Born November 18, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York, Brenda Vaccaro is the daughter of Italian-Americans who raised her in Dallas, Texas where her parents founded Mario’s Restaurant.
At 17, Vaccaro returned to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She made her Broadway debut in 1961’s Everybody Loves Opel for which received a Theatre World Award.
She later received Tony nominations for 1965’s Cactus Flower (in the role that later won Goldie Hawn an Oscar), 1968’s How Now, Dow Jones, and 1969’s The Goodbye People.
Throughout the 1960s, she also appeared in episodes of various TV dramas including Naked City and The Fugitive. She made her film debut in 1969’s Where It’s At. Married to first husband Martin Fried in 1965, they were divorced in 1970.
Vaccaro’s second film, 1969’s Oscar winning Midnight Cowboy earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but she failed to receive the same recognition from the Academy. Continuing to alternate between roles on the big screen and small, she starred opposite Michael Douglas in 1971’s Summertree and began a relationship with the actor that lasted through 1976.
In 1974, Vaccaro had one of her best TV roles as Ethel Roseberg in Judgment: The Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The following year, she received the Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress in Once Is Not Enough, for which she received her only Oscar nomination to date. In 1977, she appeared in The House by the Lake, Airport ’77 and Capricorn One for which she received a Saturn nomination for playing the wife of one the astronauts. That same year she married William Bishop from whom she was divorced the following year.
Still moving between TV and film in the 1980s, Vaccaro married third husband Charles Cannizzaro in 1981, only to divorce him the following year. In 1986, she married fourth husband Guy Hector to whom she remains married 39 years later.
The actress’ 1980s films included 1980’s The First Deadly Sin, 1981’s Zorro, the Gay Blade, 1984’s Supergirl and 1989’s Ten Little Indians. In 1985, she returned to Broadway to replace Rita Moreno in a female revival of the hit comedy, The Odd Couple.
Her 1990s films included 1994’s Love Affair and 1986’s The Mirror Has Two Faces.
While Vaccaro has continued to be a frequent presence in TV series, her big screen work since 2000 has been sporadic.
She was in 2002’s Sonny, 2005’s Boynton Beach Club, 2016’s Kubo and the Two Strings (voice only), 2017’s The Clapper, and 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Vaccaro has one of her best roles ever in 2025’s Nonnas in which she plays one of the titled grandmothers who becomes a chef in the real-life restaurant depicted in the film.
Brenda Vaccaro remains a welcome presence in any medium. She remains an acting treasure at 85.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), directed by John Schlesinger
Nominated for 7 Oscars and winner of 3 including Best Picture and Director, this gritty classic was the only X-rated film to win an Oscar. That rating, which seemed awfully silly even then, was later revised to an R. Jon Voight in the title role of a Texas hustler who takes a bus to New York where he becomes a male prostitute and Dustin Hoffman as his dying friend were always going to be nominated for Best Actor, but Sylvia Miles’ nomination as one of Voight’s clients was a surprise nominee for Best Supporting Actress especially after it was Vaccaro who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Golden Globes, Miles.
ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH (1975), directed by Guy Green
Released two years after the publication of Jacqueline Susann’s trashy bestseller, it was only the third film made from one of the novels of the Valley of the Dolls author who died in 1974. Centering on Hollywood producer Kirk Douglas and his sickly daughter (Deborah Raffin), Douglas’ wife (Alexis Smith) and her female lover (Melina Mercouri) are based on heiress Barbara Hutton and legendary film star Greta Garbo. Vaccaro, who won a Golden Globe and received her only Oscar nomination for her performance, plays Raffin’s foulmouthed friend who can’t stop bragging about all the plastic surgery she had.
AIRPORT ‘77 (1977), directed by Jerry Jameson
The second sequel to the 1970 megahit Airport received even worse notices than the first sequel, 1974’s Airport 1975. Following in the shoes of Burt Lancaster and Charlton Heston, Jack Lemmon is the pilot who heads an all-star cast in this one. Vaccaro is his longtime girlfriend who refuses his marriage proposal to pursue her career by agreeing to move to Geneva to work for their boss, James Stewart. The all-star cast in this one also includes Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotton, Lee Grant, Darren McGavin, Christopher Lee, Robert Foxworth, Robert Hooks, Monte Markham, and Kathleen Quinlan. No one was singled out for awards for this one.
CAPRICORN ONE (1977), directed by Peter Hyams
This conspiracy thriller is the one that inspired all those conspiracy rumors about a real-life fake moon landing. Two of the three astronauts are played by Barbara Streisand’s two real-life husbands, Elliot Gould (1963-1971) and James Brolin (1998-present). O.J. Simpson plays the third one. Vaccaro, who plays Brolin’s wife, was the only one in the cast to receive award recognition. She was nominated for an Academy of Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Saturn award for Best supporting Actress. They also nominated the film for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Special Effects, and Best Costumes.
NONNAS (2025), directed by Stephen Chbosky
This marvelously sweet comedy is based on the opening of a real-life Staten Island restaurant. Vince Vaughn, usually seen in raucous comedy roles, is outstanding as the middle-aged Italian-American, who after the deaths of his mother and grandmother (Nonna in Italian) decides to buy a rundown Staten Island restaurant, refurbish it, and open it with elderly non-professional cooks like his Nonna to be the restaurant’s chefs. The four actresses playing the chefs are all are former Oscar nominees, one of whom won. They are 70-year-old Lorraine Bracco, 79-year-old Susan Sarandon, 80-year-old Talia Shire, and 85-year-old Vaccaro, all of them in excellent form.
BRENDA VACCARO AND OSCAR
Once Is Not Enough (1975) Nominated – Best Actress
