Sally Struthers
Sally Anne Struthers is an American actress, spokeswoman and activist. She played the roles of Gloria Stivic, the daughter of Archie and Edith Bunker on All in the Family, for which she won two Emmy awards, and Babette on Gilmore Girls. She was the voice of Charlene Sinclair on the ABC sitcom Dinosaurs and Rebecca Cunningham on the Disney animated series TaleSpin.
Early life
Sally Anne Struthers was born on July 28, 1947 in Portland, Oregon, and attended Grant High School. She is one of two siblings. She has a sister, Sue. Their parents are Margaret Caroline and Robert Alden Struthers, a surgeon, who left the family when Sally was 9 or 10 years old. Her maternal grandparents were Norwegian immigrants.Career
Struthers moved quickly into stardom between the late 1960s and early 1970s. In Five Easy Pieces she was cast opposite Jack Nicholson in a small yet memorable role. She appeared as a restless wife of a veterinarian in the 1972 box office success The Getaway. It was around that time that Struthers achieved fame as Gloria Stivic on the 1970s sitcom All in the Family. Producer Norman Lear had found the actress dancing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, a counterculture variety show whose writing staff included Rob Reiner.According to a WPTT 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 more 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 for her work on the show. In 2012, Struthers recalled the serendipity that helped her land the role:
In 1977 she portrayed a housewife who was physically abused by her husband in the made-for-TV movie Intimate Strangers, one of the first network features to depict domestic violence.
On the short-lived Archie Bunker's Place spin-off Gloria, Struthers reprised Gloria as a new divorcée. 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 and an occasional guest on Win, Lose or Draw. She also had a recurring role as Bill Miller's manipulative mother, Louise, on Still Standing and regularly appeared on Gilmore Girls as Babette Dell. She also provided voices for a number of animated series such as The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, TaleSpin and was one of the voice stars on ABC's Dinosaurs produced by Walt Disney and Henson Productions.
Struthers starred in the stage production of Annie at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and in the national tour of the production in the late 1990s. She 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.
In 2014, Struthers toured in the 50th anniversary production of Hello, Dolly!, playing Dolly Levi.
Activism
Struthers has been a spokesperson for Christian Children's Fund, advocating on behalf of impoverished children in developing countries, 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, the South Park episodes "Starvin' Marvin" and "Starvin' Marvin in Space", and the Denis Leary song "Voices in my Head".Personal life
Struthers married psychiatrist William C. Rader on December 18, 1977. After having one child, daughter Samantha, the couple divorced on January 19, 1983.Filmography
Film
- The Phynx ... World's No. 1 Fan
- Five Easy Pieces ... Shirley "Betty"
- The Getaway ... Fran Clinton
- A Different Approach ... Cameo appearance
- The Others ... Mrs. Zelov
- Out of the Black ... Betty
- A Month of Sundays ... Onida Roy
- Reeseville ... Katie Oakman
- Baadasssss! ... Roz
- Monster Heroes ... Kripta
- Waiting in the Wings: the Musical ... Sperm Bank Receptionist
- Hollywood Musical! ... Sally
- Still Waiting in the Wings ... Lucy
- The Relationtrip ... Liam's Mom
- You & Me ... Tilly
Television
- The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour TV series... Regular performer
- The Tim Conway Comedy Hour TV series... Series regular
- All in the Family TV series... Gloria Stivic
- The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show TV series ... Pebbles Flintstone
- Love, American Style TV series... Barbara
- Ironside TV series... Sandy Fonda
- The Courtship of Eddie's Father TV series... Katie O'Hara
- Aloha Means Goodbye TV movie... Sara Moore
- Hey, I'm Alive TV movie... Helen Klaben
- The Great Houdini TV movie... Bess Houdini
- Fred Flintstone and Friends TV series ... Pebbles Flintstone
