| Nancy Stafford | |
|---|---|
| Born | Nancy Elizabeth Stafford June 5, 1954 Wilton Manors, Florida, USA |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1977-present |
| Spouse | Larry Myers (1989-present) 1 child |
| Website | |
| http://www.nancystafford.com/ | |
| Beauty pageant titleholder | |
| Education | University of Florida |
|---|---|
| Height | 5' 9" (1.75 m) |
| Hair color | Blonde |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Title(s) | Miss Ft. Lauderdale 1976 Miss Florida 1976 |
| Major competition(s) |
Miss America 1977 |
Nancy Elizabeth Stafford (born June 5, 1954) is an American prolific character actress of stage, speaker and author, known for her roles in soap operas and television. She came to prominence in the 1980s as Ben Matlock's (played by Andy Griffith) law partner and friend, Michelle Thomas, on Matlock (a role she played from 1987 to 1992), before she played Judge Bell on Judging Amy. She hosted a syndicated TV series called "Main Floor" (1995–2005), a show about fashion and beauty.
Husband Larry Myers is a pastor. They have a daughter and grandson.
Her older brother Tracy Stafford was a two-term Mayor of Wilton Manors and a five-term member of the Florida House of Representatives.
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Stafford was born in Wilton Manors, Florida, a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where she was raised in a Southern Baptist family home. In a 2008 interview with Christians in Cinema, she said she has been a born-again Christian, since she was 8. Long before she attended college, she thought attending her family's local church was full of hypocrisy. By the time she was a teenager, she had also lived a prodigal life, before she returned to Jesus. After graduating from Ft. Lauderdale High School in 1972, where she was a modest student, Stafford was also Miss Florida 1976, and the following year, she competed in the 1977 Miss America Pageant. She began her career working as a Public Relations specialist, in addition, she worked as a top model in New York City at the Ford Model Agency. Her career was going on strong, until she was also diagnosed with skin cancer, where she underwent successful surgery in 1978. That same year, she became a spokesperson for 250 commercials, before she began her career in acting.
In 1982, she moved to L.A., where her first guest-starring role playing the dual role of both Adrienne/Felicia Hunt on the Soap Opera The Doctors, the show she grew up watching. This one part led to other roles such as: Riptide, Remington Steele, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Who's the Boss?, Hunter, and Quantum Leap. She also guest-starred on an episode of Magnum, P.I.. In an interview, Stafford said that she wanted to work with Tom Selleck, who also helped launch her career. Stafford joined the cast of the second season of St. Elsewhere, as Joan Halloran, where she played the role for three seasons. She also starred as Patricia Blake on Sidekicks, which lasted only one season.
Her biggest claim to fame on television was portraying lawyer's assistant, Michelle Thomas to Andy Griffith's, Matlock, from 1987 to 1992, replacing Linda Purl, who left after the first year because she was very unhappy with her character. Stafford, who'd been a fan of Griffith's, since the early 1960s, having been a six-year-old girl at the time, auditioned and won the role. She also recalled as a six-year-old girl her fond memories of Don Knotts (best friend of Griffith's) in his movie The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Before she played Michelle, she also guest-starred on the same show in 1986 where she played a call girl who hired a man feeling real guilty that he was, when her guest role was actually found guilty. According to a 2010 interview with the actress on On Screen and Beyond, there was a remarkable on- and off-screen relationship between Stafford and Griffith (despite the actor being too difficult to work with). She worked five years work with him, with the exception of Kene Holliday, who was fired from the show, after the third season (due to his ongoing drugs/alcohol abuse). Clarence Gilyard took over the role the following season. At the same time, her on-screen appearances on Matlock was reducing; therefore, she was unavailable to come to the set everyday, due to her busy scheduling and spending time with her new husband. She left the show for good at the end of her fifth season, to be more with her family, while moving on to other ventures. Around the same time, Matlock also switched networks (from NBC to ABC), and moved its first-run production from California to her mentor's hometown in North Carolina.
After her departure from Matlock, she became a world-renown public speaker, traveling all over from churches, colleges, universities, women's group to other businesses. During the last part of the 1990s, she appeared on Great Day America. She gained greater fame as the hostess of Main Floor, which was a talk show that was seen in over 40 countries, making Stafford, a household name. In 2008, she co-hosted the first season of Love, Marriage and Stinkin' Thinkin' alongside Mark Gungor.
She also guest-starred in many shows in the late 1990s such as, ER, Frasier, Babylon 5, Baywatch and most recently, The Mentalist. Additionally, Stafford played "The Lady in the Park" in the 2004 Award-Winning short film The Proverb[1].
She is also the best-selling author of many Christian books such as: Beauty by the Book: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You; The Wonder of His Love: A Journey into the Heart of God, and her 2006 book, Mothers & Daughters Taking Your Adult Relationship to a Deeper Level.
| Preceded by Ann K. Schmalzried |
Miss Florida 1976 |
Succeeded by Cathy La Belle |
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