Judith Light Biography

Judith Ellen Light (born February 9, 1949) is an American actress. Her television roles include Karen Wolek on the soap opera One Life to Live, Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Claire Meade on ABC's series Ugly Betty and Elizabeth "Liz" Donnelly on Law & Order Special Victims Unit. She has won two Tony Awards: her first, in 2012, for her performance on Broadway as Silda in the play Other Desert Cities, and her second in 2013 for her portrayal of Faye in The Assembled Parties.

Early life

Light was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the daughter of Pearl Sue (née Hollander), a model, and Sidney Licht, an accountant. Light graduated from high school in 1966 at St. Mary's Hall-Doane Academy, now Doane Academy, in Burlington, New Jersey. She graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a degree in drama. She recalled the university as "rigorous" and "amazing". Afterwards, she started out on stage, making her professional debut in Richard III at the California Shakespeare Festival in 1970, before moving to Broadway to star in A Doll's House in 1975. She also starred in the 1976 Broadway play Herzl. Light also acted for such theatre companies as the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the Seattle Repertory Theatre. In the late 1970s, Light went through a real crisis after a period of not landing any parts. Broke, she almost quit acting, because she felt that she was not contributing to the theater.

Career

In this period, Light was called by her agent to audition for an understudy role in the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. Never wanting to be attached to a soap opera or a sitcom, she initially rejected the idea, until she was told that she would have a daily salary of US$350. At the audition, she realized that "the format reaches a lot of people", and that she could thereby "make a difference" and "make money" at the same time. Instead of landing an understudy role, she was recast in the role of Karen Wolek, a role that had previously been portrayed by actresses Kathryn Breech and Julia Duffy. This role was quite lucrative for Light and spawned one of the show's most-remembered storylines; Light's character became a prostitute after she became bored with her life as a housewife. On trial, Karen saved her friend Viki Lord Riley (Erika Slezak) from being convicted of killing Karen's pimp, Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony) by admitting to the entire town, including her faithful husband, Dr. Larry Wolek (Michael Storm), that she had been a prostitute. In 1980, this won Light her first Daytime Emmy Award for "Lead Actress in a Daytime Drama Series"; the scene in which she confessed her guilt in court is held in such high esteem that it is used in acting classes to the current day. Light recalled:

"I was scared before those courtroom scenes. I was afraid to put myself out that much. With the agony of pulling it out piece by piece and having the prosecutor stick the knife in her gut, I couldn't help but let everything spew out of her."

Light won another Emmy in the role in 1981. She appeared in an episode of St. Elsewhere in its first season, called "Dog Day Hospital", in which she played a housewife who became pregnant for the 9th time even though her husband claimed he had a vasectomy. In an effort to punish the doctor who botched the job she took an operating room hostage though it was later revealed that her husband had not had the procedure.

After this success on daytime, she landed the role of assertive advertising executive Angela Bower on the ABC sitcom Who's the Boss. Co-starring Tony Danza, who played her housekeeper (and eventual lover), the show ran for eight seasons from 1984 to 1992. TV Guide has Who's the Boss? ranked as the 109th best sitcom of all time.

Light spent most of the 1990s starring in made-for-TV and feature films such as Men Don't Tell and 1997's Too Close to Home, which co-starred Rick Schroder. She also starred on the sitcom Phenom, which ran for only one season (1993"1994) before being canceled.

In 2000 she received critical acclaim when she starred on stage as Dr. Vivian Bearing in Wit, Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about an academic dying from ovarian cancer.

From 2002 to 2010, she had a recurring role on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Judge Elizabeth Donnelly, who served as a Bureau Chief ADA in the Manhattan District Attorney's office before being appointed to the bench in Season 7.

From 2006 until 2010, she starred as Claire Meade on ABC's Ugly Betty. The role earned her an Emmy nomination.

Light appeared in a May 2006 episode of Family Guy ("Untitled Griffin Family History") wherein she voiced a cartoon version of herself obsessed with former co-star Tony Danza and making out with a constructed dummy of Tony in her house. She also recently appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Twenty Good Years.

In 2007 Light starred as a radical Christian woman in Save Me an independent film. Light's character, Gayle, runs a Christian ministry known as Genesis House, which works to help gay men recover from their 'affliction.' She is challenged by the arrival of Mark, an ill gay man who reminds Gayle of her dead, gay son, and the movie chronicles the challenges of the two as they learn to accept each other as they are.

In 2010-2011 she appeared on Broadway in the play Lombardi and received a nomination for the Tony Award, Featured Actress in a Play. She appeared in the play Other Desert Cities on Broadway in 2011 and won the Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Silda. In 2013, she appears on Broadway in the play The Assembled Parties and on June 8, 2013, won the Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Play for her portrayal of 'Faye'.

In 2013 she was cast as Judith Ryland for the second season of the TNT revival of the television show Dallas.

