In the musical, which was an unofficial sequel to her 'Mary Sunshine' hit, she played a similarly-styled Merry May Glockenspiel, but the show lasted only a couple of weeks. She took her first Broadway bow in another comic operetta, 'The Student Gypsy' (1963). After proving her dramatic mettle, she returned willingly to the musical theatre fold and made a very beguiling Anna in a production of 'The King and I' (1963). Unwilling to be pigeonholed as a singing comedienne, Eileen took on one of the most arduous and demanding legit roles a young actress could ask for when she portrayed Annie Sullivan role in a major touring production of 'The Miracle Worker' in 1961. For this 1959 endeavor, Eileen not only won an Obie Award, but was among an esteemed group of eight other thespians who won the Theatre World Award that year for 'Promising New Personality', including Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Carol Burnett and a very young Patty Duke. Her lovely soprano coupled with a flair for comedy was the winning combination that earned her the break of her budding career as the not-so-dainty title role in the off-Broadway, tongue-in-cheek operetta 'Little Mary Sunshine'. She then went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. and appeared in plays with the Mask and Bauble Society during that time. Following grade school education, she attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

She was born with the highly unlikely marquee name of Verla Eileen Regina Brennan in Los Angeles, California, the child of Irish-Catholic parents Regina ('Jeanne') Manahan (or Menehan), a minor silent film player, and John Gerald Brennan, a doctor. Bink on 7th Heaven (1996) and as Zandra, the disparaging acting coach, on Will & Grace (1998). On camera, she still tosses out those trademark barbs to the delight of all her fans, as demonstrated by her more-recent recurring roles as the prying Mrs. On top of all this, the indomitable Eileen survived a bout of alcoholism and became recognized as a breast cancer survivor, having had a mastectomy in 1990. With courage and spirit, she recovered from her extensive facial and leg injuries, and returned to performing.

Her Hollywood career was hustling and bustling at the time of her near-fatal car accident in 1982. A supremely gifted, versatile player who could reach dramatic depths, as exemplified in her weary-eyed, good-hearted waitress in The Last Picture Show (1971), or comedy heights, as in her sadistic drill captain in Private Benjamin (1980), Eileen Brennan managed to transition from lovely Broadway singing ingénue to respected film and television character actress within a decade's time.

Eileen brennan wikipedia