Sandy Dennis Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1967

Sandy Dennis won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for “Any Wednesday.” Sandy plays Ellen Gordon, who is about to lose her rent-controlled apartment. Ellen is unable to afford the conversion of her apartment into a co-op. Enter a married man who steps in with a proposition for Ellen. He will buy the apartment for her. However, she is required to repay the debt by participating in weekly trysts on Wednesdays, which is why the play is titled “Any Wednesday.” Ellen has essentially agreed to serve as a “sugar baby” for this married man. In exchange for her companionship and sexual intimacy, Ellen receives financial and material benefits; in this case, it is the co-op. Tax records list the co-op as an executive suite. Months later, an out-of-town businessman inadvertently finds himself in the “executive suite.” Upon his arrival, he believes he has found a prostitute in Ellen! Suffice it to say, complications arise as the married man’s wife also enters the story line. Nobody knows Ellen’s real identity or the nature of her relationship with her husband.

To read more about other Oscar-winning actresses playing characters working in the sex trade industry, please continue perusing Oscar Hookers