Jean Sagal
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| Jean Sagal | |
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| Born | Barbara Jean Sagal October 9, 1967 Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
Jean Sagal (born October 9, 1967) is an American actress and director best known for her role in Double Trouble.
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[edit] Biography
Sagal was born on October 9, 1967 in Los Angeles. Her mother, Sara Zwilling, was one of the first female producers in Hollywood, and a former beauty queen who died of heart disease when Sagal was just 11 years old. Her father was director Boris Sagal, who was killed in a 1981 helicopter accident. Sagal and her twin sister Liz, are the younger sisters of Katey Sagal. They have two older brothers; Joey Sagal, also an actor (The Hidden, Return of the Swamp Thing) and David, an attorney currently working for Warner Bros..
Sagal attended Pacific Palisades High School while her sister Liz went to high school in Santa Monica (Their parents felt the girls should have their own identities as much as possible). The girls started dancing professionally at the age of 17. Their first break came in 1982 when they were cast as the bubbly twin cheerleaders in Grease 2. Coincidentally, the girls were cast separately for the roles—Liz in Los Angeles, Jean in New York City. It wasn't until shooting was set to begin that director Patricia Birch realized she had real-life twins in her cast that the parts were altered.
[edit] Double Trouble
Sagal and her twin sister Liz are best remembered for their own short-lived TV sitcom Double Trouble, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1985. The girls played twin sisters Kate and Allison Foster. With a plot similar to The Patty Duke Show of the 1960s the girls were given opposite personalities: Liz played Allison, the studious one, while Jean played Kate, the mischievous one. Initially, the girls were cast in the roles that most reflected their real life personalities: Jean as the quieter sister, Liz as the more outspoken one. In another twist, before the series went into production, producer Norman Lear (All in the Family, Maude) who was visiting the set, suggested switching their roles, feeling this would lend an edge to the girls' acting. This seemed to work as both girls later admitted in interviews that they deliberately added personality "quirks" from the other sister to their parts, in effect "mocking" their-real life twin.
[edit] Later career
After their series was canceled, the girls pursued mostly separate acting careers. Jean Sagal guest-starred in such TV series as Trapper John M.D., Simon & Simon, Highway to Heaven and Quantum Leap. The twins got together again in 1992 to guest star in the TV series Picket Fences.
She has served as technical coordinator on such shows as the short-lived NBC comedy Jenny and Just Shoot Me, on which she has also directed several episodes.
In 2002, she directed the Olsen Twins in their cable TV series So Little Time (2001), directed episodes of "Mad TV" (2002) and served as technical coordinator on the NBC sitcom In-Laws (2002). In 2007, she served as Associate Director/Technical Coordinator on the show Two and a Half Men.
[edit] Personal life
In the late 1990s, Sagal married a man not affiliated with the entertainment industry. The couple has three children.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sagal, Jean |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sagal, Barbara Jean |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Actress, director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 9, 1967 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Santa Monica, California |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
