Biography

Few actresses have the distinction of being recognized and revered worldwide for multiple iconic roles in groundbreaking television shows. Sharon Gless is one of them.

Generations of TV viewers know and love the remarkable characters brought to life by this standout multi Emmy and Golden Globe winning actress: Christine Cagney (Cagney & Lacey), Debbie Novotny (Queer As Folk) and Madeline Westen (Burn Notice), among many others. With over four decades of indelible television, film, and stage roles to her credit, Gless continues to enchant her longtime followers and captivate new fans with every appearance.

In 1972, the head of Talent at Universal Studios perceived a take-notice quality in Sharon Gless and signed her as a contract player, a coveted breakthrough opportunity for any young actress. Gless remained under contract for the next decade, until the studio ended all talent contracts in 1982, earmarking her as the last contract player in the history of Hollywood.

During her contract years with Universal, Gless appeared in top-rated television series including: The Rockford Files, The Bob Newhart Show, Kojack, Adam-12, and Faraday and Company. After reoccurring guest-star spots on Marcus Welby, M.D., Gless was offered the role of Kathleen Faverty, a medical professional and James Brolin's first love interest. Robert Young appreciated the young rising star's talent and she was cast in two television movies to play his daughter. When the Marcus Welby, M.D. storyline changed, Gless' career advanced when she was chosen to play Maggie Philbin, the only female main character on Switch, an action series starring Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert, for all three seasons from 1975 to 1978.

L.A. Law creator, Steven Bocho, had earlier developed a situation comedy, Turnabout, (1979), in which a married couple, through magic, switch bodies. Loving the cross-gender acting challenge, Gless played Penny, who has embodied her husband, Sam. Noting her naturally husky and sultry voice and precise comic timing, Gless was next cast to play Carole Lombard in a successful TV movie directed by John Erman, The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980). It was during a screening of The Scarlett O'Hara War that television producer Barney Rosensweig discovered Gless and entreated her to star in his upcoming TV project, Cagney and Lacey. By the start of production, Gless had already been cast in the popular series, House Calls, as Jane Jeffries, making her unavailable for Cagney & Lacey's 2-hour pilot movie and first episodes.

Gless stepped in to the role of New York Police Detective Christine Cagney in 1982 and Cagney and Lacey made television history as the first hour-long drama to feature two females in the leading roles, who brought public awareness to serious cultural issues for women: date rape, breast cancer, addiction, sexism in the workplace, career choices, abortion, and moral dilemma. Over 30 million American viewers watched the show every week and Gless garnered two Emmy awards for Best Lead Actress in a Drama and six total nominations, along with a Golden Globe award and six nominations during the show's highly-rated run. After the show ended, Gless won an additional Golden Globe for her starring role in the drama series, The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, and two more Emmy nominations.

In popular demand, Gless, also costarred in a feature film with Michael Douglas, The Star Chamber, as well as telefilms: Honor Thy Mother, Hobson's Choice, Hard Hat & Legs, Separated by Murder, and the heartbreaker, Letting Go, with John Ritter.

From 1994 to 1996, Gless reunited with TV partner Tyne Daly for a quartet of critically acclaimed Cagney & Lacey television movies.

In 2000, Gless took a daring chance with a role that opened to viewers the underground lives of gay and lesbians in America, playing the outrageous and bold, yet tender, character Debbie Novotny in Queer as Folk. Her portrayal of a devoted mother to a gay son and confidant to his gay friends in this unexpected Showtime smash series, touched countless hearts and changed the definition of family for millions of viewers. In five seasons, Gless accomplished with her brilliant interpretation of Debbie what had previously taken decades in acceptance of gay and lesbian family members.

Now known for her ability to portray characters with multi-layered, startling and complex emotions, U.S.A. network cast her in their radical series, Burn Notice, (2007- 2013) as a chain-smoking persuasive woman, Madeline Westen, who helps her son establish a new life, by using an unpredictable mixture of heart and heat. Gless earned her 10th Emmy nomination for work in this series. Her 11th Emmy nomination was for Guest Actress in a Drama series, portraying Colleen Rose, an ambitious Hollywood agent harboring chilling secrets on FX's Nip / Tuck in 2008.

Recently, Gless also appeared in two independent features, Once Fallen, with Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, and Hannah Free, in the title role of Hannah.

In 2016, Gless became an intriguing surprise character, much talked about on social media, in four episodes of The Exorcist on Fox TV, sharing the screen with Geena Davis.

Throughout her TV and film career, Gless has also acted on stage to rave reviews in various productions, debuting with Oscar-winner Kim Hunter in Watch on the Rhine at Stage West in Massachusetts. She then starred in London's famed West End as Annie Wilkes in the adaptation of Misery alongside Bill Paterson, for an extended run. Her comedy chops were applauded in Neil Simon's Chapter Two with Tom Conti, and she returned to the West End to star in Jane Prowse's A Round-Heeled Woman in 2011-12 to standing ovations. Gless has also led the cast of Claudia Allen's Cahoots at Victory Gardens in Chicago and appeared in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues at Madison Square Garden.

Gless has a star on the renowned Hollywood Walk of Fame, an award for Excellence in the Arts from DePaul University in Chicago, and has recorded radio plays, including 'Night, Mother, which earned her the International Sony Award.

