Eileen Brennan

American actress Eileen Brennan was the daughter of Jean Manahan, a moderately successful silent screen actress. Brennan studied at both Georgetown University and the American Academy of Dramatic Art before making her mark as star of the 1959 off-Broadway musical Little Mary Sunshine. On the surface, it would seem that this production was out of character for the earthy, sardonic Brennan most familiar to filmgoers. Not so. A lampoon of insipid 1920s operettas, Little Mary Sunshine was in its own lah-dee-dah way one of the dirtiest musicals ever written (something that doesn't ...