Michele Lee

Michele Lee (born Michelle Lee Dusick on June 24, 1942 to a Jewish family in Los Angeles) is an American actress, most known for her role as Karen Fairgate MacKenzie on the 1980s soap opera Knots Landing.

Related Topics:
June 24 - 1942 - Jewish - Los Angeles - American - Actress - Knots Landing

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She began her career on television in an episode of the late 1950s sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and then began in musicals, becoming a star on Broadway at the age of 19 in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in the role of "Rosemary", opposite Robert Morse and the late Rudy Vallee, a role she repeated in the film version.

Related Topics:
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis - How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - Robert Morse - Rudy Vallee

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She first became known for her saccharine sweet roles in the films The Love Bug (1968), and The Comic (1969). The 1970s were especially trying on Michele, as her father died in 1970. She worked infrequently until accepting a role on Broadway in Seesaw, which netted her a Tony Award nomination in 1974. In 1976, her mother died, and she stopped acting for years.

Related Topics:
The Love Bug - 1968 - The Comic - 1969 - 1970s - Seesaw - Tony Award

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In 1979, she accepted an acting job after a three-year sabbatical, a role for a series called Knots Landing, a spinoff of Dallas. The first episodes of the series were not high-rated and cancellation was rumored, but the network continued to support it and eventually the show took off. As one of the leads, Lee became very popular with fans, winning the Soap Opera Digest Award for Lead Actress five times.

Related Topics:
Dallas - Soap Opera Digest Award

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As the show moved into the 1990s, Knots Landings popularity waned. The big budget that the series once had was trimmed, and in the final season, the higher paid cast members were asked to appear in only 15 of the season's 19 episodes, as the budget constraints had become so much that the production company couldn't pay them anymore. Lee refused and appeared in all 19 episodes that season (doing her extra four for union scale).

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Since the cancellation of Knots Landing in 1993, Lee has appeared in many made-for-TV movies including a biopic of late country star Dottie West, as well as the Knots Landing reunion special, '. In 2004, she returned to feature films in the role of Ben Stiller's mother in Along Came Polly. She and her son moved to New York, at least temporarily.

Related Topics:
Made-for-TV movie - Dottie West - Ben Stiller - Along Came Polly

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