Stockard Channing's Real Name: Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing → Stockard Channing
Quick answer: Stockard Channing is documented professionally as Stockard Channing. Published accounts disagree on the exact order of her original given names, a conflict recorded below (Encyclopedia.com; amNewYork).
Real name and early life
Encyclopedia.com gives her birth date as February 13, 1944, in New York, New York, and lists the original name as Susan Williams Antonia Stockard, while noting that some sources cite Susan Antonia Williams Stockard. An amNewYork profile uses the second of those forms, "Susan Antonia Williams Stockard, as her name then was," and says she grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Both accounts name her father as Lester Napier Stockard, in shipping, and her mother as Mary Alice, whose maiden name was English. amNewYork says she attended the Madeira School, then Radcliffe College, which she has called Harvard, and was graduated in 1965; that profile says she speaks of a summa cum laude in general studies. Encyclopedia.com instead records a Harvard B.A., cum laude, in history and literature, in 1965. This page records that difference in degree wording rather than choosing silently. The professional surname Channing comes from an early marriage, recorded in Encyclopedia.com, to Walter Channing, Jr.
Career highlights
Encyclopedia.com lists a Golden Globe nomination for her film debut in The Fortune (1975) and later film work including Grease, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, The First Wives Club, and Practical Magic, as well as a People's Choice Award connected with Grease. On stage, both sources highlight her Tony Award-winning performance as Sheila in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in 1985. The amNewYork profile, written when she was appearing in a Broadway revival of Pal Joey, also looks back on that Joe Egg success. Encyclopedia.com records later television work including The West Wing, a series credit listed in that encyclopedia entry.
Name notes for searchers
She is known professionally as Stockard Channing. Searchers looking for Betty Rizzo in Grease, for the Joe Egg Tony winner, or for her work on The West Wing are usually aiming at the same person. Because sources divide on the order of her original given names, this page does not put a single unsourced sequence in the title.
FAQ
What is Stockard Channing's real name?
She is known as Stockard Channing. Sources divide on whether her original name was Susan Williams Antonia Stockard or Susan Antonia Williams Stockard.
When was Stockard Channing born?
February 13, 1944, in New York City, according to Encyclopedia.com.
What is Stockard Channing known for?
Grease, a Tony Award for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, and later television work including The West Wing, a series credit listed in that encyclopedia entry.
Did she attend Harvard?
Yes. Encyclopedia.com records a 1965 Harvard B.A.; amNewYork describes the same year at Radcliffe College, then the women's college of Harvard, with a different wording of the honors and field.