Mary Elizabeth Hartman (December 23, 1943 – June 10, 1987) was an American actress of stage and screen. She debuted in the film A Patch of Blue (1965), playing a blind girl named Selina D'Arcy, opposite Sidney Poitier, a role for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year.
She appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1966) as Barbara Darling, for which she was nominated for a second Golden Globe Award. She also starred in Don Siegel's The Beguiled (1971), opposite Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page, and Walking Tall (1973).
Hartman voiced Mrs. Brisby in Don Bluth's first animated feature, The Secret of NIMH (1982). This proved to be her last Hollywood film and TV role, as well as her only animated role.
On June 10, 1987, Hartman died after jumping from the window of her fifth-floor apartment. Earlier that morning, she had reportedly called her psychiatrist saying that she felt despondent. Hartman was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Youngstown, Ohio.
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Early life
Mary Elizabeth Hartman was born December 23, 1943, in Youngstown, Ohio, the daughter of Claire (née Mullaly) and B.C. Hartman. She had a sister, Janet, and a brother, William. She was a standout dramatic student at Boardman High School, where she graduated in 1961. She won a statewide award for best actress in a high school production for her performance as Laura in The Glass Menagerie. She performed in several productions at the Youngstown Playhouse during her youth, including A Clearing in the Woods by Arthur Laurents and Our Town. She attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she met her future husband, Gill Dennis, and spent her summers acting with the Kenley Players.
