Early career Channing started her acting career with the experimental Theatre Company of
Boston; she performed in the group's
Off-Broadway 1969 production of the
Elaine May play
Adaptation/Next. She performed in a revival of
Arsenic and Old Lace directed by
Theodore Mann as part of the
Circle in the Square at
Ford's Theatre program in 1970. In 1971, she made her
Broadway debut in
Two Gentlemen of Verona — The Musical, working with playwright
John Guare. She also appeared on Broadway in 1973 in a supporting role in
No Hard Feelings at the
Martin Beck Theatre. Channing made her television debut on
Sesame Street in the role of
The Number Painter's female victim. She landed her first leading role in the 1973
television movie The Girl Most Likely To..., a
black comedy written by
Joan Rivers about an
ugly duckling woman, made newly beautiful by
plastic surgery after an auto accident, who vows murderous revenge on all who had scorned her. For the role, Channing went through a considerable transformation, with the syndicated column "TV Scout" reporting months later, "It was a great make-up job — at least the part that made very pretty Stockard look so ugly. She had her cheeks puffed out with cotton and her nose was wadded, too, to make it thick and off-center. Very thick eyebrows were drawn on her face and she wore padded clothes to make her look fat. Making her look beautiful was easy." After some small parts in feature films, Channing co-starred with
Warren Beatty and
Jack Nicholson in
Mike Nichols'
The Fortune (1975). Despite Channing being tagged "the next big thing" in cinema, and the actress herself considering this some of the best work of her career, the movie did poorly at the box office and did not prove to be the breakthrough role Channing hoped it would be. On May 22, 1977, she, along with
Ned Beatty, starred in the pilot for the short-lived TV series
Lucan. Lucan, played by
Kevin Brophy, is a 20-year-old who has spent the first 10 years of his life running wild in the forest. After being raised by wolves, Lucan strikes out on his own in search of his identity. In 1977, at the age of 33, Channing was cast for the role of high school teenager Betty Rizzo in the hit musical
Grease. The film was released in 1978 and her performance earned her the
People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Supporting Actress. In addition, during the second half of the 1970s, Channing played a mischievous
car thief in
Jerry Schatzberg's 1976
dramedy Sweet Revenge (which competed at the
Cannes Film Festival),
Joseph Bologna's love interest in the
disaster film spoof The Big Bus (also 1976),
Peter Falk's secretary in the 1978
Neil Simon film
The Cheap Detective, and real-life
deaf stuntwoman and former female
land speed record holder
Kitty O'Neil in the TV movie ''Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story'' (1979).
1980s and Stockard Channing in
Just Friends, 1979 Channing starred in two short-lived sitcoms on
CBS in 1979 and 1980:
Just Friends and
The Stockard Channing Show. In both shows, she co-starred with actress Sydney Goldsmith, who played her best friend in both. When her Hollywood career faltered after these failures, Channing returned to her theatre roots. Nevertheless, she continued to appear in movies, often in
supporting roles, including 1983's
Without a Trace (alongside
Kate Nelligan and
Judd Hirsch), Mike Nichols' 1986
Heartburn (re-teaming with Nichols and Jack Nicholson, and co-starring
Meryl Streep), ''
The Men's Club (also 1986; featuring Roy Scheider, Harvey Keitel, and Jennifer Jason Leigh), A Time of Destiny (1988; with William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, and Melissa Leo), and Staying Together'' (1989; directed by
Lee Grant, and co-starring
Melinda Dillon and
Levon Helm.) Channing played the female lead in the Broadway show, ''
They're Playing Our Song'' (1980–81). Channing then took the part of the mother (Sheila) in the 1981
Long Wharf Theater (
New Haven) production of
Peter Nichols'
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. She reprised the role in the
Roundabout Theater Company production, first Off-Broadway in January 1985 and then on Broadway in March 1985, and won the 1985
Tony Award for
Best Actress in a Play. The
Alan Ayckbourn play
Woman in Mind received its American premiere Off-Broadway in February 1988 at the
Manhattan Theatre Club. The production was directed by
Lynne Meadow and the cast included Channing in the role of Susan, for which she won a
