Cloris Leachman: Accomplished Chameleon Born in 1926, Cloris Leachman grew up in a small town near Des Moines. As a child, she loved to act and play the piano. At age 11, she landed a job on a local children's radio show. By 17, Leachman had joined the Kendall Community Playhouse; a year later the aspiring actress headed to Northwestern University on a drama scholarship. At 20, Leachman entered a local beauty pageant on a lark and made it all the way to the Miss America finals. Leachman lost the beauty contest, but not her love of the spotlight. She headed for New York City and was recruited for the prestigious Actors Studio. Determined not to be typecast as a beauty queen, she tackled a smorgasbord of parts. In 1952, the starlet fell for aspiring director George Englund; the couple married in 1953 after Leachman discovered she was pregnant. Although Englund would have several affairs, the couple stayed together for many years and had four more children. Ignoring the traditional 1950s
