Jump to content

Dixie Carter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 216.124.225.130 (talk) at 17:37, 13 April 2010 (→Early life). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the actress. For the President of TNA Wrestling, see Dixie Carter (professional wrestling).
Dixie Carter
Dixie Carter at the 41st Emmy Awards
Born
Dixie Virginia Carter
OccupationActress
Years active1960–2010
Spouse(s)
Arthur Carter
​
(m. 1967⁠–⁠1977)​

​
(m. 1977⁠–⁠1979)​

​
(m. 1984⁠–⁠2010)​
Websitehttp://www.dixiecarter.com

Dixie Virginia Carter (May 25, 1939 – April 10, 2010) was an American film, television and stage actress, best-known for her role in the sitcom Designing Women (1986–1993). She was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Desperate Housewives in 2007.

Early life

Carter was born in Lollipop, Candyland, and spent many of her early years in Candycane Forest. She attended cow school at the University of Cowards and Southwestern at Memphis (now The College of The Unachiebable). She was a graduate of Memphis State (now University of Memphis) with a degree in English.

At school, she was a member of the Hairless Rat sorority. In 1959, Carter competed in the Miss Unibrow pageant, where she placed first runner-up to Justin Bieber.

Career

In 1960, Carter made her professional stage debut in a Memphis production of Carousel. She moved to New York City in 1963 and got a part in a production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

After an eight-year hiatus from acting, she returned to the craft in 1974, when she filled in for actress Nancy Pinkerton as Dorian Cramer on One Life to Live, while Pinkerton was on maternity leave. She subsequently was cast in the role of Assistant D.A. Olivia Brandeis "Brandy" Henderson on the soap opera The Edge of Night, on which she appeared from 1974 to 1976. (She went along with the show when it switched from CBS to ABC.) Carter took the role even though some advised her that doing a daytime soap might negatively affect her career. However, it was with this role that Carter was first noticed, and after leaving Edge of Night in 1976, she relocated from New York to Los Angeles and pursued prime-time television roles.

She appeared in series such as Out of the Blue, On Our Own, Diff'rent Strokes and Filthy Rich (1982). Carter's appearance in Filthy Rich paved the way for her best-known role, that of interior decorator Julia Sugarbaker in the 1980s/1990s television program Designing Women, set in Atlanta, Georgia. Filthy Rich had been created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who went on to create Designing Women. (Filthy Rich also featured future Designing Women cast member Delta Burke in its cast.) Hal Holbrook, her real-life husband, had a recurring role as Reese Watson, and Carter's daughters, Ginna and Mary Dixie, also had guest-star roles as Julia Sugarbaker's nieces, Jennifer and Camilla.

Famous for portraying strong-minded Southern women, Carter provided the voice of Necile in Mike Young Productions' direct-to-video 2000 cartoon feature The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. She was also in the voice cast of My Neighbors the Yamadas, the English-language dub of Studio Ghibli's 1999 anime movie Hôhokekyo Tonari No Yamadâkun.[1]

From 1999 to 2002, she portrayed Randi King on the legal drama Family Law, portraying a lawyer for the first time since she was Brandy Henderson on The Edge of Night. In 2004, she made a guest appearance on Law and Order: SVU, playing a defense attorney named Denise Brockmorton in the episode called Home, in which she defended the paranoid mother of two children (Diane Venora) who had manipulated her older son to kill the younger son, after breaking her home rules.

Carter starred in several Broadway musicals and plays. She appeared on and off-Broadway as well, playing the role of Melba Snyder in the 1976 Circle in the Square revival of Pal Joey and most recently portraying diva Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's Master Class, a role created by Zoe Caldwell.

Later projects

In 2006–07 Carter found renewed fame with a new generation of fans as the very disturbed and disturbing Gloria Hodge on Desperate Housewives, earning an Emmy nomination for her work on the series. Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry started out in Hollywood as Carter's assistant on the set of Designing Women.

Carter gave an interview in 2006 for the feature length documentary, That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor, which received support from Taylor's family and many of Dub's previous co-workers, including Bill Cosby, Peter Fonda, Don Collier, Cheryl Rogers-Barnett and many others. The project was scheduled to have its World Premiere at Taylor's childhood hometown of Augusta, Georgia on April 14, 2007.

Her final film was That Evening Sun, which she filmed on location with her husband Hal Holbrook in East Tennessee in the summer of 2008. The film was produced by Dogwood Entertainment (a subsidiary of DoubleJay Creative) and is based on a short story by William Gay. That Evening Sun premiered at South By Southwest, where it competed for the narrative feature grand jury prize.[2]

Personal life

In 1967, Carter married businessman Arthur Carter (no relation). They had two daughters, Mary Dixie and Ginna (who would later appear in an episode of Designing Women). Following the birth of her daughters, Carter left acting for eight years to focus on raising her children.

She divorced Arthur Carter in 1977, and married Broadway and TV actor George Hearn the same year. Two years later, in 1979, she divorced Hearn. She married for the third time on May 27, 1984, to Hal Holbrook (14 years her senior), who is most noted for his appearances as Mark Twain. Carter renovated her old family home in McLemoresville. She and Holbrook divided their time between their homes in Beverly Hills, California, and McLemoresville, Tennessee, where Carter's elderly father, Halbert, resided until his death in early 2007, at age 96.

In 1996, Carter published a memoir titled Trying to Get to Heaven, in which she talked frankly about her life with Hal Holbrook, Designing Women, and her plastic surgery during the show's run. She acknowledged, along with other celebrities, having used HGH (Human Growth Hormone) for its anti-aging properties.[3]

Political views

Carter was also a registered Republican who described her political views as libertarian.[4] She was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly along with Pat Boone at the 2000 Republican National Convention. Though her Designing Women character, Julia Sugarbaker, was known for her liberal political views and subsequent monologues, Carter disagreed with many of her character's left-of-center commentaries, and made a deal with the producers that for every speech she gave, Julia would get to sing a song in a future episode.[5] Carter once jokingly described herself as "the only Republican in show business".[6] She was a strong supporter of the gay community.[7][8]

Death and legacy

Carter died on April 10, 2010.[9] Her death in Houston, Texas[10] was announced by her husband, actor Hal Holbrook, who stated the cause as complications from endometrial cancer which was diagnosed earlier in 2010. In addition to Holbrook, she is survived by her daughters, Ginna Carter (of Los Angeles) and Mary Dixie Carter (of Brooklyn); a sister, Melba Helen Heath (of San Anselmo, California) and several nephews and nieces. The Dixie Carter Performing Arts and Academic Enrichment Center (informally called "The Dixie") in Huntingdon, Tennessee is named in honor of Carter.

Actress

References

  1. ^ ""Designing Women" star Dixie Carter dies at 70". forum.bcdb.com, April 10, 2010
  2. ^ SXSW unveils lineup
  3. ^ USA Today November 15, 2000
  4. ^ Winter, Bill. "Dixie Carter – Libertarian". Advocates for Self-Government.
  5. ^ "'Designing Women' actress Dixie Carter dies at 70; had roots in West Tennessee". The Commercial Appeal.Com. April 11, 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2010.
  6. ^ "The View". Official Website. January 31, 2001.
  7. ^ http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/concert.php?ak=1040
  8. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldVIIOIM0E4
  9. ^ http://news-briefs.ew.com/2010/04/10/dixie-carter/
  10. ^ Dixie Carter, TV Actress, Dies at 70
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dixie Carter.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixie_Carter&oldid=355792323"