What is Liz Sheridan known for?
Elizabeth Ann Sheridan (April 10, 1929 – April 15, 2022) was a dancer and actress from the United States. Her decades-long career included work as a dancer and actress, and she was best known for her roles as Jerry’s mother in Seinfeld and the nosy neighbor, Mrs. Ochmonek, on ALF.
She was born in Rye, New York, to concert singer Elizabeth Poole-Jones and classical pianist Frank Sheridan [fr].
Sheridan began her professional career as a nightclub dancer and singer in New York City and the Caribbean before transitioning to stage work. Throughout the 1970s, she was cast in both musicals and plays on Broadway. Before relocating to Los Angeles, Sheridan appeared in the 1977 musical Happy End alongside Meryl Streep and Christopher Lloyd.
She rose to prominence in over a dozen feature films and 60 prime time network television movies, mini-series, and series, including Kojak, Archie Bunker’s Place, St. Elsewhere, Newhart, Moonlighting, The A-Team, Who’s the Boss, Hill St. Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Family Ties, Murder,
She Wrote, and Double Rush. From 1986 to 1990, she starred as nosy neighbor Raquel Ochmonek on the NBC television series ALF.
Following that, she landed her most well-known and longest-running role as Jerry’s mother, Helen, in Seinfeld. She was the only actor other than the four leads to appear in all nine seasons, from 1990 to 1998.
She lived and worked in the Caribbean in the 1950s and 1960s, “singing and playing the piano in almost every bar and saloon in the West Indies.” Back in New York in the late 1960s, she appeared in one of Julius Monk’s annual cabaret revues at Plaza 9, located in the Plaza Hotel.
Sheridan co-starred in the 2009 feature film Play the Game, a romantic comedy about a lonely, widowed grandfather who, after a 60-year hiatus, learns dating tricks from his serial romancer of a grandson. The octogenarian sex scene between Sheridan and Griffith in the film sparked outrage.
Sheridan met the then-unknown James Dean while working as a dancer in New York City nightclubs.
Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean: A Love Story, her book, chronicled their time together in 1952. She refers to them as each other’s first romantic love in it. “We had a fantastic time… We did not want to be separated. We found a place to live and shared it… before he really made it big.”
Dean pursued stage work in New York before moving on to film roles in Hollywood. Without a firm foundation or a serious plan, forging a future was out of the question, resulting in the end of their relationship. “He was being dragged away into this career, and I couldn’t keep up,” she explained in an interview.
Sheridan left New York for the Virgin Islands in early 1953. She spent over a decade in St. Thomas and then in Puerto Rico. She made a living as a dancer, as well as by singing and playing the piano. She won a dance contest she choreographed for the first Carnival in St. Thomas with a neighbor who had a dance troupe.
She also won a $600 purse for finishing first in a horse race while riding her stallion, Generalé. After a brief engagement to Justus Villa (aka Pancho), she realized she didn’t want to marry him, called it off, and moved back to New York City for a while.
She ran into Dean again at a party. Later, in a cab, he told her, “Nothing has been lost between us. It will never be. I’m a part of you, and you’re a part of me. I bring you everywhere I go.” That was her last encounter with him.
She met jazz musician [William] Dale Wales (1917–2003) in Puerto Rico when she returned to the Caribbean. They lived together from 1960 until his death in 1985, and they married in 1985. Their daughter is a photographer who lives in Greenwich Village, New York City.
According to Sheridan, “I can’t tell you how unmotherly I am. Somewhere, I’m still a flower child. For the majority of her life, my daughter was more of a friend to me than a daughter to me.”
Dizzy and Lizzie were Liz Sheridan and actress Elizabeth Montgomery’s best friends. Montgomery only got the nickname “Lizzie” after appearing in the Emmy Award-winning TV movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden; Dizzy was a shortened version of “Dizabeth,” which is how her sister pronounced her name when they were younger. Dizzy and Lizzie both loved horses and spent a lot of time at the Santa Anita racetrack.
Sheridan died on April 15, 2022, five days after her 93rd birthday, of natural causes. According to media reports, her death came just a few weeks after the death of Estelle Harris (also 93), who played the mother of another Seinfeld character, George Costanza.
Liz Sheridan Husband
Liz Sheridan was married to William Dale Wales until his death in 2003, they had their only child, a daughter.
Liz Sheridan Daughter Name
Their daughter is a photographer who lives in Greenwich Village, New York City. Her name is Stephanie.
Liz Sheridan Daughter Age
She is more than 50 years of age as of 2022.
