Delta Burke

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Delta Ramona Leah Burke (born July 30, 1956 in Orlando, Florida) is an American television and film actress. She is probably best known for her role as Suzanne Sugarbaker in the sitcom Designing Women.

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[edit] Miss Florida

Burke attended Colonial High School in Orlando, Florida, where she was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." [1] After graduation, she won the Miss Florida title for 1974. Burke was paired with Miss Georgia, Gail Nelson, in the Miss America pageant in 1974, and won a talent scholarship allowing her to attend a two-year study program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

[edit] Early career

Delta's best-known role as Suzanne Sugarbaker in Designing Women was created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. Before Designing Women, she spent a year on Filthy Rich (1982) playing Kathleen Beck. After that, she played female football team owner Diane Barrow on 1st & Ten.

[edit] Designing Women fallout

Burke was fairly slim when she started on "Designing Women" in 1986, but as the show gained in fame, so did her weight. She became the most popular cast member, earning two consecutive "Best Actress" nominations from the Emmys in 1990 and 1991. Her Suzanne Sugarbaker character was considered the funniest character on the show, and her delivery of the lines "Excuse me! Excuse me!" became something of a catchphrase. In 1990, Burke publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the show's creators on a televised interview with Barbara Walters and other media outlets. She also said that castmate Dixie Carter, who had once been her close friend and maid of honor at her wedding to Gerald McRaney, wasn't speaking to her as she sided with her bosses. At the end of the 5th season of "Desiging Women," in 1991, she was let go from her contract due to her contentious relations with star Dixie Carter and the Thomasons.

Delta became a blond for the short-lived TV sitcom Delta (1992), where she played an aspiring country singer. When the ratings plummeted, she became a brunette again to win over her fans. In 1995, she and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason reconciled their differences, and Burke returned back as Suzanne Sugarbaker in Women of the House (1995), but that show also had an early demise. It took more than a decade for Burke and Dixie Carter to reconcile, but they did so when Burke guest-starred on Family Law, which starred Carter.

[edit] Weight gain

Ever since the early 1990s, Delta's weight has been a subject of discussion in the tabloid press. In reality, her struggles with weight, depression and eating disorders stretch back to her pageant days in the early 1970s.[citation needed] She became a much-parodied figure in the press due to her seesawing weight, including a skit on Saturday Night Live, wherein Leon Phelps from The Ladies Man has a sexual fixation on Burke, for reasons which were not explained. One popular theory is that he is a fat admirer of hers. In 1989, Burke took a dignified approach and asked Linda Bloodworth-Thomason to write an episode addressing her weight. The episode "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?" had Suzanne Sugarbaker going to her 15-year high school reunion and getting her feelings hurt after hearing disparaging remarks about her weight. This episode is said to have earned Burke her first Emmy nomination as Best Actress.

[edit] Recent career

Burke has been a leading actress in a number of television films and had a supporting role in the Mel Gibson film What Women Want (2000).

In the early 2000s, she co-starred with David Alan Grier on the sitcom DAG; she had lost much of her excess weight for the role after being diagnosed with diabetes. She had a recurring role on Popular (TV series) as Cherry Cherry. In 2005 she appeared on Broadway in the play Steel Magnolias.

She currently has a recurring role on Boston Legal as a former flame of William Shatner's character, Denny Crane named Bella Horowitz. Her character has an odd habit of tackling Denny. She and Denny seemed to rekindle their romance in the episode "On The Ledge".

[edit] Personal life

Burke is married to actor Gerald McRaney since May 28, 1989. They have no children together, although McRaney has adult children from his prior marriages. Burke and McRaney's primary residence is in Los Angeles, California; they also own a house in Telluride, Colorado and one in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are both registered Republicans. She is also a very successful designer and manager of the clothing company Delta Burke Design in New York City.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] Nonfiction

  • Delta Style: Eve Wasn't a Size 6 and Neither Am I (1998, St. Martin's Press ;ISBN 0-312-15454-2 )

[edit] External links

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