Kate Jackson
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Kate Jackson | |
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| File:Charlies angels 1st season dvdcover.jpg From left to right Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson |
Lucy Kate Jackson (born October 29, 1948, in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American actress, director, producer, and Speaker. She is a three time Emmy Award Nominee, twice in the "Best Actress" category and once in the "Best Supporting Actress" category. She has also been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards, and has won the title of "Favorite Television Actress" in England, and "Favorite Television Star" in Germany several times for her work in the television series "Scarecrow and Mrs. King". She also co-produced that series through her production company, "Shoot the Moon Enterprises Lmtd. with Warner Brothers Television. She is perhaps best known for her role as Sabrina Duncan in the 1970s television series Charlie's Angels. Fans of the series referred to Miss Jackson as "the smart angel." Her other starring television series roles include Sam Melville's wife, Jill Danko, in the 1970s crime drama, The Rookies, Amanda King, in the 1980s drama, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, with Bruce Boxlietner, "Daphne Harridge" in the Gothic television soap opera "Dark Shadows", and the lead in the television series "Baby Boom" from the Diane Keaton movie of the same name. Miss Jackson holds the distinction of having starred in 5 television series, more than any other actress to date.
Biography
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Jackson attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, but moved to New York to study acting at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in the middle of her Sophomore year at Ole Miss.
Upon graduation from The American Academy, she played a year-long role in the soap opera Dark Shadows in 1970 as Daphne Harridge and, from 1972 to 1976, co-starred as Jill Danko in The Rookies. From 1976 to 1979, she played the role of Sabrina 'Bri' Duncan in Charlie's Angels.
During her stint in "The Rookies", she met with producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg to discuss her contractual obligation to star in another television series for Spelling/Goldberg Productions upon cancellation of "The Rookies". The producer, Leonard Goldberg told her of a series that was available because "...every network has passed on it..." entitled "The Alley Cats". Mr. Spelling then asked her if she had any ideas, and she read from the back of "blue" revision pages from "The Rookies" her pitch for a new kind of television series starring three women who worked for a boss they never saw. It was entitled "Harry's Angels". Newsweek magazine (July, 1999) quotes Mr. Spelling as saying that when he told Miss Jackson the title of the series had to be changed and asked her what she would like to call it, she replied, "Charlie's Angels". Subsequently, the most famous pop culture television series in the history of the medium was born.
Though Messers. Spelling and Goldberg claimed "Charlie's Angels" was, in actuality, the "passed on by every network" series they had pitched to Miss Jackson, "The Alley Cats", it clearly was not. After an unbelievably disastrous attempt to "morph" Ernest Tidyman's "The Alley Cats" into Miss Jackson's original series pitch, Robert Wagner suggested that it be given to the highly sophisticated and successful writing team of Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Goff and Roberts went back to Miss Jackson's original pitch and wrote a 90 minute pilot episode using mistaken identity, charm, and wit. The network, having little faith in the show, threw it on television in the middle of the summer, expecting no one to ever see it. However, more than 50% of the television viewing audience were watching "Charlie's Angels". It was an immediate and enormous hit. Miss Jackson, who was on location in the Florida Everglades had watched the pilot on a black and white television set. When it was over, she stood and said, "My life has just changed forever."
The original "Angels", Miss Jackson, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, and Jaclyn Smith formed a close bond during the first season of the series. Miss Fawcett never signed her contract with Spelling/Goldberg Productions, citing their demand that they share in the profits from her hugely successful poster. But the poster had been made before she shot the television series, and she stayed firm in her ownership of it, refusing to give Spelling/Goldberg a percentage of something they had nothing to do with. She did not return for the second season, and though she won her court battle against the producers, she was required to do a handful of "guest appearances" on the show in the third and fourth seasons. Miss Jackson was offered the Meryl Streep role in "Kramer vs Kramer" at the beginning of the Third Season of "Charlie's Angels", and though the studio rearranged the Dustin Hoffman starrer's shooting schedule three times to accommodate Miss Jackson's "Charlie's Angels" obligation, the producers of the movie, Stanley Jaffe and Sherie Lansing, were finally told by Mr. Spelling that if Miss Jackson appeared in it, the soon to be classic "...would never see the light of day..." . Spelling and Goldberg feared that Miss Jackson would not return to the television series if she was in a successful motion picture, wishing to trade her tv success for movie stardom. At the end of the third season of "Charlie's Angels", Miss Jackson left the show saying, "I served it well and it served me well, now it's time to go." Privately, she told friends that if Mr. Spelling hadn't taken the movie opportunity away from her she "...would have stayed with the series forever..." "Charlie's Angels" began to bomb in the ratings with Miss Jackson's departure, and was canceled after four and a half years on the air. Mr. Spelling privately blamed Miss Jackson's departure from the show for its demise. Many in the Industry agreed with him. However, that gave him little solace, and he began an attempt to cast Miss Jackson in a bad light that lasted until his death.
