Discover

'Katey Sagal' (born 'Catherine Louise Sagal' on January 19, 1954)[1] is a Golden Globe nominated American actress, singer, and writer, known for her roles in ''Futurama'', ''8 Simple Rules'', and ''Married... with Children''.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Musical career

Personal life

See also

External links

References

Biography

Early life

Sagal was born in Hollywood, California to a show business family; she is the daughter of director Boris Sagal, a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant best known for his work on 1960s television dramas, including ''The Twilight Zone''. Her mother, Sara Zwilling, was a producer. Sagal is the older sister of twin actresses Jean Sagal and Liz Sagal, best remembered as the Doublemint Twins of the early 1980s, and for their own short-lived sitcom of that era: ''Double Trouble''. She is also the sister of actor Joe Sagal. Sagal and her siblings grew up in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. She studied at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.

Career

Sagal began her career working the Hollywood circuit. She appeared in several television films between 1971 and 1975, including a small role as a receptionist in the ''Columbo'' film ''Candidate for Crime'' (directed by her father) and in 1973 working as a backing vocalist for various singers, including Bob Dylan, Gene Simmons and Tanya Tucker. During this time she was also a member of the rock group ''The Group With No Name''. She also sang backup for Bette Midler, who hired her for her 1979 tour as one of The Harlettes.
Sagal returned to television in 1985 in the television series ''Mary'' starring Mary Tyler Moore. This led to her being cast as Peg Bundy on the American sitcom ''Married... with Children'' (1987–1997). She portrayed the lower-class, unhappy, sex-craving wife of shoe salesman Al Bundy. Originally her character was written with the appearance of a modern housewife, but it was Sagal's idea for her character to take on the 1960s image because she wanted to parody the 1960s housewife. During her audition for the role, Sagal brought her own red bouffant wig and with the producers' approval, the look transitioned into the show. Peggy Bundy wore a large red bouffant wig, capris-length leggings with a large belt, and high slip-on heels, which were all fashion styles from the '60s. Sagal's career focused almost entirely on this series for its ten-year run (although she also appeared in several television movies). Sagal briefly revisited her role of Peg in ''Futurama'', when the sitcom was parodied in the episode "A Bicyclops Built For Two". Sagal also appeared as Helen in ABC's hit show Lost on occasion as friend and lover of John Locke.

After the end of ''Married... with Children'', several more television films followed for Sagal, and she was also a featured voice on the children's cartoon ''Recess''. In 1999, Matt Groening cast her as Turanga Leela in his science-fiction cartoon comedy ''Futurama''. The show developed a cult following, but was canceled after five seasons. The revival of ''Futurama'' was announced in 2006; Sagal has stated plans to return as Leela in the four DVD movies which will later be rebroadcast as 16 episodes on Comedy Central in 2008 "Futurama" gets new life on Comedy Central Wallenstein, Andrew .
Sagal also guest starred as Edna Hyde, Steven Hyde's mother, in three episodes of ''That '70s Show'': "Punk Chick" (1999), "Prom Night" (1999), and "The Career Day" (1999). She starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom ''Tucker'' in 2000. Sagal was also cast in the Disney Channel movie "Smart House", playing a computerized maid that suddenly gets a mind of its own. She wore the same wig for the role as she did for ''Married...with Children''.
Sagal was cast as the wife of John Ritter in the sitcom ''8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter'' in 2002. Following Ritter's death, Sagal was given the difficult task of carrying most of the show (with a little help from new cast members David Spade and James Garner). Ritter completed only three episodes of the second season of ''8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter'' with Sagal introducing each episode. The show was cancelled in 2005 after its third season.
In 2005 she made two guest appearances on ''Lost'' and one guest appearance on CBS's ''Ghost Whisperer''. She hosted ''The Search For The Funniest Mom In America 2'' and she currently has a recurring role as a guest star on ''Boston Legal''.
In 2007 she had a role in the season finale of ''The Winner'' as Glen Abbot's former, and Josh's current teacher, with whom Glen has his first sexual experience.

Musical career

Sagal is also an accomplished songwriter. In 1976, while a member of ''The Group With No Name'', she contributed to the album "Moon over Brooklyn". She also performed backing vocals on the solo album by Kiss bassist Gene Simmons as well as background vocals on Olivia Newton-John's 1986 single Soul Kiss. On April 19 1994, she released her first solo album, ''Well...''. Ten years later, on June 1 2004 she released her second album, ''Room''.

Personal life

Sagal was married to Freddie Beckmeier (1978–1981) and Jack White (November 26 1993–July 24 2000). In 1991, Sagal discovered she was pregnant. This was unexpected to the directors of ''Married... With Children''. She had an emergency cesarean section however the child, Ruby, was stillborn. Katey has two children with Jack White, Sarah Grace and Jackson James White. Sagal married Kurt Sutter (a writer, producer, and actor for ''The Shield'') in a private ceremony on October 2 2004 at their home in Los Feliz, California. They welcomed their first child together, daughter Esme Louise, on January 10, 2007. Esme was carried by a surrogate mother.

See also

★ Jean Sagal (Sister)

★ Liz Sagal (Sister)

★ Boris Sagal (Father)

External links

★ Katey Sagal's web site

★ The official Katey Sagal MySpace page

★ The Katey Sagal Source

★

★

★ Katey Sagal cast bio on The WB

★ Rules and recognition of Katey Sagal

References