from Greece to join Presidio Med (and to continue an affair with one of the group's married physicians)
- Dr. Matt Slingerland (Paul Blackthorne), a handsome renegade internist with a tendency to bend the rules
Her television credits include the television movies "Saint Maybe" on CBS, "We Were the Mulvaneys," "Judgement," "A Love Affair: Eleanor and Lou Gherig's Story," "Too Far to Go," "Guilty Conscience" and the mini-series "Cruel Doubt" and "The Third Reich." She also had guest-starring roles in "M.A.S.H.," "St. Elsewhere" and "Will & Grace."
Danner's theater resume includes her Tony Award-winning role in "Butterflies Are Free" and Tony Award-nominated roles in Follies," "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Betrayal."
Her other Broadway credits include "The Philadelphia Story," "Blithe Spirit" and "The Deep Blue Sea." She has been a member of the Williamstown Theater Festival for over 20 years and has also appeared at numerous other leading venues. At the New York Shakespeare Festival, she starred in "Much Ado About Nothing" opposite Kevin Kline.
Some Facts About Blythe Danner
- Born in Philadelphia, Feb. 3,1943
- She graduated from The George School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Bard College in New York
- Danner holds honorary doctorate degrees of fine arts from Bard, Williams College and Hobart/William Smith Colleges
- Danner's husband, producer/director Bruce Paltrow, died on Oct. 3, 2002, of complications from pneumonia