"Charlie's Angels", a pop culture phenomenon, has been on the air in reruns continuously around the world since its debut in 1976. In August of 2006, Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith, the three "Original" Charlie's Angels, appeared together in a surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards Show. Holding hands, they were greeted with thundering applause, shouts of approval, and smiling faces in the audience at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The next morning, their photograph appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, just beneath the headline. They had successfully "reclaimed the brand", proving imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but imitation is not unique, and their magic together had not diminished.
In 1982, Miss Jackson starred opposite her "Rookies" co-star, Michael Ontkean, and Harry Hamlin in the feature film Making Love, a movie some considered to be ahead of its time. It attempted to deal sensitively with the issue of homosexuality. However, Arthur Hiller directed the film and it received tepid reviews and was poor at the box office, effectively stalling Miss Jackson's big screen career.
As soon as she was free of "Charlie's Angels", Miss Jackson had made what was for the time a whopping six million dollar deal with CBS to star in a half hour comedy series. She elected instead to accept the starring role in "Scarecrow and Mrs. King", a fish-out-of-water one hour comedy/drama in which she played housewife "Amanda King" opposite Bruce Boxlietner's dashing international spy, code name "Scarecrow". Miss Jackson also co-produced the series with Warner Bros. Television through her production company, Shoot the Moon Enterprises. Her comedic flare was endearing to the audience, and the two stars had a strong on screen chemistry. It was during this series that she developed a keen interest in directing. When asked on the set one afternoon "What do you do tomorrow?", Miss Jackson replied, "I don't work, I just direct." "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" was on the air from 1983-1987, The series was strong enough in the ratings that it crushed its NBC competition, Boone, starring Tom Byrd and Barry Corbin.
After Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Jackson in 1988 played the main role in Baby Boom, a TV sitcom version of the original movie starring Diane Keaton, but it only lasted one season. Miss Jackson felt the producers, Charles Shyer and his then partner, Nancy Meyers were too arrogant to allow her to do what she did best-lead a hit tv series. Shyer and Meyers hired friends to direct the show who had never directed before and were grossly unqualified. The cast, which included the tremendously funny and talented Joy Behar, endured Myers sarcasm and screaming, and were forced to watch the mistreatment of the two three year old twins who played Jackson's daughter. One of the twins had become terrified of coming to the set and could not work. Shyer and Meyers had the twin who WOULD come to the set work double time by deceiving the Social Services worker who was present to protect the children. Although legally each child was only allowed to work a total of six hours a day, the producers "tricked" the Social Services worker and used only one of the twins for both six hour periods, calling her by her twin sister's name when she began the second six hour stint. The twins parents, who were present and aware of what the producers were doing, refused to take action. They hoped the series would bring enough money to pay for the little girls college educations, and they feared Myers sharp tongue. At one point, when Joy Behar was holding the screaming, exhausted baby, she said quietly to Jackson, "This feels a little like child abuse." That night, Jackson left the set and refused to return until the producers were forced to comply with the laws protecting the children. There was quite an uproar at MGM Studios, and Jackson received threats that she would be sued for an amount of money that equaled the sum of money all of her previous series had earned. Lynn Loring, an executive under David Gerber, told the Los Angeles Times that Miss Jackson's "...SAG card should be jerked..." Jackson held her ground for as long as she could. Finally, fearing Shyer and Meyers would leave her penniless out of sheer spite, went to the MGM offices and "kissed ###" until Mr. Gerber and Miss Loring told her she would be allowed to continue to work without losing everything she had." Ironically, Miss Jackson remembered an afternoon in Aaron Spelling's office when she was doing "The Rookies" and Loring worked for Spelling. Spelling had been talking to Loring on the phone when Miss Jackson walked in to talk to him. He rolled his eyes and pointed to the phone. As Miss Jackson entered the office to wait for the conversation to end, Spelling tip- toed around his desk and put the screaming woman to whom he was speaking on the speaker for those in the office to enjoy. Everyone laughed quietly as they listened to an insane sounding Miss Loring rant and rave almost incoherently, hardly taking a breath. Miss Jackson didn't know the would-be actress worked for Spelling, but she got an earful that day she couldn't help but remember as she was made to bow and scrape to these two repulsive executives. When Brandon Tartikoff, then Head of NBC television called the "Baby Boom" set to ask Miss Jackson if she would be offended if he canceled the show, Jackson replied, "Brandon, I'll kill myself if you don't!!"
