Delta Burke

Delta Ramona Leah Burke (born July 30 1956 in Orlando, Florida) is an American television and film actress. She is probably best known for her role as Suzanne Sugarbaker in the sitcom Designing Women.

Related Topics:
July 30 - 1956 - Orlando, Florida - American - Television - Film - Actress - Sitcom - Designing Women

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After graduating from Colonial High School in Orlando, she won the Miss Florida title for 1973. Burke was paired with Georgia, Gail Nelson, in the Miss America pageant in 1974, and won a talent scholarship allowing her to attend a two-year study program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She is a designer and manager of the clothing company Delta Burke Design in New York City. Delta has been married to actor Gerald McRaney since 1989.

Related Topics:
1973 - Georgia - Gail Nelson - Miss America - 1974 - Scholarship - London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art - New York City - Gerald McRaney - 1989

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Ever since the early 1990s, Delta's weight has been a subject of discussion in the tabloid press. In reality, her struggles with weight and eating disorders stretch back to her pageant days in the early 1970s. She was fired from Designing Women when relations between Burke and her co-stars, especially Dixie Carter, deteriorated. Speculation in the press immediately labeled the reason for her firing to be massive weight gain, which was only one of the reasons.

Related Topics:
1990s - 1970s - Dixie Carter

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Delta went on to star in her own television show, Delta, and in Women of the House (reprising her Suzanne Sugarbaker role, sans other Designing Women stars), which were both flops.

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She became a much-parodied figure in the press due to her seesawing weight, including a skit on MADtv, in which Delta Burke eats anything and everything in sight, even people. On Saturday Night Live, Leon Phelps from The Ladies Man has a sexual fixation on Burke, for reasons which were not explained. In the early 2000s, she co-starred with David Alan Grier on the sitcom DAG; she had lost much of her excess weight for the role after being diagnosed with diabetes.

Related Topics:
MADtv - Saturday Night Live - The Ladies Man - David Alan Grier - DAG

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