Fisher was born on May 11, 1952, in Milford on Sea,[3] the daughter of American parents Olga Rosine (née Moen), a housewife, and William Irving "Bill" Fisher, Sr, an oil refinery construction superintendent. Her father was of Russian-Jewish and Hungarian-Jewish descent,[4] whereas her mother was of Norwegian ancestry.[5] Before she reached the age of fifteen, she had moved nine times and travelled because of her father's job, going to places including Italy, Turkey, Colombia, France, Canada, and Brazil.[6][7][8]
When she was 15, her mother died and she took on the responsibility of raising her younger brother.[7] She completed her high school at Lutcher Stark High School in Orange, Texas, where she performed in theatre productions, and later worked as a secretary.[9]
Career
Theatre
Deciding to follow her interest in theatre, she moved to New York City, where she subsequently enjoyed a 14-year stage career in regional and off-Broadway productions. She became involved with the Actors Studio, where she studied with Lee Strasberg.[6] Fisher moved to Abingdon, Virginia, where she began her acting career at the Barter Theatre, a year-round repertory theatre.
During the next 10 years, she concentrated on theatre in New York City and in regional theaters around the East Coast. She has also returned to theatre; she appeared in Arthur Miller's last play, Finishing the Picture, produced at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and in a 2006 production of The Cherry Orchard at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
Fisher at the 2007 Jules Verne Adventure Film Special Awards Presentation
Fisher gained recognition playing Detective Deborah Saxon on the ABC daytime soap opera The Edge of Night from 1976 to 1981. She later joined the cast of CBS's Guiding Light as Suzette Saxon in 1985. After leaving daytime television, Fisher guest starred as a bartender, Savannah, at "The Lobo" in the first season of ABC comedy series Roseanne. She also appeared on Newhart, Matlock and In the Heat of the Night.
Fisher was originally cast to play Jill Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement, but was replaced after initial filming because producers felt that her pilot episode performance did not test well with the audience. She was cast in the unaired pilot to the short-lived 1992 ABC summer series Human Target (originally filmed in 1990, her role was recast by the time the series was picked up in October 1991, replaced by actress Signy Coleman).
In 2014, Fisher was starring in the ABC drama series Resurrection about the residents of Arcadia, Missouri, whose lives are upended when their loved ones return from the dead, unaged since their deaths. She played the role of Lucille Langston.[15]
In 1992, Fisher had her break-out role in Unforgiven, an Academy Award-winning film directed by Clint Eastwood, who also starred.[3] In later years she began acting regularly in major and independent films. Her most famous role in film was as the society matron Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the mother of the character played by Kate Winslet, in the 1997 blockbusterTitanic. She appeared in True Crime (1999) with Eastwood as D.A.[3]
In August 2019, Fisher jokingly called for U.S. President Donald Trump, who is a SAG-AFTRA member and whom she had previously called "the biggest bully in the world", to vote for the union election's opposition MembershipFirst slate, in a bid to mobilize all the union members, regardless of whether they are Democrat, Republican, or Independent, to cast their ballots to have their voices heard.[20]
In 2021, after Ed Asner and nine other SAG-AFTRA members filed a lawsuit against SAG-AFTRA over alleged wage discrimination, Fisher and her co-plaintiffs filed a "similar" lawsuit alleging that the union had deceived members into agreeing to Collective Bargaining Agreements that reduced healthcare benefits for retirees and their families.[34][35] The co-plaintiffs included fellow actors David Andrews, Belinda Balaski, Stephen R. Hart, and Anne Lockhart.[23] In July 2022, after the lawsuit was previously dismissed without prejudice in July 2021 and amended,[34] Judge Christina A. Snyder dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice.[23]
Personal life
In 1970, when Fisher was 18, she married her high school sweetheart Billy Mack Hamilton. They divorced two years later.[7]
Fisher was in a relationship with Unforgiven co-star Clint Eastwood in the early-to-mid-1990s. During that time, the couple had a daughter, Francesca (b. 1993).[7][36]
After her split from Eastwood, Fisher dated fellow actor George Clooney in 1995.[37]
Fisher has explained that finding a boyfriend was difficult while raising a child on her own. She stated in 2010 that "as a single mom, you know, it's been a different thing. No gentleman callers."[38]
In a 2011 interview, she proclaimed her celibacy.[39]
