Debralee Scott
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Debralee Scott (April 2, 1953 – April 5, 2005) was an American actress best known for her role on the soap opera spoof Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman as the title character's trampy younger and prettier sister, "Cathy Shumway". Scott was raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where she was born, and Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where she was a cheerleader.
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[edit] Film roles
Scott's first role was filmed shortly after her 18th birthday; she portrayed a corpse in 1971's Dirty Harry. At age 22, she found fame on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, playing Mary's sister, Cathy Shumway. She appeared on the first season of the sitcom Welcome Back Kotter as Rosalie "Hotzi" Totzi, and in the Donna Pescow sitcom Angie, playing Angie's younger sister, Marie Falco. Among her other credits were the 1973 feature film American Graffiti and the 1974 film Earthquake. Scott's scenes in the latter, which were set on an airplane, were never shown in the cinema run, only appearing during an extended-length network TV premiere showing. She also appeared on the daytime TV show Match Game between 1976 and 1982. During an appearance in 1977, she and Richard Dawson revolted when their answer -- "finishing school" -- didn't match the contestant's answer of "school," according to the off-stage judge. It prompted the "Match Game 1977 School Riot."
[edit] Chronology
[edit] Television
- Angie (1979)
- Forever Fernwood (1977)
- Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976)
- Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-1977)
- Sons and Daughters
- Match Game (1976-1982)
MOVIES
- Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986)
- Police Academy (1984)
- Pandemonium (1982)
- Incoming Freshmen (1979)
- The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)
- Our Time (1974)
- The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974)
- American Graffiti (1973)
- Dirty Harry (1971) uncredited
- The Candidate (uncredited)
[edit] Death
Scott continued to act, appearing in two "Police Academy" movies, including the first, but she later retired from acting and became an agent. In 2000, Debralee appeared on a panel with her former cast members of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills. In 2001, her fiancé, Port Authority police officer John Dennis Levi, perished during the 9/11 attacks. In March 2005 Scott moved from Brooklyn, New York to Amelia Island, Florida, in order to be near her ailing elder sister Carol Anne, a producer who worked on many Robert Altman films and who went by the name Scott "Scotty" Bushnell. Her other sister, Jerilynn Scott, is a talent agent in Los Angeles.
Soon after her arrival, she collapsed, and lingered in a coma for several days. She woke up, and when asked if she knew where she was, replied, "obviously in the hospital". Scott was released two days later (on April 2, her birthday) and her spirits remained high for several more days. She went to take a nap, and never woke up on April 5, 2005. The autopsy was inconclusive.[citation needed]