Always the happiest when acting in a series or on screen, Gless also finds great fulfillment in lending her indomitable voice to issues involving human rights and LGBTQ causes and was honored by Norman Lear's People for the American Way for her unwavering dedication to helping others. 2017 finds Gless joining stars like Chita Rivera, Kelli O'Hara, and Ben Vereen in "Concert for America: Stand up, Sing Out," on Broadway and in Chicago, benefiting Planned Parenthood, NAACP, and the Sierra Club, and others.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Marcia Wilke

Show business is in Sharon Gless' blood. Her grandfather, Neil Steere McCarthy (May 6, 1888 - July 25, 1972), was considered by many to have been the most respected and powerful entertainment lawyer of Hollywood's Golden Age. His clients included Howard Hughes, Paramount Pictures, Louis B. Mayer (personally), Betsey Maria Cushing Roosevelt, and Cecil B. DeMille. The famous McCarthy Chopped Salad, at the legendary Polo Lounge, was named after him. He also drew up the first contract between a studio and a player - a fact that is of special interest to Gless, as she has the distinction of being the last contract player in the history of Hollywood. She was under exclusive contract to Universal Studios, where she learned and flourished for 10 years, leaving "The Lot" in 1982.

Gless co-stared in USA Network's hit series, Burn Notice (2007) (2007-2013), which finished its seventh and last season on September 12, 2013. In the Miami-based series, she portrayed "Madeline Westen," the chain-smoking, hypochondriac mother of, the spy in the titular burn notice, Michael Westen, portrayed by Jeffrey Donovan.

In late 2008, she completed production on two films: Once Fallen (2010), with Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, and Peter Weller released to theaters; and Hannah Free (2009), an independent film released mostly for the video and streaming market, in which Gless stars as "Hannah," a free-spirited older lesbian, who's attempting to reunite one last time with the love of her life, a woman who took a traditional path, which included marriage, yet who is now living out her final days in a nursing home.

Gless received her most recent Emmy Award nomination in 2008 for her multiple-episode arc role in the hit FX series, Nip/Tuck (2003) as "Colleen Rose," an ambitious Hollywood agent with dark secrets. In 2006, she received rave reviews, both in the US and UK, for her starring role as "US Secretary of Defense Lynne Warner" in the BBC/BBC America miniseries, The State Within (2006).

Gless is in pre-production on "A Round Heeled Woman", a new play based on the best-selling book by Jane Juska, about a 60+ year-old woman's adventures in later-life sex and romance. Gless will both produce and star in the production.

In April 2007, Gless was the recipient of The Theatre School at DePaul University's prestigious Award for Excellence in the Arts. In 2007, she also celebrated the Silver Anniversary of Cagney & Lacey (1981), the first season of which was released on DVD in the spring. Gless continues to work non-stop in the business she dearly loves.

Beginning with her starring role in Faraday and Company (1973) in 1973, Sharon Gless has brought her own brand of humor, intelligence and dramatic flair to each of her roles. She is best-known for her portrayal of New York police detective, "Christine Cagney", on the hit series, Cagney & Lacey (1981), a role that garnered her two Emmys®, a Golden Globe®, and six Emmy® nominations. Following "Cagney & Lacey", Gless re-teamed with the show's executive producer, Barney Rosenzweig, on The Trials of Rosie O'Neill (1990), for which she was awarded her second Golden Globe® and two more Emmy® nominations. Gless married Rosenzweig in 1991.

In 1994 and 1995, Gless and her television partner, Tyne Daly, joined together to recreate their title roles in a quartet of critically-acclaimed and popular "Cagney & Lacey" television movies, which they fondly call "The Menopause Years". Other television series in which she starred include Switch (1975), House Calls (1979) and the short-lived but critically-lauded Steven Bochco half-hour, Turnabout (1979). Gless has received much acclaim for her dramatic roles in such television movies as Separated by Murder (1994), Hardhat and Legs (1980), Honor Thy Mother (1992), Hobson's Choice (1983), and Letting Go (1985), among others, as well as mini-series, The Immigrants (1978), The Last Convertible (1979), Centennial (1978) and Garson Kanin's Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), in which she portrayed screen goddess Carole Lombard.

In 2000, Gless created the role of the outrageous and beloved "Debbie Novotny" in the groundbreaking Showtime series, Queer as Folk (2000) and remained with the series throughout its five-season run. Wherever she goes, Gless is regularly approached by fans wishing to express their appreciation for her honest portrayal of a loving parent of a gay child.

Gless' theatrical film credits include the suspenseful and provocative film, The Star Chamber (1983), in which she portrayed the wife of Michael Douglas. She has recorded several "Books on Tape" and has starred in numerous radio plays, one of which, "'Night, Mother," for the BBC, earned Gless the International Sony Award. She continues to do radio plays for L.A. Theater Works and the BBC.

She has starred twice on stage in London's famed 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 Theater and, four years later, opposite Tom Conti, in Neil Simon's "Chapter Two" at the Gielgud Theater. She starred at Chicago's Tony Award-winning playhouse, The Victory Gardens Theater, in Claudia Allen's "Cahoots", and at Madison Square Garden with the National Company of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues". Gless made her stage debut in Lillian Hellman's "Watch on the Rhine" at Stage West in Springfield, Massachussets.

Gless is an active participant in the ongoing struggle for a woman's right to choose, and joined hundreds of thousands of women in Washington D.C. for the first-ever "March For Women's Lives", where she stood in solidarity with her entertainment industry colleagues. In 2005, she was honored by Norman Lear's "People for the American Way" for her unwavering support of human rights. Gless spends her time at home in three of her favorite cities: Los Angeles, Miami (where "Burn Notice" was filmed), and Toronto (where "Queer as Folk" was filmed).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Paul Gendreau