Kate Jackson

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Kate Jackson

Lucy Kate Jackson (born October 29, 1948 in Birmingham) is an actor, best known for portraying Sabrina Duncan in the 1970s television series Charlie's Angels.

Jackson is the daughter of building supplies merchant Hogan Jackson and his wife Ruth. She grew up in Mountain Brook, was active in cheerleading at the Brooke Hill School and began her career as a model at age 16.

Jackson attended the University of Mississippi, then transferred to Birmingham-Southern College, graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in history. She completed a summer internship at the Stowe Playhouse in Vermont and then settled in New York, enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and working as a tour guide at NBC studios. After graduating in 1970 she landed the role of Daphne Harridge, the ghost of a Victorian governess, on the vampire-themed soap opera Dark Shadows. Her work on the television series led to her being cast in a lead role in the feature film "Night of Dark Shadows. During that production she relocated from New York to Los Angeles.

After moving to Los Angeles, she took a few guest-star roles, including a recurring part on "The Jimmy Stewart Show" before accepting her second major role as Jill Danko in The Rookies (1972-1976). Producer Aaron Spelling then brought her onto the cast of his new show about a trio of female detectives. The successful series led to Jackson's first nominations for Emmy and Golden Globe awards. During this time she married fellow actor Andrew Stevens.

She was offered Meryl Streep's role in Kramer vs. Kramer, but could not accept due to her commitment to "Charlie's Angels". Hoping to launch a film career, she left the show in 1979 but was not offered any major film roles. She divorced Stevens in 1980 and married film editor David Greenwald in 1982. During their two-year marriage they also partnered in a production company called Shoot the Moon Enterprises. Their most successful property was the television series "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" in which she played a divorced mother who was involved with a secret intelligence agency opposite Bruce Boxleitner for four years.

Prior to the final season of "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" Jackson was diagnosed with breast cancer. Following an apparent recovery she was offered the lead in Baby Boom, a TV version of the feature film which starred Diane Keaton, but it was canceled after one season.

She underwent a second course of cancer treatment which involved a lumpectomy in 1987. She sold her Los Angeles home in 1988 and moved into a Victorian farmhouse in Keswick, Virginia. She underwent a partial mastectomy in 1989, and was inducted into the Alabama Walk of Fame that same year. Since then, Jackson has starred in several TV movies and has made occasional guest appearances on other shows. Aaron Spelling cast her in his 2000 remake of "Satan's School for Girls" and she has appeared as a guest judge on Jaclyn Smith's reality program "Shear Genius."

In 1991 she entered into a third short-lived marriage with stunt performer and ski-lodge operator Tom Hart. In 1994 Jackson underwent open-heart surgery to treat a congenital heart defect. A year later she adopted an infant son, Charles, and began serving as a spokesperson for the American Heart Association and for cancer research. In 2010 she sued her financial advisor for purchasing a house in Santa Monica for more than she could afford. The parties reached a settlement that December.

Jackson wrote a memoir, entitled The Smart One, which was set for publication by Gallery Books in 2019, but was never published.

References

  • "Kate Jackson" (March 24, 2006) Wikipedia - accessed April 4, 2006
  • Banicki, Elizabeth (May 13, 2010) "Kate Jackson Says Adviser Ruined Her." Courthouse News Service
  • Wilson, Claire M. (July 9, 2014) "Kate Jackson" Encyclopedia of Alabama - accessed September 10, 2022

External links