In 1989, she starred in the film Loverboy playing Patrick Dempsey's mother. She enjoyed a good relationship with Dempsey, but was disappointed with the direction of Joan Mikin Silver. She had taken the job in order to work with Ms. Silver, admiring the work she had done on a small film entitled, "Hester Street". However, the script for "Loverboy" was only made bearable by the charm, wit, and talent of Dempsey. Ms. Silver simply did not seem to know what to do. She had described the film to Miss Jackson as a "French farce" and had said she would be shooting it so that there were always so many different ways to look on the screen, the audience would be hysterical with laughter. The film was a disappointment.
Since then, Miss Jackson has starred in many TV movies and has made numerous guest appearances on TV. However, she gave up all professional pursuits when her son, Charles Taylor Jackson, was born in 1995. She stated at the time, "I don't see how I can go about a directing career and be a good mom at the same time. And if I'm not a good mom, I don't think it matters much what else I do well."
Personal life
In 1978, Jackson married actor and producer Andrew Stevens. They subsequently divorced in 1980. She then married David Greenwald in 1982, but they divorced two years later. Her third marriage was to stuntman Tom Hart in 1991, but they also divorced two years later. She stated wryly to friends, "I feel like they backed a Brinks truck up to my bank account and drove away. Except for Tom. Tom's a good guy. He just couldn't stand Los Angeles. I think the decent thing for Andrew and David to do would be to give back all the money they took. They've both done very well. David even told me that since he hadn't looked for wealth, wealth had found him. Then he said all his friends had told him to take everything he could get from me, but he was proud of himself for only taking several hundred thousand dollars. Can you beat that? And Andrew. When I told Andrew I wanted a divorce he said, and I quote, 'I'll take you to the cleaners.' And he did."
She successfully battled breast cancer twice, in 1987 and 1989. She also successfully underwent open heart surgery to correct a hole in her heart she had had since birth.
Jackson has been romantically linked to only one man since the birth of her son. Although they came close to marriage, she shied away at the last moment, stating, "I just don't seem to be very good at marriage. I wish I was. I would like to be. But I can't learn right now. I'm just too busy learning to be a mom. Maybe someday soon...I hope so...You never know."
Jackson has a recurring role on "Criminal Minds" and has written a children's book. Her portfolio of photographs taken over the past thirty-five years is also in negotiations to be published.
Awards/Nominations
- 1977: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (nomination) for "Charlie's Angels" 1977 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Movie or Special (nomination) for "James at 15"
- 1978: Outstanding Lead Actress for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series (nomination).(Charlie's Angels"
- 1977: Best TV Actress - Drama (nomination)"Charlie's Angels"
- 1978: Best TV Actress - Drama (nomination) "Charlie's Angels"
- 1979: Best TV Actress - Drama (nomination) "Charlie's Angels"
- 1985: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama (nomination) "Scarecrow and Mrs. King"
Bravo Golden Otto Germany (won 3 times)"Scarecrow and Mrs. King"