Hope Lange began working in television in the 1950s with appearances on Kraft Television Theatre, which caught the eye of a Hollywood producer. Lange came to prominence in her first film role in Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray, whom she married on April 14, 1956. Murray later said that Monroe grew jealous of another blonde being hired for the movie and asked the studio producers to dye Lange’s blonde hair light brown. As a result of favorable reviews, Lange landed a major role in the then-risqué 1957 film Peyton Place. Her strong performance earned her a nomination for a Golden Globe Award and another for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She would become a rather well-recognized supporting actress of ingénue roles. Lange later said that she became somewhat typecast in her ingénue film appearances and this is why her movie career was short-lived. She went on to appear in Nicholas Ray’s 1957 film, The True Story of Jesse James as James’ wife, opposite Robert Wagner. She appeared in The Young Lions alongside Montgomery Clift. She starred as the wife of Jeffrey Hunter’s character in Anton Myrer’s wartime drama In Love and War in 1958. These roles eventually led to Lange earning top billing in 1959’s The Best of Everything, with Suzy Parker and Joan Crawford.

Hope Lange appeared as Elvis Presley’s older psychologist love interest in Wild in the Country in 1961, despite being only 13 months Elvis’ senior. She then appeared in Frank Capra’s final movie, Pocketful of Miracles, alongside Glenn Ford. The next year, she appeared with Ford again in the romantic comedy Love Is a Ball. Lange returned to television for a 1966 role in the series The Fugitive (1963). She starred from 1968 to 1970 in the television series, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir for which she earned two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award nomination. This success was followed by three seasons on The New Dick Van Dyke Show as Dick Van Dyke’s wife, Jenny Preston, from 1971 to 1974, declining to return for a fourth season of the show. She also appeared in twelve television movies, one being Crowhaven Farm where she was portrayed as a witch. In 1977, she returned to the Broadway stage where her acting career had originally begun. She also played the wife of Charles Bronson in the original Death Wish film. In 1985, she appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and in 1986, she took a role as Laura Dern’s mother in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. She took a Broadway role in Same Time, Next Year and then made appearances in the television movie based on Danielle Steel’s Message from Nam and in 1994’s Clear and Present Danger.

Hope Lange made appearances in the Maine town in which Peyton Place had been filmed during the film’s 40th anniversary celebrations in 1998. Lange’s first marriage was to actor Don Murray in 1956; they had two children, actor Christopher Murray and photographer Patricia Murray. Lange left Don Murray in 1961 for actor Glenn Ford, associate producer and co-star of Pocketful of Miracles. She and Ford never married. She then left acting for three years after her October 19, 1963, marriage to producer-director, Alan J. Pakula, whom she divorced in 1971. In 1972 she also dated Frank Sinatra and began a relationship with married novelist John Cheever. In 1986, she married theatrical producer Charles Hollerith, with whom she remained the rest of her life. Hope Lange died on December 19, 2003, at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California, as a result of an ischemic colitis infection at the age of 70.