Michael Learned

Listen to "Michael Learned Celebrating The Waltons" on Spreaker. Four time Emmy winner, People's Choice recipient and multiple Golden Globe nominee, Michael Learned will be honored with the Legend Award at The Family Film Awards on Sept 27th and serve as a celebrity Judge alongside Academy Award winner, George Chakiris; Tony Award winner John Lloyd Young, and multi-million recording artist Sam Harris, to name a few, at the 12 annual Las Next Great Stage Star on August 27th. In addition, she has just completed filming "Second Acts" and is preparing to open in the stage production of "Driving Miss Daisy." Learned's first series regular audition was for the role of a lifetime and would define a lifetime as Olivia Walton on the hit series "The Waltons," a role she was told would probably not continue beyond the pilot. The cast of The Waltons recently celebrated their 45th anniversary of the hit series that ran for a decade, making Michael the quintessential TV Mom, as Olivia Walton, beating Shirley Partridge by 6 years, Carol Brady by 4 years and even Caroline Ingles by 1 year. Audiences could and still can relate to families living in the depression era. Though times were tough, much like today, love and sharing are abundant in this family. As a result of the show, which she had been told wouldnt survive its first season, Michael Learned has gone on to become a four-time Emmy award-winning actress (three for The Waltons and one for Nurse). In addition, she became a fixture on daytime television for her regular roles on General Hospital and The Young & the Restless, as well as a cross overcharacter (Hon. Judge Turner) in both One Life to Live and All My Children. Born in Washington D.C., at the age of six, Michael's family moved from NJ to a farm in CT, a 21-acre, glorious paradise for kids. When she was 10, she stole some money from her dad, by sneaking into her parent's bedroom while they slept, and lifted change from his pockets, to buy candy. Her punishment was a chart her father made, upon which were listed chores that she could perform to earn the money required to pay him back. She would get a quarter of a penny per egg she collected, as well as a penny or two for feeding and watering the chickens. She milked three goats, carried pig slops up to the barn, morning and night, cleaned out stalls, and eventually paid her father back . . . with money to spare. She has never stolen so much as matchbook from a hotel since that time. As the oldest of six girls, she was eleven when they moved to Austria, where her father worked for the OSS (later known as the CIA), to live in a tiny village called St. Gilgen. Their home was located on a lake surrounded by mountains, where they wore dirndls, went to the local school, learned to speak German, and basically lived on the first set of SOUND OF MUSIC. Life in the village even included puppet shows and singing harmony with friends while making daisy chains. She loved it. On stage, she has starred in Steel Magnolias, performed in the national tour of On Golden Pondand in Lewis Black's One Slight Hitch. Other theatre credits include Elizabeth the Queen at the Folger Shakespeare Library and Edward Albee's All Over at the Gramercy and McCarter Theatres. She starred in the West Coast premieres of Woman in Mind and Hapgood, both for the American Conservatory Theatre Co, for whom she was the leading lady for three years. Her Broadway appearances include Gore Vidal's The Best Man and Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosenweig and the Broadway production of "The Out Going Tide, followed by a tour with Driving Miss Daisy. Michael current appeared in the critically acclaimed digital dramedy entitled Life Interrupted and has just completed work on Second Acts. In spite of prejudices impressed on them growing up, Lee (Michael) and Ben (John Wesley) strike up a charming love affair over the course of an evening to discover love conquers all.