Sharon Gless
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| Sharon Gless | ||||||||||
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| Birth name | Sharon Marguerite Gless | |||||||||
| Born | May 31 1943 Image:Flag of the United States.svg Los Angeles, California, U.S. | |||||||||
| Years active | 1973-present | |||||||||
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Sharon Marguerite Gless (born 31 May 1943) is an Emmy Award winning US actress who has starred in soap operas and movies and on television.
She is best known for her role as Christine Cagney, the title role in the 1980s police procedural drama series Cagney & Lacey, which aired on the CBS television network (1982-1988). For this role she won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Before her role as Cagney, her first long-running role was that of Eddie Albert's and Robert Wagner's young classy secretary, Maggie Philbin, on the CBS private detective/con artist series Switch (1975-1978). Gless also appeared as Hal Sparks's supportive and overbearing mother, Debbie Novotny, in the long-running Showtime cable television series Queer as Folk (2000-2005). Currently she plays Jeffrey Donovan's mother, Madeline Westen, on the USA Network series, Burn Notice.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
A fifth-generation Californian, Sharon Gless was born in Los Angeles, California in 1943. She worked as a secretary for the advertising agencies Grey Advertising and Young & Rubicam in Los Angeles, California, and then for the independent movie production companies Sassafras Films and General Film Corporation. After deciding to switch to acting, Gless took classes and in 1974 signed a 10-year contract with Universal Studios. Gless has described herself as the last of the studio contract players — a salaried, Old Hollywood apprentice system which Universal was the last to employ. Gless went on to appear in numerous Universal television series and TV movies, and co-starred with Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner in the studio's series Switch.
[edit] Later life and career
Beginning with the series' seventh episode Gless replaced actress Meg Foster in the role of NYPD police detective Christine Cagney on Cagney & Lacey. In 1991 she married the series' executive producer Barney Rosenzweig who during their courtship had been married to fellow executive producer and co-creator Barbara Corday. Rosenzweig created the 1990-1992 CBS drama series The Trials of Rosie O'Neill for Gless and uncredited played the only partially seen psychiatrist to whom attorney O'Neill confided at the beginning of each episode. Gless, who had garnered five Emmy nominations including two wins for Cagney & Lacey, earned two additional Emmy nominations for this subsequent series.
Gless narrated a 1998 documentary about Ayn Rand, A Sense of Life, by filmmaker Michael Paxton. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. From 2000-2005, Gless played the supporting role of diner-worker Deborah (Debbie) Jane Grassi Novotny on Queer as Folk.
In 2006 Gless starred in the BBC television series The State Within. The following year she costarred in the USA Network cable television series Burn Notice.
[edit] Theatre
She has extensive stage experience including two appearances in London's West End, the first time in 1993 with Bill Paterson, when she created the role of Annie Wilkes in the stage version of Stephen King's Misery at the Criterion Theatre, and in 1996, opposite Tom Conti, in Neil Simon's Chapter 2, at the Gielgud Theatre.
[edit] Awards and honors
- 1985 Q Award for Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series for Cagney & Lacey
- 1986 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Cagney & Lacey
- 1986 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama for Cagney & Lacey
- 1986 Q Award for Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series for Cagney & Lacey
- 1987 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Cagney & Lacey
- 1987 Q Award for Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series for Cagney & Lacey
- 1988 Q Award for Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series for Cagney & Lacey
- 1991 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama for The Trials of Rosie O'Neill; tied with Patricia Wettig for Thirtysomething
- 1995: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (for television) at 7065 Hollywood Blvd.
[edit] References
- Museum of Broadcast Communications: Sharon Gless
- OutSmart magazine interview
- TV Guide (Dec. 8, 1990): "Looking Rosie: The tug-of-war to get Sharon Gless back on TV"
[edit] External links
- Sharon Gless at the Internet Movie Database
- Letting Gode:Sharon Gless
fr:Sharon Gless he:שרון גלאס nl:Sharon Gless pl:Sharon Gless ru:Глесс, Шэрон fi:Sharon Gless sv:Sharon Gless
