Dixie Carter

This article is about the actress. For the wrestling promoter, see Dixie Carter (wrestling).

Dixie Carter
Carter in 1977
Born	Dixie Virginia Carter (1939-05-25)May 25, 1939 McLemoresville, Tennessee
Died	April 10, 2010(2010-04-10) (aged 70) Houston, Texas
Cause of death	Endometrial cancer
Resting place	McLemoresville Cemetery, McLemoresville, Tennessee
Nationality	American
Education	Rhodes College
Alma mater	University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of Memphis
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1960–2010
Known for	Julia Sugarbaker, Randi King, Gloria Hodge
Television	Diff'rent Strokes Designing Women Family Law Desperate Housewives
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Arthur L. Carter ​ ​ (m. 1967⁠–⁠1977)​ (divorced; two daughters) George Hearn ​ (m. 1977⁠–⁠1979)​ (divorced) Hal Holbrook ​ (m. 1984⁠–⁠2010)​ (her death)
Children	(From Carter) Ginna Carter Mary Dixie Carter
Family	Melba Helen Heath (sister)
Awards	See awards and nominations

Dixie Virginia Carter (May 25, 1939 – April 10, 2010) was an American film, television and stage actress. She starred as Julia Sugarbaker on the CBS sitcom Designing Women (1986–93), and as Randi King on the CBS drama series Family Law (1999–2002). In 2007, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role as Gloria Hodge on the ABC series Desperate Housewives (2006–07).

Carter made her professional stage debut in a Memphis production of the musical Carousel in 1960, and made her Broadway debut in the 1974 musical Sextet. After appearing for two years as District Attorney Brandy Henderson on the CBS soap The Edge of Night (1974–76), she returned to Broadway in the 1976 musical Pal Joey. Her other television roles included the sitcoms On Our Own (1977–78), Filthy Rich (1982–83) and Diff'rent Strokes (1984–85). In 1997, she starred as Maria Callas in the Broadway play Master Class, and in 2004 she played Mrs. Meers in the Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Early life

Dixie Virginia Carter was born May 25, 1939 to Esther Virginia (née Hillsman; December 15, 1909 - May 1, 1988) and Halbert Leroy Carter (December 3, 1910 - February 25, 2007) in McLemoresville, Tennessee. Carter spent many of her early years in Memphis. She attended college at the University of Memphis and Rhodes College.

In college, she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. In 1959, Carter competed in the Miss Tennessee pageant, where she placed first runner-up to Mickie Weyland. Carter won the Miss Volunteer beauty pageant at the University of Tennessee in the same year.

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.

In 1967, she began an eight-year hiatus from acting, to focus on raising her two daughters; 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 though some advised her that doing a daytime soap might negatively affect her career. However,she was first noticed in this role, and after leaving Edge of Night in 1976, she relocated from New York to Los Angeles and pursued prime-time television roles. In 1976, she won the Theater World Award for Jesse and The Bandit Queen.

She appeared in series such as Out of the Blue (as Aunt Marion), On Our Own (as April Baxter), Diff'rent Strokes (as the first Maggie McKinney Drummond, Phillip Drummond's second wife), The Greatest American Hero (playing a KGB spy), and as the stuck-up and conniving Carlotta Beck on Filthy Rich (1982).

Carter's appearance in Filthy Rich paved the way for her most notable role, that of sharp-tongued liberal interior decorator Julia Sugarbaker in the 1986–93 television program Designing Women, set in Atlanta. Filthy Rich was created by Linda Bloodworth Thomason, who also went on to create Designing Women. (In the beginning, without knowing the content of the show, Bloodworth-Thomason's only idea was to create a show starring Carter, and fellow cast mates Delta Burke, Annie Potts, and Jean Smart. Filthy Rich also featured fellow Designing Women cast member Delta Burke in its cast.) After much persuasion from creators Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and her husband, Harry Thomason, Hal Holbrook, Carter's real-life husband, had a recurring role as attorney Reese Watson. Carter's daughters, Ginna and Mary Dixie Carter, also had guest-star roles as Julia Sugarbaker's nieces, Jennifer and Camilla, in the episode "The Naked Truth" in 1989.

In 1997, Carter starred as Maria Callas in the Terrence McNally Broadway play Master Class. She played the role from January to June. The role had previously been played by Zoe Caldwell and Patti LuPone.

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 of the same.

From 1999 to 2002, she portrayed Randi King on the legal drama Family Law, portraying a lawyer for the first time since she played Brandy Henderson on The Edge of Night. From 1999 to 2000, she also was a cast member on the short-lived sitcom Ladies Man, appearing as a regular on both Ladies Man and Family Law, simultaneously. In 2004, she made a guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 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 diva Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's Master Class, a role created by Zoe Caldwell.

In 2006–07, Carter found a resurgence of fame with a new generation of fans portraying Gloria Hodge, Bree Van de Kamp's disturbed (and scheming) mother in law, on Desperate Housewives. Creator Marc Cherry started out in Hollywood as Carter's assistant on the set of Designing Women. Her first and only Emmy Awards nomination was for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards under the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Gloria Hodge.

