Eileen Brennan (born September 3, 1932) is an American actress of film, television, and theater. Brennan is best known for her role as Doreen Lewis in Private Benjamin for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role in the TV adaption and won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for her performance. She received Emmy nominations for her guest starring roles on Newhart, Thirtysomething, and Will and Grace. Brennan was born as Verla Eileen Regina Brennen in Los Angeles, California, daughter of Regina "Jeanne" Menehan, a silent film actress, and John Gerald Brennen, a doctor. Of Irish descent, she was raised Roman Catholic. Eileen Brennan appeared in plays with the Mask and Bauble Society at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where she was employed. She starred there in Arsenic and Old Lace. Her exceptional comic skills and romantic soprano voice propelled her from unknown to star in the title role of Rick Besoyan's off-Broadway tongue-in-cheek musical/operetta Little Mary Sunshine (1959) and its un-official sequel, The Student Gypsy (1963).