Sally Struthers Biography

Sally Ann Struthers (born July 28, 1947) is an American actress and spokeswoman, best known for her roles as Gloria Stivic on All in the Family, for which she won two Emmy awards, and as Babette on Gilmore Girls.

Personal life

Sally Struthers was born in Portland, Oregon, one of two children, with sister Sue, of Margaret Caroline (née Jernes) and Robert Alden Struthers, a surgeon who left the family when Sally was 9 or 10 years old. Her maternal grandparents were Norwegian immigrants. Struthers married William C. Rader, a psychiatrist. They had one child together, Samantha Struthers Rader, before their divorce.

Career

Struthers moved quickly into stardom between the late 1960s and early 1970s. In Five Easy Pieces (1970) she was in a nude sex scene with Jack Nicholson, but achieved fame as Gloria Stivic on the 1970s sitcom, All in the Family. Producer Norman Lear found the actress dancing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, a counterculture variety show whose writing staff included Rob Reiner. According to a WPTT-AM radio interview with Doug Hoerth in 2003, Struthers thought that Reiner's then-fiancée and later wife, Penny Marshall, would get the role of Gloria, as Marshall resembled Jean Stapleton, who played Edith Bunker. Actress Candice Azzara had played the role of Gloria in a pilot episode, but was soon dropped. After a shaky start, the series became a hit beginning with its summer reruns, giving tens of millions of viewers the chance to see "Gloria" defending her liberal viewpoints about negative stereotypes and inequality. Struthers won two Emmy Awards (in 1972 and 1979) for her work on the show.

In 2012, Struthers recalled the serendipity that helped her land the role:

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On the short-lived Archie Bunker's Place spin-off Gloria (1982"1983), Struthers reprised Gloria as a new divorcee (she became an "exchange student", when husband Mike exchanged her for one of his students). The series co-starred Burgess Meredith as the doctor of an animal clinic with Gloria as his assistant.

She was a semi-regular panelist on the 1990 revival of Match Game. She also was an occasional celebrity guest on Win, Lose or Draw, even once guest hosting the NBC daytime version. She also had a recurring role as Bill Miller's manipulative mother, Louise, on the CBS sitcom Still Standing and regularly appeared on Gilmore Girls as Babette Dell. Struthers provided voices for a number of animated series such as The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (as a teenage Pebbles Flintstone), TaleSpin (as Rebecca Cunningham) and was one of the voice stars on ABC's Dinosaurs produced by Walt Disney and Henson Productions (as Charlene Sinclair).

Struthers starred in the stage production of "Annie" at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and has been a regular since the early 2000s at the Ogunquit Playhouse, in Ogunquit, Maine, where in 2012 she performed in Always, Patsy Cline, as Louise Segar, and 9 to 5: The Musical, as Roz Klein. She was arrested September 12, 2012, in Ogunquit on a charge of operating under the influence, posting $160 bail and being scheduled for a court appearance on December 14, where a $500 fine and 90 day suspension of her license are likely due to her being a first time offender.

Activism

She has been a spokesperson for Christian Children's Fund (later ChildFund), advocating on behalf of impoverished children in developing countries, mainly in Africa, and has been the spokesperson for International Correspondence Schools in television ads, pitching the famous line "Do you want to make more money? Sure, we all do!". Her activism has been satirized in Episode 19 of the seventh season of Grey's Anatomy, 3 Episodes of In Living Color Season 3 Episodes 6 & 18 and Season 4 Episode 27, and in the South Park Episodes "Starvin' Marvin", and "Starvin' Marvin in Space".

Work

Television credits

• The Tim Conway Comedy Hour (1970)
• The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
• The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971"1972)
• All in the Family (1971"1978)
• Aloha Means Goodbye (1974)
• Hey, I'm Alive (1975)
• The Great Houdini (1976)
• Intimate Strangers (1977)
• Fred Flintstone and Friends (1977"1978)
• My Husband Is Missing (1978)
• ...And Your Name Is Jonah (TV movie; 1979)
• A Gun in the House (1981)
• Gloria (1982"1983)
• Alice in Wonderland (1985)
• 9 to 5 (1986"1988)
• A Deadly Silence (1989)
• Charles in Charge (1989)
• TaleSpin: Plunder & Lightning (1990)
• TaleSpin (1990"1994)
• Tom & Jerry Kids (1990)
• Yo Yogi! (1991)
• Dinosaurs (1991"1994)
• In the Best Interest of the Children (1992)
• Acting Crazy (1994)
• The New Adventures of Mother Goose (1995)
• The Awful Truth with Michael Moore (1999)
• General Hospital (2002)
• Gilmore Girls (2000"2007)
• Still Standing (2003"2006)
• The Winner (2007)
• Celebrity Ghost Stories (2011)

Stage

• The Odd Couple (female version) (1985"1986) on Broadway
• Grease (1994"1998) on Broadway
• Annie (1998) as Miss Hannigan on Broadway, 20th Anniversary Production
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2006) (Regional)
• Hello, Dolly! (2006) as Dolly (Ogunquit Playhouse)
• The Full Monty (2007) as Jeanette (Ogunquit Playhouse)
• Fiddler on the Roof (2008) as Golde (Ogunquit Playhouse)
• Annie (2008) as Miss Hannigan (Reagle Players)
• Nunsense (2008) as Mother Superior, 25th anniversary tour
• Always ... Patsy Cline (1999, 2009) as Louise
• All Shook Up (2009) as the Mayor (Ogunquit Playhouse)
• The Full Monty (2010) as Jeanette (North Carolina Theatre)
• Love Letters (2010) as Melissa Gardner (Kentucky Repertory Theatre)
• Cinderella (2010) as Fairy Godmother (Cabrillo Music Theater)
• Chicago (2010) as Mama Morton (Ogunquit Playhouse)
• Legally Blonde (musical) (2011) as Paulette Bonafonté (Ogunquit Playhouse)
• Hello, Dolly! (2011) as Dolly Levi (Riverside Dinner Theatre)
• The Drowsy Chaperone (2011) as Mrs. Tottendale (3-D Theatricals)
• Annie (2011) as Miss Hannigan (Cabrillo Music Theatre)
• Always...Patsy Cline (2011) as Louise, also directed the production (3-D Theatricals)
• Hello, Dolly! (2012) as Dolly Levi (Alhambra Dinner Theatre)
• Always... Patsy Cline (2012) as Louise (Ogunquit Playhouse)
• Annie (2012) as Miss Hannigan (Pittsburgh CLO)
• 9 to 5 (2012) as Roz Keith (Gateway Playhouse at Patchogue Theatre, Performing Arts Center of Suffolk County)
• 9 to 5 (2012) as Roz Keith (Ogunquit Playhouse)
• The Full Monty (2013) as Jeanette (Riverside Dinner Theatre)
• Always... Patsy Cline (2013) as Louise (Algonquin Arts Theatre)
• Thoroughly Modern Millie (2013) as Mrs. Meer's (Ogunquit Playhouse)

Selected filmography

• The Phynx (1970)
• Five Easy Pieces (1970)
• The Getaway (1972)
• A Different Approach (1978) (short subject)
• Out of the Black (2001)
• A Month of Sundays (2001)
• Reeseville (2003)
• Baadasssss! (2003)
• Hoodwinked (2005)

Awards and nominations

Ovation Awards

• 2010: Won the award for Featured Actress in a Musical for the role of Fairy Godmother in the Cabrillo Music Theatre production of "Cinderella"