Laurette Spang-McCook
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Laurette Spang-McCook | |
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Born | Laurette Spang Buffalo, New York,U.S. |
Alma mater | American Academy of Dramatic Arts |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1972–2007 |
Known for | Battlestar Galactica |
Spouse | |
Children | 3, includingMolly McCook |
Laurette Spang-McCook,credited asLaurette Spang,is an American television actress. She is best known for playing the character Cassiopeia on the originalBattlestar Galactica(1978).
Early life/family
[edit]Spang was born inBuffalo, New York,and raised inAnn Arbor, Michigan.Speech courses during her high school years sparked her interest in acting.[1]During her youth, she was an active letter-writer, penning letters to actors. She was also ahuge fanof thegothicsoap opera,Dark Shadowsand of thetelevision Western,Bonanza.She is related toBollywoodproducer-actorStegath Dorr.[citation needed]
At age 16, she accompanied her father on a business trip to New York City, where she waited at the stage door ofDark Shadows.The stage guard allowed her to walk in, leading her to actressKathryn Leigh Scott.After their meeting, Scott would answer Spang's fan mail through high-school.[citation needed]
The summer of her junior year, Spang worked with theWilliamstown Summer Theater.[2]A year later, Scott set up an audition for Spang at theAmerican Academy of Dramatic Arts.She received a scholarship and graduated from there two years later. Following graduation in 1969, Spang returned to Michigan where she attendedAdrian College,living dorm life on a small campus, but not far from her family in Ann Arbor. She dropped out of Adrian before completing her first year after her poor grades led her father to stop providing money.[3]For two years, Spang was a typist in a real estate office, earning money to support herself and study acting.[3]
Career
[edit]After aUniversal Studiostalent agent spotted her in 1972, Spang signed a 7-year contract with the studio. She then had a succession of guest-starring roles in television series includingEmergency!(Episodes: Dinner Date, The Old Engine and Kidding),Adam-12(Episode: Venice Division),The Streets of San Francisco,The Six Million Dollar Man,Happy Days,Chase,The Secrets of Isis,Charlie's AngelsandLou Grant.Spang also appeared in the television moviesShort Walk to Daylight,Runaway!andSarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic.She co-starred in a production ofWinesburg, Ohioon KCET's Hollywood Television Theatre.[citation needed]
Towards the end of her contract with Universal (by which time, according toPeople WeeklyMagazine, October 2, 1978,[4]her money was almost exhausted and she had been evicted from an apartment she had been renting), Spang was cast as Cassiopeia in theBattlestar Galacticapilot movie, "Saga of a Star World".An initial draft of the script had her killed off in the pilot film, in which the reptiloid Ovions consumed her, almost cannibal-style. However, the character survived and the network kept her on in a regular role in the subsequent weekly series,[5]but "Standards and Practices" (network censors) forced a change of profession upon her. (The censors would no longer allow her to be asocialator,soGlen LarsonandDonald P. Bellisariohad her character become amedtechin the series, beginning with "Lost Planet of the Gods, Parts 1 & 2" ).[citation needed]
Spang's later acting performances were inThe Love Boat,Fantasy Island,The Dukes of Hazzard,BJ and the Bear,Magnum, P.I.,Three's Company,Man from Atlantis,The Gemini Man[6]and more. She took a de facto retirement from acting in 1984, though she made a brief appearance in the 2007 horror filmPlot 7,which also featured her by-then husbandJohn McCook.Spang appeared in theBattlestar Galacticaepisode ofSciographydocumentaryseries on theSci-Fi Channelin 2002. In 2003, she appeared in anotherBattlestar Galacticadocumentary included as an extra feature in the DVD box set of the series released for the series' 25th anniversary.[citation needed]
Personal life
[edit]Spang married actorJohn McCookon February 16, 1980; the couple have three children, including actressMolly McCook.[citation needed]
