Trivia

Beat out Barbra Streisand for the lead role in the film Cinderella Liberty (1973). Streisand was the studio's choice for the role. Marsha won her first Oscar nomination.

Met Neil Simon while rehearsing his play, 'The Good Doctor'. They were married three weeks later. The Simon play 'Chapter Two' was the semi-autobiographical story of his life with Mason. Although Mason was in the screen version of Chapter Two (1979), she never played the role on-stage.

Passed on the title role in Norma Rae (1979), which won Sally Field a Best Actress Oscar.

Currently running her own herbal medicine business called "Resting in the River". Business is both sales and manufacturing of medicine. Medicines are made from her own herb garden in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

While married to writer Neil Simon, she appeared in film versions of two of his original plays: Chapter Two (1979) and Only When I Laugh (1981) (the latter a filmation of "The Gingerbread Lady"), appearing in three additional written-for-the screen Simon works: The Goodbye Girl (1977) -which would generate an eventual stage version - , The Cheap Detective (1978), and Max Dugan Returns (1983).

Narrator for the recorded queue and boat show for the "Living with the Land" boat ride attraction in Epcot at Walt Disney World, Florida (1992).

Attended Nerinx Hall High School, the same small, private all-girls high school in Webster Groves, Missouri that The Office (2005) actress Jenna Fischer also attended.

She was awarded a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame at 6646 Delmar Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri on May 19, 2002.

She's on record in the AFI's book "Private Screenings" as listing Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as her favorite film.

Marsha's father, James Joseph Mason, had English and Irish ancestry. Marsha's maternal grandparents, Justyn M. Rakowski and Jadwiga/Ida Piotrzkowski, were Polish.

She studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village, New York City.

Was cited as one of the most promising movie personalities of 1973 in John Willis' 1974 Film Annual "Screen World" book.

The character she played in Promises in the Dark (1979) (Dr. Alexandra Kendall) was inspired by Los Angeles oncologist, Dr. Alexandra Levine (who is listed in the credits as an advisor).

Owns the Resting in the River Organic Farm located in Abiquiu, New Mexico where she grows medicinal herbs.

Currently resides in New York City, and recently completed (2018) building a contemporary home on a hayfield in bucolic Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Is one of 19 actresses to have received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a performance where they acted out a labor and/or birth; hers being for Cinderella Liberty (1973). The others in chronological order are Luise Rainer for The Good Earth (1937), Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda (1948), Eleanor Parker for Caged (1950), Elizabeth Taylor for Raintree County (1957), Leslie Caron for The L-Shaped Room (1962), Shirley MacLaine for Irma la Douce (1963), Vanessa Redgrave for Isadora (1968), Geneviève Bujold for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Ann-Margret for Tommy (1975), Ellen Burstyn for Same Time, Next Year (1978), Jessica Lange for Sweet Dreams (1985), Meryl Streep for A Cry in the Dark (1988), Samantha Morton for In America (2002), Elliot Page for Juno (2007), Gabourey Sidibe for Precious (2009), Ruth Negga for Loving (2016), Yalitza Aparicio for Roma (2018) and Vanessa Kirby for Pieces of a Woman (2020).

Ex-sister-in-law of Danny Simon.

Attended and graduated from Nerinx Hall High School and Webster University, both in Webster Groves, Missouri.