Spotlight On: Blair Brown

Blair Brown is one of the most active working actresses appearing in more than 80 film and television roles since 1972. Her career started quietly enough with a brief appearance in the television series Dr. Simon Locke. Then, in 1973, she was cast in the film The Paper Chase which starred John Houseman and Lindsay Wagner. From that point forward, her career raced from role to role.

Blair Brown covers Esquire during her Molly Dodd days

If there was one consistent aspect to the variety of her career choices, it would be the quality of actors that Blair had an opportunity to work with. She co-starred alongside some of the biggest male actors at the time including: Robert Young and James Brolin in Marcus Welby, M.D., James Garner in The Rockford Files, Perry King and Richard Jordan in Captains and the King, Telly Savalas in Kojak, Edward Hermann and Mark Harmon in Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, Barry Bostwick in The Quinns, Perry King, Randy Quaid, James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr. in The Choirboys, Dan Ackroyd in And I Alone Survived, Beau Bridges in The Child Stealer, Rip Torn in One Trick Pony, William Hurt in Altered States, Jim Belushi in Continental Divide, John Glover in A Flash of Green, David Carradine in The Bad Seed, James Garner and Beau Bridges in Space Cowboys, Armande Assante and Forest Whitaker in Hands of a Stranger, Mark Harmon (again!) in Stealing Home, Craig T. Nelson in Extreme Close-Up, Ron Silver in The Good Policeman, and David Straithairn in Lethal Innocence – and this is just a partial list of all the leading men she has worked with!

Also interesting is that over the course of her career Blair was privileged to work with a few of those same iconic actors on multiple occasions. For example, she worked with James Garner in The Rockford Files, in the 1985 film The Bad Seed, and then again in the Clint Eastwood film Space Cowboys. She also worked with John Glover in the 1984 film A Flash of Green, in the 1992 film Majority Rule, and, significantly, she appeared as his lover in Smallville, portraying Rachel Dunleavy, the mother of Lex Luthor’s half-brother Lucas (played by Paul Wesley, who now stars in The Vampire Diaries). Also perhaps holding a soft spot with Blair is David Straithairn who not only appeared in her long-running television series The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, but also with whom she also co-starred in the film Lethal Innocence.

Blair is one of those actresses who are blessed to have played such a large variety of roles that she is most sought after. But it also means that sometimes the television audience does not know where they remember her from. For those discerning television viewers who caught her series The Days and Nights and Molly Dodd, Blair will always be remembered as the outlandish, yet heart-warming Molly Dodd. Blair earned 5 consecutive Emmy nominations for her portrayal of this character. Unfortunately, the show never quite rose to mainstream attention and bounced after its second season from NBC to Lifetime Television. It was a role of a lifetime and it is to Blair’s credit that she did not languish after it ended and instead used it to propel her further in her career.

Blair Brown as Nina Sharp on Fringe / FOX

In recent years, Blair has done a voluminous amount of work appearing in everything from guest appearances on the quirky bowling alley lawyer show Ed to CSI: Miami, to making appearances in a wide array of films such as First Born, Dark Matter, Griffin & Phoenix and Dogville. She also took some time to provide narration on the series The American Experience just prior to joining the role that would make her a sci-fi icon.

In 2008, Blair was cast in the role that would re-introduce her to a new generation of television fans. On Fringe, Blair plays the mysterious and somewhat nefarious Nina Sharp, the executive director of Massive Dynamic, who has a robotic arm. In the episode “Peter,” we finally got to see how her character lost her arm as she attempted to stop Walter Bishop from crossing into the alternate universe in a misguided attempt to save his alternate son’s life. Flying under the radar no more, Blair has entered the realm where fans will forever remember her as Nina Sharp. It is the ultimate cool role with so much emotional subtext to draw from. It is perhaps due to her long and varied career that Blair is able to portray her character with such subtly layered intelligence and allure. She draws the viewer in and ensnares us with one glance.

Fringe airs Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m. on Fox.