Her earliest starring film role was opposite Alan Alda in "To Kill a Clown" (1972). Danner appeared in the episode of "M*A*S*H" entitled "The More I See You", playing the love interest of Alda's character Hawkeye Pierce. She played lawyer Amanda Bonner in television's "Adam's Rib", also opposite Ken Howard as Adam Bonner. She played Zelda Fitzgerald in "F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles'" (1974). She was the eponymous heroine in the film "Lovin' Molly" (1974) (directed by Sidney Lumet). She appeared in "Futureworld", playing Tracy Ballard with co-star Peter Fonda (1976). In the 1982 TV movie "Inside the Third Reich", she played the wife of Albert Speer. In the film version of Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical play "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1986), she portrayed a middle-aged Jewish mother. She has appeared in two films based on the novels of Pat Conroy, "The Great Santini" (1979) and "The Prince of Tides" (1991), as well as two television movies adapted from books by Anne Tyler, "Saint Maybe" and "Back When We Were Grownups", both for the Hallmark Hall of Fame.