SHARON GLESS

'Sharon Marguerite Gless' (born May 31, 1943) is an American actress, who's primarily on soap operas, movies and television, who is of Irish descent, whose trademark is also starring in long-running roles in television (the eighth actor behind Lucille Ball, Robert Wagner, William Shatner, Bill Bixby, Michael Landon, Lee Majors and James Brolin, among many others).
In the three decades of Gless's career, she is best known for her role as 'Christine Cagney', the title role in the police procedural drama series ''Cagney & Lacey'', which aired on the CBS television network (1982-1988), and for which 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), as Hal Sparks's supportive and overbearing mother, 'Debbie Novotny', in the long-running Showtime cable television series ''Queer as Folk'' (2000-2005), and now she plays Jeffrey Donovan's mother, 'Madeline Westen', on the USA Network series, ''Burn Notice''.

Contents

Biography

Early life and career

Later life and career

Awards and honors

References

External links

Biography

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''.

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 co-starred in the USA Network cable-television series ''Burn Notice''.

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.

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"

External links

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