Q&A With Barbara Whinnery

Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen
Photos courtesy of Barbara Whinnery

Barbara Whinnery is an American actress, best known for the role of Dr. Cathy Martin on the television drama “St. Elsewhere”. She has made guest appearances in several other television shows and has also appeared in movies and on stage. Barbara just starred in a Western, “The Sheriffs of Savage Wells”, which will be released later this year and in the movie “Edie Arnold is a Loser” which is a coming of age movie about the writer/director’s experience at a Catholic girl’s school. It has been chosen by the SXSW, South by SouthWest Film Festival, and will have its premiere there this March!

KB: Did you always want to be an actress growing up?

No. I set off for college with the plan of becoming a research biologist. After a year of math and science classes, the University of Washington required that I take chemistry. The “brilliant” chemistry professor looked like Father Guido Sarducci, wore the same type black hat and clothing, and would wander about the stage like a lost atom while he lectured. Equation after equation he’d spout in a monotone. I barely passed the class, so the next semester I decided to take something “easy”…an acting class. It was the most challenging thing I’d ever done and I was hooked!

KB: Did you have any favorites on TV and in movies as a kid?

Gosh yes! I loved “Zorro”, “Bonanza”, (I’m showing my age here), “Leave it to Beaver”, Hayley Mills in the original “Parent Trap”, “The Sound of Music”, and Sunday night’s Wonderful World of Disney! My Parents were fabulous and would take me to the theatre when I was young. I loved “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Twelfth Night”, “Hamlet” (loved Shakespeare’s ghost scenes).

KB: How did you get the part as Dr. Cathy Martin in St. Elsewhere and what is your fondest memory working on the show?

Every minute I was on the set of “St. Elsewhere” was amazing! How can I pick a favorite memory? I loved working with Howie Mandel and the scene where the elevator got stuck was so fun. In one episode, Cathy Martin becomes obsessed with Dr. Craig, William Daniels, after he has successfully performed a heart transplant; I loved that. And when Mr. Entertainment, Austin Pendleton, tried to cheer me up by singing to me, I couldn’t stop crying. And one of my favorite episodes is the one named, “Addiction”, so brilliantly written by Tom Fontana and John Massius, in which each character has something they are obsessed with.

I was so lucky to be called in to audition for Cathy Martin after the casting director, the brilliant Molly Lopata, had seen me in the Lillian Hellman play, “Another Part of the Forest” at the Ahmanson Theatre. My agent called telling me to get over to the MTM lot right away; I had to feign a sudden illness to leave my day job at the bank in the middle of the day. I first read for just Molly, then got a call back with a few of the producers and NBC casting director, Eugene Blythe and a few days later was sent to “network” and auditioned in front of about 20 execs who would approve or disapprove of me. When I heard nothing for days, I was so depressed. The next Monday, I got a phone call from wardrobe asking me to come in for a fitting! That’s how I discovered I got the job! Wardrobe always knows what’s going on first!

KB: You played Sister Mary Margaret on Sunset Beach for 12 episodes but it was uncredited: why was that?

Funny, I had no idea I wasn’t credited on “Sunset Beach”. I don’t know why. But I loved Sister Mary Margaret and was so sad when the show was so abruptly cancelled. I’ve actually played quite a few nuns. First, in the play “The Devils”, then in “Hamburger: The Motion Picture”, “Sunset Beach”, and most recently in a new movie “Edie Arnold is a Loser”.

KB: You played in theatre too. Do you have a favorite play or musical?

That would be a long list. When I was a teen, my parents took me to see “Hair” and later I got to be in a production of it in summer stock theatre. It amazed me how powerful that musical was and how it captured the times and the struggle to end the Vietnam war and the draft. I came of age protesting the war and felt discouraged that we weren’t making a difference. Looking back, I realize that we did make a powerful difference.

I love Tennessee Williams’ plays, especially “The Glass Menagerie”, “Summer & Smoke” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. I love every musical by Sondheim or Rogers & Hammerstein. I love musicals and movies that play around with Shakespeare & other classics, like “Kiss Me Kate”, “West Side Story”, “My Fair Lady”, “She’s The Man”, “Anyone But You”, “Shakespeare in Love”, and Steve Martin’s “Roxanne”. I even wrote a play that began with the idea that Ophelia did not want to kill herself, no, she went to the place by the stream where she’d always meet Hamlet and waited for him. In my play, he shows up, rescues her and they have a rather dysfunctional relationship…haha. How could it be otherwise?

KB: Are there people you would love to collaborate with or you wished you had?

In the movie “Don Juan DeMarco”, I had a couple brief moments with Marlon Brando. When he looked at me, it was as if he was looking deep into my soul. And each take he did, he added something new. I wish I could go back in time and work with him when he was in his prime, before the world had dealt him such heavy blows.

KB: If I gave you the lead in a movie and you could choose the director and 1 co-star: Who would you pick and why?

Okay, Susan Sarandon is my co-star, Barry Levinson is our director, and Tom Fontana is writing the script. (You can’t leave out the writer!)

KB: What are you currently up to?

A Western! I’m so excited, I’ve always wanted to be in a Western, of course, I imagined myself galloping into town on a feisty bay mare…I don’t get to do that. I do play the owner of the millinery shop in the Wild West town of Savage Wells. The movie “The Sheriffs of Savage Wells”, is directed by the very talented John Lyde with a script by the popular author Sarah Eden. Candlelight Media is planning to release it this year!

There is a very funny movie I had a small part in (another nun) called “Edie Arnold is a Loser”. A coming of age movie about the writer/director’s experience at a Catholic girl’s school. It has been chosen by the SXSW, South by SouthWest Film Festival, and will have its premiere there this March!

On a different note, I recently worked on a short movie by a young director that explored grief and the struggle to go on after grief. “Remnant” is the title, and I do hope he will be submitting it to festivals this coming year.

It’s funny, when my daughter and I decided to move to Salt Lake City and join our family, who had come here for careers in medicine, I thought my acting days were behind me. Little did I know, there is a lot going on here in Utah. The Utah Film Center and The Sundance Institute promote so many independent movies. Kevin Costner has brought so much work to our area with “Yellowstone” and the “Horizon” saga. Hallmark shoots here as do many commercials and of course, Disney’s “High School Musical”. The first movie I worked on in Utah, “The Killing of Two Lovers”, premiered at the Sundance Festival in 2020. A powerful piece looking inside a struggling marriage. I believe it is still showing on Netflix. (And if you get the chance, the phenomenal writer, Robert Machoian, has a movie “Omaha”, that won a ton of awards this year and is worth seeing!)

I feel such gratitude that I have a whole new career in my later years. I love working with young talented writers and directors whose careers are just blossoming. I love that my agent, Vickie Panek, envisions me playing such a wide range of characters.

Thank you for reaching out to me. Answering your questions has reminded me of how much I love this industry and how grateful I am to have met the people I have worked with and had the experiences I’ve had!

Follow Barbara on Instagram: HERE

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