Lorraine Gary

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title: "Lorraine Gary" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1937-births", "20th-century-american-actresses", "actresses-from-los-angeles", "american-film-actresses", "american-television-actresses", "jewish-american-actresses", "living-people", "people-from-forest-hills,-queens", "columbia-university-school-of-general-studies-alumni", "21st-century-american-jews", "21st-century-american-women"] description: "American actress (born 1937)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine_Gary" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actress (born 1937) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Lorraine Gary
caption	Gary in 2011
birth_date
birth_name	Lorraine Gottfried
birth_place	Forest Hills, New York, U.S.
known_for
occupation	Actress
years_active	1967–1979, 1987
alma_mater	Columbia University
other_names	Lorraine Sheinberg
spouse
children	2
::

| name = Lorraine Gary | image = | caption = Gary in 2011 | birth_date = | birth_name = Lorraine Gottfried | birth_place = Forest Hills, New York, U.S. | known_for = | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1967–1979, 1987 | alma_mater = Columbia University | other_names = Lorraine Sheinberg | spouse = | children = 2 Lorraine Gottfried (born August 16, 1937), better known by her stage name Lorraine Gary, is a retired American actress, best known for her role as Ellen Brody in the Jaws film series. She also appeared in 1941 and Car Wash.

Early life

Gary was born as Lorraine Gottfried in Forest Hills, Queens, to Belle and George Gottfried, an entertainment business manager.

At an early age, she moved with her family to Los Angeles, California, where she was raised. At age 16, she won a best actress award in a competition at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. She was offered a scholarship to enroll at the Pasadena Playhouse, but declined and attended Columbia University as a political science major instead.

Career

A life member of the Actors Studio, Gary began her acting career in the late 1960s doing guest appearances on several popular TV shows. These include Night Gallery, Dragnet 1968, in an episode entitled "The Big Shipment", McCloud, The Marcus-Nelson Murders (the pilot for Kojak), and The F.B.I.. She began her first major acting role when she was a guest star on seven episodes of the TV series Ironside, among them "Tom Dayton Is Loose Among Us", in which she played the substitute librarian Miss Kirk, who pushes the unstable Tom Dayton too hard, and "In Search of an Artist", as a woman with a drinking problem who may have been involved in a murder.

In addition to her work as an actress, Gary owned New Hope Productions, a company that produced television programs.

Civic activities

Gary is a member of the Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Advisory Committee, for whom she produced and directed a series of fourteen educational videotapes, and an Advisory Board Member of Ms. Magazine and Girls Learn International.

In 1995, together with her husband, Gary received the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Award.

Personal life

Gary married entertainment industry executive Sidney Sheinberg on August 19, 1956, at the age of 19, with whom she has two sons named Jonathan J. and William David.

She retired from acting after her appearance in the film 1941 (1979), only briefly returning to reprise the role of Ellen Brody in Jaws: The Revenge (1987). Her sons, Bill Sheinberg and Jonathan Sheinberg, are both film producers.

Filmography

Film

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Jaws	Ellen Brody
1976	Car Wash	Hysterical Lady
1977	I Never Promised You a Rose Garden	Esther Blake
1978	Zero to Sixty	Billy-Jon
Jaws 2	Ellen Brody
1979	Just You and Me, Kid	Shirley
1941	Joan Douglas
1987	Jaws: The Revenge	Ellen Brody	Final film role
::

Television

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	Dragnet	Mrs. Frank	"The Big Shipment"
**	Martha Young	"Without Mercy"
1968	Ironside	Nancy Lewin / Nurse Green	"All in a Day's Work", "Split Second to an Epitaph: Parts 1 & 2"
1969	Ironside	Leona Stuart	"In Search of an Artist"
**	Laura	"The Stranger"
**	Carla Frazier	"Breakout to a Fast Buck"
**	Margaret Sheehan	"A Case of Good Whiskey at Christmas Time"
1970	**	Dr. Marion Lester	"If I Can't Sing, I'll Listen"
McCloud	Joan Stanford	"Horse Stealing on Fifth Avenue"
San Francisco International Airport	Janie	"The High Cost of Nightmares"
The Men from Shiloh	Mrs. Nelson	"Hannah"
Ironside	Patricia Kirk / Elaine Potter	"Tom Dayton Is Loose Among Us", "Noel's Gonna Fly"
1971	**	Victoria Ulysses	TV film
O'Hara, U.S. Treasury	Mrs. Madrid	"Operation: Crystal Springs"
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law	Norma Pruitt	"A Lonely Stretch of Beach"
McMillan & Wife	Connie	"Husbands, Wives, and Killers"
1972	McMillan & Wife	Monica Fontaine	"Cop of the Year"
Hec Ramsey	Bella Grant	"Mystery of the Green Feather"
Night Gallery	Barbara Morgan	"She'll be Company for You"
1973	Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law	Annie Harker	"They've Got to Blame Somebody"
Partners in Crime	Margery Jordan	TV film
ABC's Wide World of Entertainment	Liz Elliott	"A Prowler in the Heart"
Ironside	Ellen Wills	"Fragile Is the House of Cards"
**	Angela Norton	"The Confession"
1973-74	Kojak	Ruth Gardner	"The Marcus-Nelson Murders", "Marker to a Dead Bookie"
1974	Pray for the Wildcats	Lila Summerfield	TV film
Marcus Welby, M.D.	Jean Wainwright	"The Mugging"
**	Lynn Corey	"Rolling Thunder"
1975	Man on the Outside		TV film
1976	Lanigan's Rabbi	Myra Galen	"Friday the Rabbi Slept Late"
1978	Crash	Emily Mulwray	TV film
::

References

References

1. Scott, Vernon. (July 1, 1978). "Lorraine Gary works hard at becoming a movie star". [[New Castle News]].
2. Garfield, David. (1980). "A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio". [[Macmillan Publishers]].
3. ""Ironside" In Search of an Artist (TV Episode 1969) - IMDb".
4. Crosby, Joan. (July 28, 1975). "Lorraine Gary: full of fears despite 'Jaws'". [[The Lowell Sun]].
5. "FMF Board of Directors". [[Feminist Majority Foundation]].
6. (January 12, 1995). "Humanitarian: Sheinbergs to Receive Award Sunday". [[Los Angeles Times]].
7. (February 1992). "Fathers and Sons - and Grandsons and Daughters and Wives and...". Sussex Publishers, LLC.
8. Trent, Jeff. (September 1989). "Spy". Sussex Publishers, LLC.
9. (1988). "Fund Raiser's Guide to Private Fortunes". [[Taft Group]].

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