Designing Women

Background:

“... When I went out to Los Angeles to work, they took one look at me and as I'm tall and I have a deep voice, I was usually cast in tough roles; as a villainess or a hooker with a heart of gold, or something along those lines. So when I was up for “Designing Women,” I was delighted. It was nice to have someone hand me a role of someone naive, trusting. It was such a fun part to play.” Jean Smart

A blonde, bosomy and noticeably leggy Seattle native player whose repertory has included prostitutes, engagingly ditsy Southerners, working women, as well as affectionate and sympathetic wives, Jean Smart reached the zenith of her prominence as the truly sweet, but occasionally befuddled, Charlene Frazier on the massively popular CBS sitcom “Designing Women” (1986-1991). After leaving the series, the Drama Desk nominee split her time between the screen and stage, but her efforts in searching for a proper starring sitcom during the 1990s proved unsuccessful. Smart's TV career gained a boost in early 2000 with her recurring role as Sherry Regan in CBS's drama “The District” (2001-2004), from which she was nominated for an Emmy, and as Lana Gardner in NBC's comedy “Frasier” (2000-2001), where she collected two Emmy Awards. Most recently, she is widely-known as Martha Logan on Fox's action/drama show “24” (2006-2007). The role brought the actress several nominations, including an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She has also had a number of remarkable roles in TV films.

As a movie actress, Smart is known for her supporting roles in such vehicles as Guinevere (1999, earned an Independent Spirit nomination), Disney's The Kid (2000), Sweet Home Alabama (2002), Bringing Down the House (2003), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Garden State (2004) and more recently, Lucky You (2007) and Hero Wanted (2007). An accomplished stage performer, she was nominated for a Drama Desk for her Off-Broadway role in “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove” (1980) and a Tony for the Broadway play “The Man Who Came to Dinner” (2000).

Off camera, Smart enjoys her role as a wife and mother. She is married to actor Richard Gilliland, whom she met while working on the set of “Designing Women,” and has a teenage son, Connor, with him.

Diabetic

Childhood and Family:

Jean E. Smart was born on September 13, 1951, in Seattle, Washington. She is the second of four to Kay, a homemaker, and Douglas Smart, a teacher. Her father died of Alzheimer’s in 2003. Jean was diagnosed as a diabetic when she was thirteen. She graduated from Ballard High School in Seattle, Washington, in 1969 and earned a B.A degree in fine arts from University of Washington in 1975. She is a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority.

Jean married actor Richard Gilliland on June 7, 1987. The couple's son, Connor Douglas Gilliland, was born on October 25, 1989. Jean and her husband hosted Baby Talk, a video that guides new parents through aspects of baby care.

24

Career:

Originally planning to be a veterinarian, Jean Smart became interested in theater during her senior year of high school and then professionally studied the craft at college. Starting her career as a stage performer in regional theaters, she got her first taste of a professional job in 1975 by joining the high-profile Oregon Shakespeare Festival and by 1980, had moved to New York City where she gained critical accolades for her role as a lesbian intellectual in her Off-Broadway debut, “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove” (1980). The role also brought Smart a Drama Desk nomination and a role in the Broadway play “Piaf” (1981), as the young Marlene Dietrich. She recreated her Broadway role in a 1982 TV adaptation for The Entertainment Channel.

Lured by her success on stage, Smart landed starring roles on the TV sitcoms “Reggie” (ABC, 1983), with Barbara Barrie, Timothy Busfield and Dianne Kay, and “Teachers Only” (NBC, 1983). Both series, however, had short lives. She was seen on the big screen the following year with small roles in William Tannen's Flashpoint and Herbert Ross' Protocol, starring Goldie Hawn. She remained active on television by portraying Dr. Allison Brody on the soon-canceled dramatic series “Maximum Security” (1984) for HBO and guest starred on such series as “Alice” (1984) and “Remington Steele” (1985).

It was in 1986 that Smart eventually got her first breakthrough when she was cast in the regular role of Charlene Frazier Stillfield in the BCS sitcom “Designing Women,” opposite Dixie Charter as Julia Sugarbaker and Annie Potts as Mary Jo Shively. The series was a hit and Smart was too. However, she departed the show after five seasons, in 1991 when “Designing Women” was at its peak, to pursue other projects.

