Background:

American actress Lauren Tewes is best remembered for her role as Cruise Director Julie McCoy on the television sitcom “The Love Boat,” which she played regularly from 1977 to 1984 and then sporadically between 1985 and 1987. In addition to popularity, the role also brought her Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 1982 Golden Globe Awards. She has kept a low profile following her departure from the show, which dealt with drug addiction issues, and presently earning money through doing voice overs and radio commercials. Tewes has been sober for a number of years.


Cynthia

Childhood and Family:

Lauren Tewes was born Cynthia Lauren Tewes on October 26, 1953, in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Her father, Joseph, was a wood pattern maker, while her mother is the former Joanne Woods. She enrolled at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California. She also attended the University of California at Riverside, California, where she was the 1st Annual Chancellor's Award winner for Excellence in the Theatre.

Lauren has been married three times. She married first husband John Wassel from November 20, 1977 until they divorced in 1981. She then married jazz musician Paolo Noonis in 1986. In June the following year, she gave birth  prematurely to a daughter, but the baby died a month later. On May 1, 1996, Lauren was married to actor Robert “Bob” Nadir. On April 25, 2005, her husband died of Lou Gehrig's disease after being ill for several years. Lauren served as husband's main caregiver during his illness.


The Doom Generation

Career:

Lauren Tewes made her stage debut in “Arsenic and Old Lace” at the Pacific Conservatory Theatre in California. She went on to perform in other plays like “Born Yesterday” and “Crimes of the Heart” during the early 1980s. In 1976, Tewes made her television debut as Christine Hunter in an episode of “Charlie's Angels” called “Angels in Chains.” It was followed by guest spots in other TV shows like “Police Story” (1976), “Family” (1977), “ABC Weekend Specials” (1977) and “Starsky and Hutch” (1977).

Tewes's big break arrived when she won the role of Cruise Director Julie McCoy on the ABC sitcom “The Love Boat” after beating out more tan 100 other actresses in the auditions. She was on the show from 1977 until 1984, when she left after a highly public battle with cocaine abuse. For her work on the series, Tewes received a 1982 Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV. The actress later reprised her role on several episodes such as “Trouble in Paradise/No More Mister Nice Guy/The Mermaid and the Cop” (1985), “The Shipshape Cruise” (1986), “The Christmas Cruise: Part 1” and The Christmas Cruise: Part 2” (both 1986) and “Who Killed Maxwell Thorn?” (1987) as well as in 1997 episode of the sitcom “Martin” and a 1998 episode of the revival series “Love Boat: The Next Wave.”

During her tenure on “The Love Boat,” Tewes also appeared as guest star in the TV series  “Vega$” (1978), “Fantasy Island” (1978, 1984) and “Charlie's Angels” (1979). She worked with Jane Seymour, Laraine Stephens and Bert Convy in the made for TV film “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” (1979) and starred in the horror/thriller movie “Eyes of a Stranger” (1981), opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and John DiSanti.

Following her departure from the show, Tewes made guest appearances in television series like  “The New Mike Hammer” (1985), “Finder of Lost Loves” (1985), “T.J. Hooker” (1985), “Murder, She Wrote” (1985), “Hunter” (1986), “Hotel” (1984, 1986) and “My Two Dads”  (1988). She  played the leading role of Dot Bailey on the TV film “Anything for Love” (1985) and provided the voice of Red McCullough on the TV series “Sky Commanders” (1987).          

In the 1990s, Tewes continued to make guest appearances in such television series as “Who's the Boss?” (1991), “Dark Justice” (1992, 1993) and “Weird Science” (1994). She co-starred with Tom Skerritt, Michael Parks and Nancy Everhard in the TV film “The China Lake Murders” (1990) and with John Ratzenberger, Chad Allen and Jennifer Aniston in the NBC action TV film “Camp Cucamonga” (1990). She also appeared in the direct to video family film “Magic Kid” (1993), which starred Stephen Furst, Shonda Whipple and Joseph Campanella, and in the TV films “Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 Women” (1994), which was co-directed and co-written by and starring Julie Brown, along with Newell Alexander and Lisa Arch, and “It Came from Outer Space II” (1996), which starred Brian Kerwin, Elizabeth Peña and Jonathan Carrasco. In 1995, Tewes had a memorable turn as TV anchorwoman in the Gregg Araki action/crime film “The Doom Generation,” which starred James Duval, Rose McGowan and Johnathon Schaech. She reunited with Duval for the comedy/drama film “Nowhere” (1997). In the late 1990s, Tewes also did voice overs for the video games “The X Files Game” (1998), “Police Quest: SWAT 2” (1998) and “Gorky 17” (1999).        

From 2000 to 2001, Tewes had a recurring role as police detective Linda Westershult in the action/drama series “The Fugitive,” which starred Tim Daly, Mykelti Williamson and Stephen Lang. It marked her last TV appearance to date.

Currently living in Seattle, Washington, Tewes makes her living by doing voice-overs and radio commercial and keeps acting in regional theatre. Her recent stage credits include “My Fair Lady” (2003) at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle and the Craig Lucas play “Prayer for My Enemy” (2007) with the Intiman Theatre Co. in Seattle. Tewes has also performed roles for Imagination Theatre's various radio dramas.

In September 2009, Tewes hosted the “Seaquality” event for Garden State Equality aboard a cruise ship to support LGBT Marriage Equality.           


Awards:

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