Louise Anne Beatrice Fiona Robey, styled Louise, Countess of Burford, during her marriage to the Earl of Burford, is a Canadiansinger-songwriter, former model, and actress. During much of her career, she used only her last name Robey as a stage name. She is best known for her role as Micki Foster in the television series .
After high school, Robey travelled to Aix-en-Provence. French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue spotted her sunbathing at a hotel pool, took her photograph, and invited her to become a model. Lartigue photographed Robey for Paris Match and Vogue Paris. Robey moved to Paris, where she swiftly attained success as a fashion model. She also began a music career, busking in the streets and fronting the musical group Louise and the Creeps. In the early 1980s, Robey moved to New York City, where she worked as a catwalk model earning $5,000 a day and appeared in advertising campaigns for Maybelline, Jordache, Revlon, and Clairol. Although Louise and the Creeps were signed to a record deal, they broke up in New York before recording an album. In 1984, Robey landed a solo record deal with Silver Blue Records and recorded a self-titled album. Six singles from the album were released. One single, a cover of the song "One Night in Bangkok" from the musical Chess, became a hit. Robey's version of the song spent three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1985, peaking at #77. It fared much better on the BillboardHot Dance Club Play chart, peaking at #5.
Acting and current work
While working as a musician, Robey continued to model and also became involved in improvisational comedy. She also appeared in stage roles in dinner theater. In 1986, Robey had small roles in the films The Money Pit and Raw Deal. The following year, she beat out 300 other actresses for the role of Michelle "Micki" Foster, niece of antiques dealer Lewis Vendredi, on the syndicated horror series , which Frank Mancuso Jr. produced. Robey's character, Micki Foster, was a young woman who had inherited an antique shop from Lewis Vendredi, her estranged uncle. When the antiques in the shop proved to have been cursed by the devil, Micki, Ryan Dallion, her cousin by marriage, and family friend Jack Marshak begin to hunt down and recover the antiques before they could kill, or cause the damnations of the souls of, anyone else. The show, which was filmed in Toronto, was a hit with audiences and became one of the top three syndicated dramas airing at the time. The sophisticated glamour and feisty charm Robey imparted to the character earned the show a cult following. She later recalled convincing the producers to give Micki her fashion-forward and striking look. In December 2013, Robey released a new single, "Take It to the Top," a collaboration with recording artist Lovari. The single debuted at #87 on the iTunes U.S. Dance Chart.
Personal life
In 1993, Robey began dating Charles Beauclerk, Earl of Burford. The two met after Lord Burford gave a lecture about one of his relatives, The 17th Earl of Oxford, who is one of several authors named in the Shakespeare authorship question. The couple married on 29 December 1994 at St. Winifreds Church in Manaton. At the time of the marriage, Robey was pregnant with the couple's child. Their son James, Lord Vere of Hanworth, was born in Boston in 1995. The couple lived in Ipswich and Hadleigh, Suffolk, before divorcing in 2001. She later married Stan Shaffer, a fashion and art photographer who died in 2010.