Drama Desk Award for Best Actress. When once asked if Susan was Channing's most fully realized character, the actress replied: Well, you like to think that they're all fully realized because what you're doing is different from what anyone else is seeing. You do a character but how much of it is on film, or how much of it is seen by an audience, is really up to the director, the piece, or the audience. And so, I just do these people. And flesh them out. I think anything else is not my job. Channing made her London theatre debut in 1992 at the Royal Court Theatre in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, which then transferred for a season at the Comedy Theatre in the West End. In 2017 she returned to London to appear in Apologia at the Trafalgar Studios and again in 2021 in Night Mother at the Hampstead Theatre. She also garnered recognition for her work in television during this time. She was nominated for an
Emmy Award for the CBS miniseries
Echoes in the Darkness (1987) and won a
CableACE Award for the
Harvey Fierstein-scripted
Tidy Endings (
HBO, 1988). and
Smoke (both 1995); a
cameo appearance in
The First Wives Club;
Up Close and Personal (as Marcia McGrath); and
Moll Flanders (all 1996). For
Smoke she was nominated for a
Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress and for
Moll Flanders she was nominated for the
Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress, Drama. Channing kept busy with film, television, and stage roles throughout the late 1990s.
The West Wing In 1999, Channing took on the role of
First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the
NBC television series The West Wing. She was a recurring
guest star for the show's first two seasons; she became a regular cast member in 2001.
Out of Practice was cancelled by
CBS after one season.
Later work Channing received several awards in 2002. She won the
Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work on
The West Wing. That same year, she also won the
Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie and the
Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries for her portrayal of Judy Shepard in
The Matthew Shepard Story, a
docudrama about
Matthew Shepard's life and murder. In 2003, she was awarded the
Women in Film Lucy Award. In 2005, Channing won a
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children/Youth/Family Special for
Jack (2004), a
Showtime TV movie about a young man struggling to understand why his father left the family for another man. Channing played Jack's mother. She was selected for the second narrator of the
Animal Planet hit series
Meerkat Manor in 2008, replacing
Sean Astin, who did the first three seasons. In November 2008, she returned to Broadway as Vera Simpson in the musical
Pal Joey and was nominated for the 2009
Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. In 2005, Channing starred in
Out of Practice with
Henry Winkler, receiving an Emmy nomination for her role. She played the role of Lydia Barnes, ex-wife of Stewart Barnes (Winkler), and had two sons and a lesbian daughter (Christopher Gorham, Paula Marshall, Ty Burrell). The show aired for one season (22 episodes). From 2012, Channing played a recurring role in
The Good Wife. She played the role of the title character's mother, Veronica Loy until the final season in 2016. She returned to the stage in June 2010, to Dublin's
Gaiety Theatre to play Lady Bracknell in
Rough Magic's production of
Oscar Wilde's
The Importance of Being Earnest. Channing appeared in the play
Other Desert Cities Off-Broadway at
Lincoln Center and then on Broadway, as of October 2011. Channing was nominated for the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Actress in a Play, and the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for
Other Desert Cities. In 2018, she played the lead in
Apologia, which had a limited run in London, and then moved to the Roundabout Theatre Co. in NYC. Channing also narrated the audiobook, "Frankie & Bug", written by Gayle Forman, released in 2021 In May 2023, Channing appeared in
ITV's three part series "
MaryLand" alongside
Suranne Jones and
Eve Best, playing a character named Cathy. In 2025 she played
Clytemnestra in
Sophocles' play
Elektra, starring
Brie Larson in the title role and directed by
Daniel Fish. The play was performed in Brighton before moving to London in January. Channing also reprised her role as Aunt Frances Owens, in the Practical Magic 2. Set to be released in September 2026. ==Personal life==