Night Court

Background:

“Hollywood is known as a cynical place, and it can be. But that's not all that it is.” Markie Post

American actress who began her career as a game show researcher Markie Post landed regular work on two unsuccessful series, “Semi-Tough” (1980) and “The Gangster Chronicles” (1981), and appeared in countless shows as a guest star before attracting the attention of television audience with her three season regular role as bail bondwoman Terri Michaels on the ABC action/drama “The Fall Guy” (1982-1985). She gained even more popularity and recognition as the priggish legal aid attorney Christine Sullivan on the NBC long-running sitcom “Night Court,” a role she played from 1985 to 1992. After the show came to an end, the buoyant performer was seen in the sitcoms “Hearts Afire” (1992-1994) and “Odd Man Out” (1999) and making her feature acting debut in the Cameron Diaz hit comedy “There's Something About Mary” (1998). She also continued to appear in many TV films, including “Chasing the Dragon” (1996), “Survival on the Mountain” (1997), “I've Been Waiting for You” (1998), “Electra Woman and Dyna Girl” (2001) and “Holiday in Handcuffs” (2007). Her more recent guest spots were in the series like “The District,” “Scrubs” and “Ghost Whisperer.”

5' 6” Post is good friends with the former President Bill Clinton. She was snapped several times with him throughout both of his presidential campaigns. When Clinton became President, Post became an informal advisor at the White House. During that period, she hosted and produced an Inaugural special for children and advised the President on how to improve his image. As part of the Clinton Initiative, in 2005, she participated in Interfaith Youth Core to raise $30,000 for a leadership conference for American and Jordanian juveniles.

Married in 1982, Post and her actor-writer husband, Michael A. Ross, have two daughters. She previously married Stephen Knox.

Cheerleader

Childhood and Family:

Marjorie Armstrong Post was born on November 4, 1950, in Palo Alto, California. She was raised in calm and cozy upbringing in Walnut Creek, California by parents Richard F. Post, an illustrious scientist, and Marylee, a poet. She got the name “Markie” from her brother who could not pronounce her first name correctly.

Markie attended Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, CA, where she joined the cheerleading squad, and began her college at Claremont McKenna College, in Pomona, CA. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 1975. There she was dubbed “biggest snob on campus.”

The blonde beauty has been married twice. She had a brief marriage with first husband Stephen Knox. Currently, she is the wife of writer and actor Michael A. Ross, whom she has married since February 7, 1982. The couple has two daughters, Daisy and Kathleen.

The Fall Guy

Career:

Although she learned acting in college, Markie Post first embarked into television behind the scenes when she wrote game show questions and selected prizes for “The Price Is Right,” “Family Feud” and “Card Sharks.” While auditioning to be a contestant in the game show “Split Second,” she caught the attention of producers and was then hired as researcher on both “Split Second” and “Double Dare.” During the 1976-1977 season, she even took an additional position as associate producer for the latter.

Acting in community theater on the side, Post eventually decided to become a full-time actress in late 1970s and started getting work on the small screen as guest star in the series like NBC's “ChiPs,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” and “Hart to Hart” (all 1979). More guest spots followed in 1980, including “Eight Is Enough” and “B.J. and the Bear,” before she made her debut as a series regular in the very short-lived sport comedy “Semi-Tough” (1980). Costarring along side David Hasselhoff as Shake Tiller and Bruce McGill as Billy Clyde Pucket, she was cast as Barbara Jane Bookman, the passionless roommate of two football players. Post's next regular role was as Chris Brennan in the NBC historical series “The Gangster Chronicles,” starring Michael Nouri, Joe Penny and Brian Benben, which unfortunately had a similar fate. Aired in February 1981, the show only lasted 13 episodes.

Post went on to dot her resume with appearances on the episodes of “The Greatest American Hero,” “Simon & Simon,” “McClain's Law” (all 1981), “Code Red,” “The Love Boat” (both 1982), “Matt Houston,” “Cheers,” “Fantasy Island” (all 1983), “The A-Team” and “Hotel” (both 1984). She could also be seen in the failed pilots “Massarati and the Brain” (1982), starring Daniel Pilon and Peter Billingsley in the titular roles, and “Six Pack” (1983), a drama costarring Don Johnson, as well as the TV films “Not Just Another Affair” (1982), starring Victoria Principal/Gil Gerard, and “Glitter” (1984), which was produced by Aaron Spelling.

