‘A TIME TO REMEMBER’
CAST BIOS
DANA DELANY (Britt Calhoun) – Dana Delany has earned five Emmy® nominations and took home two Emmy® Awards for her starring role in the critically acclaimed drama, “China Beach.”
Born and raised in Stamford, Connecticut, she attended Wesleyan University and, after graduation, moved to New York City where she landed a role in the daytime drama “As the World Turns” and discovered the theatre. On stage, Delany starred in the Off Broadway production of “A Life,” Nicholas Kazan’s “Bloodmoon” and, last year, completed a tour-de-force performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Dinner with Friends.”
On television, Delany has starred in the series “Presidio Med” and “Pasadena,” the mini- series “Shake, Rattle & Roll” and “True Women,” and the TV movies “Resurrection,” “The Patron Saint of Liars” and “Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story,” among others. She also gave a heart-wrenching performance as a woman suffering from scleroderma in the highly-rated telepic “For Hope” and now serves on the Board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation, raising consciousness – and funds – for the debilitating and deadly disease.
In addition to acting in the project, Delany produced the telefilm “Double Jeopardy,” the first in a series of movies based on New York sex crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein’s novels. She also lends her voice to the character of Lois Lane in “The New Batman – Superman Adventures” on Kids WB.
Delany, who studied modern dance in college, is a yoga enthusiast. A self-described minimalist, she enjoys traveling to “extremes” and engaging in activities that encourage self-reflection. If she wasn’t an actor, “I would be a good spy.”
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DORIS ROBERTS (Maggie Calhoun) – Doris Roberts has been nominated for nine Emmys®, winning the award four times – three times for her comedic turn in the popular series “Everybody Loves Raymond” and once for a guest-starring role in the acclaimed drama “St. Elsewhere.” A three-time winner of the Viewers for Quality Television Award, she has also been recognized as one of the five actresses of the year (2001) by the American Film Institute and, in 2003, earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Roberts made her Broadway debut in 1955 in William Saroyan’s classic “The Time of Your Life.” Her other New York theater credits include “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “Desk Set” and “Bad Habits,” for which she won an Outer Critics Circle Award.
Coaxed by Lily Tomlin to join “The Lily Tomlin Comedy Hour,” Roberts began a thriving career in television. In addition to several series regular roles, including “Remington Steele,” she guest starred in countless comedies and dramas such as “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “Barney Miller,” “Soap,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “Walker, Texas Ranger,” and “Touched By an Angel.” She also starred in the TV movies “Ruby & Oswald,” “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “A Letter to Three Wives,” “Blind Faith” and “A Time to Heal,” among many others.
Roberts’ many feature film credits include “Something Wild,” “A Lovely Way to Die,” “A New Leaf,” “The Heartbreak Kid,” “The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three,” “Hester Street,” “Rabbit Test,” “The Rose,” “Used People” and the upcoming “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.”
A founder and active supporter of Children Affected by AIDS and Puppies Behind Bars, Roberts is also a fighter for the rights of fellow actors who battle against ageism in the business. In 2002, she made international headlines when she testified before U.S. Senator John Breaux’s Special Committee on Ageism in Washington, D.C. stating, “Gentlemen, if you were in my business, you would be out of a job.”
In her autobiography, “Are You Hungry, Dear?” published in March 2003, Roberts takes her signature line from “Everybody Loves Raymond” and makes it her own, pairing hilarious stories and dramatic turning points from her fascinating life with delicious recipes from her kitchen.
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MEGAN GALLAGHER (Valetta Calhoun Proctor) – Megan Gallagher grew up in “John Updike country” – Wyomissing, Pennsylvania – the daughter of a WWII veteran father and English major mother who met while performing in a play at Catholic University. From a young age, Gallagher knew that she wanted to be an actor and, since graduating from The Juilliard School Drama Division, she has managed to support herself from her work on stage, screen and television.
Not that she hasn’t had a few nail-biting moments! “I had $37 in the bank when I got ‘Hill Street Blues,’” reminisces Gallagher, who was a series regular in that acclaimed drama as well as in “’Slap’ Maxwell Story,” “China Beach,” “The Larry Sanders Show” and “Millennium.”
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Gallagher has starred in a number of television movies and miniseries including “Sins of the Past,” “And Then She Was Gone,” “George Washington,” “Champagne Charlie,” “Trade-Off” and “Like Father, Like Santa.” Her guest-starring stints include “L.A. Law,” “Picket Fences,” “Family Law,” “CSI” and “Without A Trace” and her feature film credits include “Ambulance,” “Ripple,” “Cross Cut,” “Blindside,” “Contagion” and “Inhabited.”
Her extensive theatre credits include productions at such prestigious venues as The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, The Long Wharf Theatre and Williamstown Theatre Festival. She starred on Broadway in “Angels in America” and “A Few Good Men” and appeared in the Off Broadway productions of “Miss Julie,” “Tartuffe,” “Come and Go” and “Play.”
Married and the mother of 17-month-old twins (a boy and a girl), Gallagher loves to cook classic American fare, stating, “I think I make the best roast chicken on the planet.” A cat lover, she has a custom-made (by her husband) indoor/outdoor “habitat” for her 6 felines and is actively involved with The Amanda Foundation, a no-kill shelter in Beverly Hills.
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LOUISE FLETCHER (Billy) – Louise Fletcher is best known for playing the dictatorial Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” a performance that won her both the American and British Oscars® for Best Actress, as well as the Golden Globe Award. Upon receiving her Academy Award®, Fletcher used sign language to thank her deaf parents for helping her achieve her dream.
The daughter of an Episcopal missionary, Fletcher was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Although both of her parents were hearing and speech impaired, she remembers her father as a charismatic storyteller and her mother as a wonderful mimic who loved the movies and encouraged her daughter to reenact their favorite scenes. Fletcher was also encouraged by her Aunt Beezie, who “loved to sing and play piano and just taught me to show off in general.”
Deciding to be an actor at age 11, Fletcher promised her father to finish school and learn to type so she would never want for a job if she needed it. (“This has paid off!”) She received her classical training from the University of North Carolina, then made the move to Hollywood, quickly landing roles in such classic television series as “Bat Masterson,” “Lawman,” “Maverick,” “77 Sunset Strip,” “Wagon Train,” “The Untouchables” and “Perry Mason.”
Fletcher’s other TV credits include recurring roles in “Picket Fences,” “Profiler” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” She also starred in the television movies “Second Serve” with Vanessa Redgrave, “J. Edgar Hoover,” “The Karen Carpenter Story,” “In a Child’s Name,”
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“Someone Else’s Child,” “Sins of the Mind” and “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” among others. Her list of film credits includes Robert Altman's “Thieves Like Us,” Neil Simon's “The Cheap Detective,” Lewis Teague's “The Lady in Red,” “Brainstorm,” “The Boy Who Could Fly,” “Nobody’s Fool,” “Two Moon Junction,” “Blue Steel” and “Blind Vision.”
From 1961-1973, Fletcher took a sabbatical from acting to raise her two sons. Currently, when she’s not working, she is an art dealer and a self-described “nest maker” who recently completed a five year renovation of an old farmhouse in the southwest of France. Fletcher has served on the board of the NIH Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. About her long and illustrious career she says, “I know that to do what I do best I have to rely on others doing what they do best. I can’t do it alone. A lot of work goes into giving me my moment to do what I do. I love that.”
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