Actress. Born November 21, 1945, in Washington, D.C. Comic star of TV and films. Raised in suburban Takoma Park, Maryland, by a Presbyterian musician father and a Jewish mother who ran a dance studio and jewelry stores, she began taking ballet and tap-dancing lessons at three and made her professional acting debut at 16 playing Juliet in a production of the Virginia Stage Company. She then studied drama at the American University, paying her tuition by operating a dance studio. Dropping out of college at 18, she arrived in New York and landed her first job as a chorus-line cancan dancer at the 1964 World's Fair. Later she worked as a go-go dancer, appeared in occasional stock productions, and played a bit part in Disney's The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band. After appearing on TV in the aborted series "Good Morning World" (1967-1968) she won national popularity as a kooky blonde in the zany TV comedy show "Laugh-In" (1968-1970). She left the cast to make films and won a best supporting actress Academy Award for her first role, Cactus Flower (1969). She was nominated for another Oscar for her performance in Private Benjamin (1980), a film she also produced, and remained one of Hollywood's most popular screen personalities into the 90's. Divorced from actor-director Gus Trikonis and from Bill Hudson of the Hudson Brothers rock-comedy group, she has been sharing home since 1986 with actor Kurt Russell and her three children.
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