However, Post did not experience her first breakthrough until she joined the cast of the prime time action/adventure “The Fall Guy” in 1982 during its second season. She costarred as Lee Majors' bail bonds contractor Terri Michaels for three seasons until 1985, a year before the show was canceled. She recalled, “It was not a happy set. I felt like an outsider, a prop. I didn't even know about Heather Thomas' drug problem until a few months before it came out. I felt like I was nothing, a zero, and I'm prone to feel that way anyway.”

After departing the show, Post costarred with Ted Wass and Gary Swanson as three officers who become an immediate millionaires after saving an affluent crime victim in the ABC television movie “Triplecross” (1986), supported Jimmy Smits in the NBC film “Glitz” (1988), based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, and was cast as a call girl on “Tricks of the Trade” (1988), opposite Cindy Williams. Besides, she teamed up with Robert Urich for the100-minute drama/thriller “Stranger at My Door” (1991).

It was television series, however, that proved to be the best environment for the Californian native. Playing the regular role of the prudish public defender Christine Sullivan on the NBC sitcom “Night Court,” Post joined the show in 1985 during its second season and maintained a fixture for seven years. . In the meantime, her character fought with personal and professionalism issues, including an unsuccessful marriage to a workaholic undercover police, a guilt-causing engagement from lawyer to judge as well as a run for Congress.

Following the demise of the show in 1992, Post landed a regular role on the controversial and short-lived romantic sitcom “Hearts Afire,” which ran on CBS from 1992 to 1995. Costarring opposite John Ritter and Billy Bob Thornton, she was cast as Georgie Anne Lahti Hartman, a celebrated journalist with a unlikely chaotic background. While working on the show, she co-executive produced and starred in the NBC crime/thriller “Beyond Suspicion” and produced a children's segment of the President's Inaugural Celebration (both 1993). She also starred as a do-or-die mother who becomes a detective in order to find her five-year-old daughter's murder in the thriller telepic “Someone She Knows” (NBC, 1994)

Post returned to TV as a guest star after nearly a decade in the Fox sci-fi series “VR.5” (1995) and continued to appear in television movies like “Visitors of the Night” (1995), “Chasing the Dragon” (1996), “Survival on the Mountain” (1997), “I've Been Waiting for You” (1998). In 1998, she made her wide screen debut as Cameron Diaz's mother on the popular comedy “There's Something About Mary,” directed by the Farrelly brothers. A year later, she resurfaced as a regular on the ABC sitcom “Odd Man Out,” a family-oriented that saw the actress play a caterer and mother of four who lives with her model-agent younger sister in South Beach, Florida.

The appealing appeared as Nancy Waldron in a 2000 episode of “Twice in a Lifetime,” a critically-acclaimed but short-lived series starring Paul Popowich, starred as Electra Woman in the 2001 sci-fi made-for-TV film “Electra Woman and Dyna Girl,” and acted in two other 2001 TV films: “Late Boomers” and “Till Dad Do Us Part.” During the 2003-2004 season, she played Audrey Livingston on two episodes of the police series “The District.” She also played Lily Reid in three episodes of the long-running comedy/drama “Scrubs” (2002-2006) and Diana Lasseter in a 2006 episode of the Jennifer Love Hewitt series “Ghost Whisperer.”

Post had her next big screen exposure in 2006 when she was cast in the Guy Shalem comedy “Cook-Off!” (2006), playing Christine Merriweather. The movie starred Derek Anderson, Louie Anderson, Diedrich Bader, Jordan Black and others. She returned to television film in the following year in Ron Underwood's “Holiday in Handcuffs” (2007). Melissa Joan Hart starred as a struggling artist who works as waitress and kidnaps one of her customers to bring home and meet her parents at Christmas.

Awards:
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