Carroll was a film and TV character actress who starred as Aunt March in the 2004 Broadway musical Little Women.

She began acting professionally in Chicago, in the late '60's. For five seasons, she was a regular at the Kansas City Starlight Theatre. Ms. Carroll won a DramaLogue Critics Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre for her performance as Klytemnestra in Ezra Pound’s Elektra. She created the roles of Julia Rajik in Shadow of Heros at the St. Nicholas Theatre in Chicago, and Dorothea in Nancy Shayne’s musical comedy, Two Bitter Women In A Coffee Shop.

Beginning in 1981, Ms. Carroll appeared in numerous television shows and movies. But she probably never made a bigger impression than in the sleeper hit "Risky Business." In the movie, she plays Tom Cruise's bourgeoise suburban mother, who offers an endless stream of lightly scolding advice to her son before she and her husband go on vacation.

During the late '80s and 1990s, she thrived on television, with recurring roles on the series "The Bronx Zoo," "Murphy Brown" (as Doris Dial, stoic anchorman Charles Kimbrough's wife), "Married With Children" and "Melrose Place."


Source: Playbill.com