Personal life

Family

Light is Jewish. She has been married to television actor Robert Desiderio since 1985, when they met while co-starring on One Life to Live. They have no children. She speaks French fluently.

Robert and Judith reside in California.

Activism

Light is a gay rights activist and helped former Who's the Boss? co-star Danny Pintauro in coming out. She has done work for many LGBT charities. She sits on the board of the Matthew Shepard Foundation and spoke at the 1993 March on Washington. In 1998, she had a library named after her at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

She is also a prominent AIDS activist and played Ryan White's mother in the 1989 TV movie on his life The Ryan White Story. Also, she sits on the board of Point Foundation, a LGBT organization that provides financial support, mentoring, leadership training and hope to meritorious students who are or feel marginalized due to sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

On April 1, 2010, Judith Light joined Cyndi Lauper in the launch of her Give a Damn campaign to bring a wider awareness of discrimination of the GLBT community as part of her True Colors Fund. The campaign is to bring straight people to stand up with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered community and stop the discrimination. Other names included in the campaign are Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Mraz, Elton John, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Kardashian, Clay Aiken, Sharon Osbourne, Kelly Osbourne and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

Filmography

Film and Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Kojak	Laetitia Palmerance	1 episode
1977-83	One Life to Live	Karen Wolek	Daytime soap opera
1983	Intimate Agony	Marsha	TV movie a.k.a. Doctor in Paradise
	St. Elsewhere	Barbara Lonnicker	1 episode
	Family Ties	Stacey Hughes	1 episode
1984	The Mississippi		1 episode
	Remington Steele	Clarissa Custer	1 episode
	You Are the Jury	Elizabeth Harding	1 episode
1986	Charmed Lives	Angela Bower	1 episode
1987	Stamp of a Killer	Cathy Proctor	TV movie a.k.a. Dangerous Affection
1989	The Ryan White Story	Jeanne White	TV movie
	My Boyfriend's Back	Vickie Vine	TV movie
1990	In Defense of a Married Man	Laura Simmons	TV movie
1991	Wife, Mother, Murderer	Marie Hilley/Robbi/Teri	TV movie a.k.a. Wife, Mother, Murderer: The Marie Hilley Story
1984-92	Who's the Boss?	Angela Bower	196 episodes Nominated "? TV Land Award
1993	Men Don't Tell	Laura MacAffrey	TV movie
1993-94	Phenom	Dianne Doolan	22 episodes
1994	Betrayal of Trust	Barbara Noël	TV movie a.k.a. Under the Influence
	Against Their Will: Women in Prison	Alice Needham	TV movie a.k.a. Caged Seduction: The Shocking True Story
1995	Lady Killer	Janice Mitchell	TV movie
1996	A Husband, a Wife and a Lover	Lisa McKeever	TV movie a.k.a. A Strange Affair
	Murder at My Door	Irene McNair	TV movie
	A Step Toward Tomorrow	Anna Lerner
1996-97	Duckman	Ursula Bacon 'Honey' Chicken (voice)	3 episodes
1997	Too Close to Home	Diana Donahue	TV movie
	Cow and Chicken	Nurse (voice)	1 episode
1998	The Simple Life	Sara Campbell	7 episodes
	Carriers	Maj. Carmen Travis	TV movie
2000	Joseph: King of Dreams	Zuleika	voice
2002	Spin City	Christine	1 episode
2004	The Stones	Barbara Stone	9 episodes
2006	Ira and Abby	Arlene Black
	A Broken Sole	Hilary
	Twenty Good Years	Gina	3 episodes
2007	Save Me	Gayle
2006-10	Ugly Betty	Claire Meade	72 episodes
2002"2010	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Elizabeth Donnelly	25 episodes
2011	Nurse Jackie	Maureen Cooper	1 episode
2012	The Exes	Marjorie	2 episodes
2012	Scrooge & Marley	Narrator
2013	Last Weekend	Veronika Goss
2013-present	Dallas	Judith Ryland

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film or series	Result
1979	Soapy Awards	Outstanding Actress	One Life to Live
1980	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
	Soapy Awards	Outstanding Actress
1981	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
1998	GLAAD Media Awards	Vision Award
2007	TV Land Awards	Favorite Working Mom	Who's the Boss?
	Prism Awards	Best Performance in a Comedy Series	Ugly Betty
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
2008	TV Land Awards	Mad Ad Man or Woman of the Year	Who's the Boss?
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Ugly Betty
2011	Drama Desk Awards	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play	Lombardi
	Tony Awards	Best Featured Actress in a Play
2012	Drama Desk Awards	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play	Other Desert Cities
	Tony Awards	Best Featured Actress in a Play
2013	Drama Desk Awards	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play	The Assembled Parties
	Tony Awards	Best Featured Actress in a Play