Filmography
[edit]Film and Television | |||
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Year | Title | Role | Notes |
1972 | The Bold Ones: The New Doctors | Real Estate Lady | Episode: "Is This Operation Necessary?" |
1972 | Short Walk to Daylight | Sandy | Television film |
1972 | Emergency! | Betsy Power | Episode: "Dinner Date" |
1973 | Alias Smith and Jones | Emma Sterling | Episode: "Only Three to a Bed" |
1973 | Winesburg, Ohio | Helen White | Television film |
1973 | Marcus Welby, M.D. | Episode: "The Panic Path" | |
1973 | Chase | Jill Bronston | Episode: "Foul-Up" |
1973 | Runaway! | Coed | Television film |
1973 | Emergency! | Sally | Episode: "The Old Engine" |
1973 | Adam-12 | Carla Rogers | Episode: "Venice Division" |
1973 | The Streets of San Francisco | Kim | Episode: "Harem" |
1973 | Maneater | Polly | Television film |
1973 | Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law | Sherry | Episode: "A Girl Named Tham" |
1974 | Happy Days | Arlene Holder | Episode: "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" |
1974 | The Six Million Dollar Man | Yeoman Helen Maychick | Episode: "Survival of the Fittest" |
1974 | Airport 1975 | Arlene | Feature film |
1974 | The Rangers | Julie Beck | Television film |
1975 | Emergency! | Mrs. Long | Episode: "Kidding" |
1975 | Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic | Nancy | Television film |
1975 | Sunshine | Cathy | Episode: "Jill" |
1975 | Happy Days | Denise Hudson | Episode: "Kiss Me Sickly" |
1976 | The Love Boat | Juanita Havlicek | Television film |
1976 | The Secrets of Isis | Ann | Episode: "The Cheerleader" |
1976 | Gemini Man | Maggie | Episode: "Run, Sam, Run" |
1976 | Charlie's Angels | Tracy Martel | Episode: "Consenting Adults" |
1977 | McNamara's Band | Helga Zimhoff | TV pilot episode |
1977 | Happy Days | Arlene | Episode: "The Graduation" (Part 1) |
1977 | Happy Days | Wendy | 3-part episodes: "Hollywood" |
1978 | Lou Grant | Joanie Hume | Episodes: "Airliner" / "Spies" |
1978 | The Love Boat | Melanie Taylor | Episode: "A Very Special Girl" |
1978 | Man from Atlantis | Amanda Trevanian | Episode: "The Siren" |
1978 | Colorado C.I. | Chris Morrison | TV pilot episode |
1978 | Project U.F.O. | Linda Collins | Episode: "Sighting 4015: The Underwater Incident" |
1978–79 | Battlestar Galactica | Cassiopeia | 21 episodes, 3 of these episodes were also edited and released as a feature film in 1978 |
1979 | B. J. and the Bear | Snow White | 2-part episodes: "Snow White and the Seven Lady Truckers" |
1980 | Barnaby Jones | Lucy | Episode: "The Final Victim" |
1980 | Tourist | RoseAnne Wicker | TV film |
1980 | Three's Company | Inga | Episode: "Downhill Chaser" |
1981 | B. J. and the Bear | Snow White | Episode: "B.J. and the Seven Lady Truckers: Part 2" |
1981 | The Love Boat | Linda | Episode: "Split Personality" |
1981 | Aloha Paradise | Episode: "Blue Honeymoon" | |
1981 | Fantasy Island | Karen Saunders-Holmes | Episode: "The Searcher" |
1981 | The Dukes of Hazzard | Mindy Lou Hale | Episode: "The Fugitive" |
1982 | The Day the Bubble Burst | Frances Pierce | Television film |
1984 | Magnum, P.I. | Marge Atherton / Zelda Fitzgerald | Episode: "The Case of the Red-Faced Thespian" |
2003 | Galacticon | Herself | Documentary |
2007 | Plot 7 | Lady in White |
References
[edit]- ^Gross, Edward; Altman, Mark A. (21 August 2018).So Say We All: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Battlestar Galactica.Tom Doherty Associates.ISBN978-1-250-12895-9.RetrievedJanuary 30,2021.
- ^"Ever Hear Of Laurette Spang? She's Contract Player On Way Up".Argus-Leader.South Dakota, Sioux Falls. October 21, 1973. p. 10.RetrievedJanuary 30,2021– viaNewspapers.
- ^ab"'Battlestar Galactica' Socialator Has Improved Role, Rosy Future ".The Wichita Eagle-Beacon.December 3, 1978. p. 240.RetrievedJanuary 30,2021– viaNewspapers.
- ^"Blast-Off or Rip-Off?".PEOPLE.
- ^Terrace, Vincent (2011).Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010(2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 79.ISBN978-0-7864-6477-7.
- ^Stein, Megan (2019-05-10)."Wait a Minute: 'Last Man Standing' Star Molly McCook's Mom Is Famous, Too?".Country Living.Retrieved2020-07-28.