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 coworkers, 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 site 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.

Personal life

Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter at the 41st Emmy Awards, 1990

In 1967, Carter married businessman Arthur Carter (no relation). They had two daughters (who would later appear in an episode of Designing Women), Mary Dixie and Ginna. Following the birth of her daughters, Carter left acting for eight years to focus on raising her children along with Arthur's three children, Jon, Whendy, and Ellen Carter. Later, she had grandchildren, Jake, Harrison, and Sophia Carter.

She divorced Arthur Carter in 1977, and married Broadway and TV actor George Hearn the same year. Two years later, she divorced Hearn. She was married for the third time on May 27, 1984, to fellow actor Hal Holbrook (14 years her senior), who is most noted for his appearances as Mark Twain. Carter renovated her old family home in McLemoresville with the designs of architect Hoyte Johnson of Atlanta. 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 human growth hormone for its antiaging properties.

Political views

Carter was a registered Republican, who described her political views as libertarian. She was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly along with Pat Boone at the 2000 Republican National Convention. Although 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 had to make with which she disagreed, Julia would get to sing a song in a future episode. Carter once jokingly described herself as "the only Republican in show business". She was, however, a strong supporter of the gay community.

Death and legacy

Carter died on April 10, 2010, in Houston. Her death was announced by her husband, 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 from her first marriage: Ginna Carter (of Los Angeles) and Mary Dixie Carter (of Brooklyn), as well as a sister, Melba Helen Heath (of San Anselmo, California) and several nephews and nieces. In addition to family, her funeral, held on April 15, 2010, was attended by Designing Women co-stars Delta Burke, Annie Potts, and Jean Smart. Dixie Carter was interred in her hometown, McLemoresville, Tennessee.

The Dixie Carter Performing Arts and Academic Enrichment Center (informally called "The Dixie") in Huntingdon, Tennessee, is named in honor of Carter.

A public service announcement made by Carter in 2003 describing and offering outreach to sufferers of spasmodic torticollis / cervical dystonia began appearing in New York and New Jersey, and then across the United States in 2010.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Going Berserk	Angela
1999	The Big Day	Carol
2000	The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus	Necile (voice)	Video
2009	That Evening Sun	Ellen Meecham

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974–76	The Edge of Night	D.A. Olivia Brandeis Henderson	TV series
1977	The Andros Targets	Rita	"The Killing of a Porno Queen"
1977	The Doctors	Dr. Linda Elliott	Regular role
1977–78	On Our Own	April Baxter	Main role
1979	Out of the Blue	Marion Richards	Main role
1980	OHMS	Nora Wing	TV film
1981	The Killing of Randy Webster	Billie Webster	TV film
1982	Cassie & Co.	Evelyn Weller	"The Golden Silence"
1982	Bret Maverick	Hallie McCulloch	"Hallie"
1982	Best of the West	Mae Markham	"The Pretty Prisoner"
1982	Quincy, M.E.	Dr. Alicia Ranier	"The Face of Fear"
1982	The Greatest American Hero	Samantha O'Neill	"Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell"
1982	Lou Grant	Jessica Lindner	"Suspect"
1982–83	Filthy Rich	Carlotta Beck	Main role
1984–85	Diff'rent Strokes	Maggie McKinney	Regular role
1986–93	Designing Women	Julia Sugarbaker	Main role
1994	A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle	Louise Archer	TV film
1994	Gambler V: Playing for Keeps	Lillie Langtry	TV film
1994	Christy	Julia Huddleston	"The Sweetest Gift"
1995	Dazzle	Lydie Kilkullen	TV film
1995	Diagnosis: Murder	D.A. Patricia Purcell	"Murder in the Courthouse"
1996	Gone in the Night	Ann Dowaliby	TV film
1997	Fired Up	Rita	"Honey, I Shrunk the Turkey", "The Mother of All Gwens"
1999–2000	Ladies Man	Peaches	Recurring role
1999–2002	Family Law	Randi King	Main role
2003	Comfort and Joy	Frederica	TV film
2004	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Denise Brockmorton	"Home"
2005	Hope & Faith	Joyce Shanowski	"A Room of One's Own"
2006–07	Desperate Housewives	Gloria Hodge	Recurring role
2008	Our First Christmas	Evie Baer	TV film

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Series or Play	Result
1976	Theatre World Award	Outstanding Actress	Jesse and the Bandit Queen	Won
1979	Drama Desk Award	Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play	Fathers and Sons	Nominated
1989	Los Angeles Women in Film Festival	Excellence in TV Episodic Comedy	Designing Women	Won
2007	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	Desperate Housewives	Nominated
2009	SXSW Film Festival	Best Ensemble Cast	That Evening Sun	Won

External links

• Official website
• Dixie Carter at IMDb
• Dixie Carter at the Internet Broadway Database
• Dixie Carter at Find a Grave