While starring on the popular show, Smart could also be seen as Valerie Thomas in the TV film A Fight for Jenny (1986) and as one of the research scientists in The Jonathan Kaplan 1987 sci-fi film Project X (1987), among others. A year after leaving “Designing Women,” she tried to re-launch her film career by taking the role of a stewardess and recovering alcoholic involved in an affair with a sordid businessman (played by Danny Aiello) in the blemished, but well-acted Mistress (1992). The same year, she also offered excellent dramatic performances as the titular serial killer in the CBS drama Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story and in Jon Robin Baitz's Off-Broadway play “The End of the Day.” The self-described “late bloomer” further displayed her dramatic talents by playing a mentally-disabled woman in the ABC film The Yarn Princess (1994) and the mother in CBS’ TV remake of The Yearling (also 1994). In the CBS miniseries “Scarlett” (1994), she showed a playful and sexy side as Sally Brewton, the cigar-chomping confidante of Timothy Dalton's Rhett Butler, and was praised for her role as the wife of a homosexual in the Lifetime movie Change of Heart (1998). Still on the small screen, she revisited series TV as a malicious, hard-drinking author named Elinore 'Elie' Walker in a 1995 series called “High Society” for CBS, but it immediately went off the air. Her next attempt at sitcoms, “Style & Substance” (CBS, 1998), where she was cast as a Martha Stewart-like character, also proved to be a flop.

Jean gave an entertaining turn as the impertinent next-door neighbor in 1995's The Brady Bunch Movie, and later, in 1999, had a strong supporting role as the cold-hearted mother of a teenager involved with a much older man in Guinevere for director-writer Audrey Wells. The latter earned the actress an Independent Spirit nomination. She continued to liven up the screen in Snow Day (2000) and was reunited with Audrey Wells later that same year for Disney's The Kid, in which she memorably portrayed a TV newscaster. Smart also resumed her stage career. She costarred with Mary Steenburgen in the L.A production of “Marvin's Room” (1994) and was hailed for her Off-Broadway performance in Nicky Silver's comedy “Fit to Be Tied” (1996). She even picked up a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in the NYC stage revival of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” (2000), starring opposite Nathan Lane.

Television still proved to be a better vehicle for Smart when she nabbed an Emmy nomination in 2000 for her recurring role as Sherry Regan, the former wife of a police chief, in the CBS drama series “The District.” However, it was her excellent comedic turn as Lana Gardner in several episodes of the comedy hit “Frasier” that brought the actress her two Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (2000 and 2001).

Next, Smart had regular roles in the animated shows “The Oblongs” (WB, 2000), as Pickles Oblong, and “Disney's Kim Possible” (2002-present), where she provided the vocals of Dr. Possible, and was cast as Marlene Pellet in the short-lived NBC series “In-Laws” (2002). 2002 also saw her return to features with a part in the Reese Witherspoon-Josh Lucas vehicle Sweet Home Alabama, as Lucas' mother. She then found herself acting with Steve Martin, Queen Latifah and Eugene Levy in the comedy film Bringing Down the House (2003), playing the dissatisfied former wife of Martin's puritanical, uptight attorney.

Smart had starring roles in Lifetime's Killer Instinct: From the Files of Candice DeLong (2003), based on the book and real-life story of FBI profiler Candice DeLong, and Hallmark's Audrey’s Rain before joining John Goodman in the short-lived CBS comedy series “Center of the Universe” (2004-2005), as Kate Barnett. Meanwhile, she had supporting parts in the David O' Russell helmed comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004), opposite Mark Wahlberg, Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman, and actor Zach Braff's writing and directorial debut, Garden State (2004).

In January 2006, Smart joined the cast of the 2001 action series “24,” starring Kiefer Sutherland. Playing President Logan's mentally-unhinged wife Martha, the actress' performance was critically praised and she was handed a 2006 Emmy and Satellite nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She also jointly received a 2007 SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Smart's recent film, Lucky You, with Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore and Debra Missing, was released in May 2007 and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. She has a supporting a role in the upcoming action/drama film Hero Wanted, which is directed by Brian Smrz and stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Ray Liotta, Norman Reedus and Tommy Flanagan.

Awards:

• Emmy: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, “Frasier,” 2001

• Emmy: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, “Frasier,” 2000