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Emmy-winning actress Sharon Gless was born on May 31, 1943 in Los Angeles, California. After working as a secretary for advertising agencies and film production companies, she decided to take on acting. She signed a ten-year contract with Universal Studios in 1974—“[the] last of the studio contract players,” as she described herself. She appeared in numerous films and television programs, including regular roles in detective series Switch, medical drama Marcus Welby, M.D, and drama serial Faraday and Company.

Gless is most known, however, for her role as career-minded detective Christine Cagney in the police series Cagney & Lacey. Considered as the first serious drama on American television with two female leads, it premiered in 1982. It was initially cancelled a year later due to disappointing ratings, but after a successful letter-writing campaign from fans, it was returned to the air and became a huge ratings success. It went on to earn 36 Emmy nominations and 14 wins until the series came to an end in 1988; Gless herself won two Emmys for best actress in 1986 and 1987.

Gless returned to series television with her role in the drama The Trials of Rosie O’Neill. Her portrayal of the title role, a lawyer working at the Los Angeles public defender’s office, earned her a Golden Globe for best actress in 1990. After reprising her role in several Cagney & Lacey television movies, she took a role in the American version of the acclaimed British drama Queer as Folk, where she played extremely proud (to the extent of embarrassment) mother Debbi Novotny. In 2006, she appeared as U.S. defense secretary Lynne Warner in the BBC miniseries The State Within. Most recently, she played Madeline Westen, the clueless and constantly worried mother of ex-spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), in the drama series Burn Notice.

Sharon Gless is an Emmy Award-winning television and movie actress born on May 31, 1943 in Los Angel es, California. She worked as a secretary for advertising agencies before switching to acting and signing a ten-year contract with Universal Studios. Sharon Gless has appeared in a number of television series such as All My Darling Daughters, Faraday and Company, The Bob Newhart Show, The Rockford Files, Touched by an Angel, and Judging Amy. She won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance in the drama Cagney & Lacey, and gained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995.

Debbie Novotny is portrayed by Sharon Gless in Showtime's gay life television drama Queer As Folk. She is the biological mother of Michael, and though she's heterosexual, is also a staunch supporter of gay rights and actively involved with PFLAG. Notable incidents Debbie's involved with include finding out the name of a dead male prostitute she discovers in the trash behind her diner workplace, and opposing the mayoral campaign of anti-gay police chief Jim Stockwell. She also nurses her HIV-positive brother Vic, trying to make him live, despite the tension between the two of them. She also eventually lives together with her on-and-off boyfriend Carl.



(Image courtesy of Showtime)

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Sharon Gless

Sharon Gless

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