- Intimate Strangers TV movie... Janice Halston
- My Husband is Missing TV movie... Mrs. Katherine Eaton
- ...And Your Name is Jonah TV movie... Jenny Corelli
- The 200th Episode Celebration of All in the Family TV special... Herself
- Archie Bunker's Place TV series... Gloria Stivic
- A Gun in the House TV movie... Emily Cates
- Archie Bunker's Place TV series... Gloria Stivic
- Gloria TV series... Gloria Stivic
- The Charmkins TV special ... Poison Ivy
- The Glo Friends Save Christmas TV special ... Blanche
- Alice in Wonderland TV miniseries... Tiger Lily
- 9 to 5 TV series... Marsha McMurray Shrimpton
- A Deadly Silence TV movie... Aunt Marilyn
- Charles in Charge TV series... Nora Bennington, Nancy Beauman
- Sister Kate TV series... Mrs. Newberry
- Murder, She Wrote TV series... Nancy La Rue
- TaleSpin: Plunder & Lightning TV movie ... Rebecca Cunningham
- TaleSpin TV series ... Rebecca Cunningham
- All in the Family: 20th Anniversary Special TV special... Herself
- Dinosaurs TV series ... Charlene Sinclair
- Yo Yogi! TV series ... Additional voices
- Tom & Jerry Kids TV series ... Jerry's Mother
- The Tin Soldier TV special ... Narrator
- In the Best Interest of the Children TV movie... Patty Pepper
- Fish Police TV series ... Shelly
- Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa TV series ... Bessy Bluebell
- Tiny Toon Adventures TV series ... Rhoda's Mom, Witch Sandy
- Droopy, Master Detective TV series ... Additional voices
- Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man TV series ... Additional voices
- The New Adventures of Mother Goose TV special ... Mother Goose
- Cow and Chicken TV series ... Girl Enzyme #1, Native Enzyme Walla #2
- The Wild Thornberrys TV series ... Galapagos Penguin, Iguanas
- The Brothers Flub TV series ... Additional Voices
- Gilmore Girls TV series... Babette Dell
- General Hospital TV series... Jennifer Smith
- As Told by Ginger TV series ... Mrs. Higsby
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series... Aunt Lorraine
- The Division TV series... Eve Warner
- Still Standing TV series... Louise Miller
- Odd Job Jack TV series ... Additional voices
- What I Did for Love TV movie... Aunt Trudy
- Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures TV series ... Mrs. O'Connor
- American Dad! TV series ... Clara
- Celebrity Ghost Stories TV series... Herself
- TV miniseries... Babette Dell
- Maron TV series... Shirley
- Christmas Harmony TV movie... Shirley
Stage
- Wally's Cafe ... Janet
- bThe Odd Couple ... Florence Ungar
- Grease ... Miss Lynch
- Annie ... Miss Hannigan, 20th Anniversary National Tour; Reagle Players; Cabrillo Music Theatre; Pittsburgh CLO; Riverside Center Dinner Theater
- Always...Patsy Cline ... Louise ;
- Anything Goes ... Mrs. Evangeline Harcourt
- The Club of Hearts ... Ida
- The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas ... Miss Mona
- Fifth of July ... Aunt Sally Talley Friedman
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ... Big Mama
- Hello, Dolly! ... Dolly Levi
- The Full Monty ... Jeanette ; ;
- Fiddler on the Roof ... Golde
- Steel Magnolias ... Truvy
- Nunsense ... Mother Superior, 25th Anniversary Tour
- All Shook Up ... Mayor Matilda Hyde
- Love Letters ... Melissa Gardner
- Curtains ... Carmen Bernstein
- Cinderella ... Fairy Godmother
- Chicago ... Mama Morton
- Legally Blonde ... Paulette Bonafonté
- Hello, Dolly! ... Dolly Levi ; ; National Tour
- The Drowsy Chaperone ... Mrs. Tottendale
- Always...Patsy Cline ... Louise, also directed the production ; ; ; ;
- 9 to 5: The Musical ... Roz Keith ; ;
- Thoroughly Modern Millie ... Mrs. Meers
- Hello, Dolly! ... Dolly Levi, 50th Anniversary Tour
- The Witches of Eastwick ... Felicia Gabriel
- Spamalot ... God
- Nice Work If You Can Get It ... Dutchess Estonia Dulworth
- Mame ... Agnes Gooch
- Irving Berlin's White Christmas the Musical ...Martha Watson
- Grumpy Old Men ... Punky
Awards and nominations
- 1971 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
- 1979 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
- 2010: Won the award for Featured Actress in a Musical for the role of the "Fairy Godmother" in the Cabrillo Music Theatre production of Cinderella