Mills women on stage and screen By Jessica Langlois, MFA ’10
I
n 1981, Kathryn Harrold
and Treat Williams were on the run from Robert Duvall. They were on the set of The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper, one of the many early eighties films Harrold starred in, and one of the many times the young actress found herself causing a stir. “The director would say, ‘Treat, take Kathryn’s hand. Help her do it. Help her.’ So, I was always being pulled along behind, and I just kept saying, ‘You know what? I totally have got this. I can run, I can get on this horse by myself, and I think I can even fight these guys if I
also found the acting profession to be a
and circus arts in Berkeley. In the early
need to,’” Harrold recalls. Eventually, the
way for people to be held accountable to
’70s, she went to New York, where she
director listened, and Harrold considered
one another and to themselves, as well
studied with acting legends Sanford
it one small victory in her 35-year career
as a means of practicing empathy and
Meisner, Ute Hagen, and André Gregory.
as an actress. Throughout her time in
questioning social assumptions. As Carter
But it wasn’t long before she was swept
Hollywood, she almost always worked
says, “Theater creates a space where we’re
from New York’s experimental theater
with male writers, male directors, and
all human together.”
scene on to the silver screen. She was cast
all-male crews, and she often felt called
on the soap The Doctors and, by the late
upon to stand her ground when she was
Theater as therapy
told what a woman would or wouldn’t do.
Kathryn
classic
New York and Los Angeles, appearing
“I was very fierce. I was determined. I felt
Hollywood look—high cheekbones, large
in such popular television shows as The
at the time like a feminist—and I still do
doe eyes, and sculpted ash-blond hair—
Rockford Files and Starsky and Hutch,
today,” Harrold says.
which at one point led her to play the role
whose star, Paul Michael Glaser, she hap-
Along with Elizabeth Carter ’92 and
of Lauren Bacall. Drawn from rural
pened to meet over brunch. This lucky
Anna Ishida ’05, Harrold is among the
Appalachia to the countercultural vibe of
break was “kind of goofy,” but it cata-
many Mills alumnae who have estab-
the San Francisco Bay Area, with its flower
pulted her career forward, says Harrold.
lished careers in acting, and who have
children and Vietnam War protests,
She began to get leads in feature films
found theater and film to be vital ven-
Harrold majored in literature and dra-
and TV movies, though the atmosphere
ues for women to explore emotions they
matic arts at Mills while studying mime
of a movie set was a far cry from the
might otherwise suppress. They have
in San Francisco, movement at Stanford,
camaraderie she’d felt on the small New
10
M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY
Harrold
’72
has
’70s, she was dividing her time between a