Katey Sagal

Katey Sagal
Sagal at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010
Born	Catherine Louise Sagal (1954-01-19) January 19, 1954[1] Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts
Occupation	Actress singer-songwriter
Years active	1971–present
Notable work	Married... with Children (1987–97) Futurama (1999–03; 2008–13) 8 Simple Rules (2002–05) Sons of Anarchy (2008–14) Superior Donuts (2017–present)
Spouse(s)	Freddy Beckmeier (m. 1977–1981; divorced) Fred Lombardo (m. 1986–1989; divorced) Jack White (m. 1993–2000; divorced) Kurt Sutter (m. 2004–present)
Children	4
Parent(s)	Boris Sagal Sara Zwilling
Relatives	Jean Sagal (sister) Liz Sagal (sister)
Website	www.kateysagal.net

Catherine Louise Sagal (born January 19, 1954) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is best known for her role as Peggy Bundy, Al's sarcastic, lazy, bon bon-eating wife, on Married... with Children and for her role voicing the character Leela on the animated science-fiction series Futurama from 1999 to 2003 and 2008 to 2013, as well as for starring on the show 8 Simple Rules in the role of Cate Hennessy. In the latter role, she worked with John Ritter until his death, leading to Sagal's taking over as the series lead for the remainder of the show's run. Sagal has been married to Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter since 2004. Currently, Sagal is a series regular on CBS's Superior Donuts.

Early life

Sagal was born in Los Angeles to a show business family with five children,^[2] including younger twin sisters, Jean and Liz Sagal, and brother, Joe Sagal, all three of whom are actors, and David Sagal, an attorney married to actress McNally Sagal. Sagal's mother, Sara Zwilling, was a singer (stage name Sara Macon)^[3] who died of heart disease in 1975;^[4] her father, Boris Sagal, was a Ukrainian-born director who died in 1981 in an accident on the set of the television movie World War III.^[2] Sagal and her siblings grew up in Brentwood, Los Angeles.^[2] Her godfather is prominent sitcom producer and writer Norman Lear.^[5] Both Katey and Norman also acknowledged when Norman received the 2016 Achievement in Television Excellence award that she was not only his goddaughter, but that he was also the one who had introduced her parents.^[6] Sagal's father was Jewish, and Sagal has described herself as "culturally Jewish" but with no "formal religious experience".^[7][8]

Acting career

Sagal attended California Institute of the Arts to study singing and acting; she began her acting career in Hollywood, appearing in several made-for-TV movies between 1971 and 1975. One role was as a receptionist in the Columbo installment "Candidate for Crime", which was directed by her father. Sagal's first major role was as a newspaper columnist in the series Mary (1985–86) starring Mary Tyler Moore.^[9] This led to her being cast as Peggy Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children (1987–1997); she portrayed the lower-class, sex-starved, free-spending wife of shoe salesman Al Bundy.^[10] The series ran for eleven years.^[11] Sagal brought her own red bouffant wig to audition for the role, and with the producers' approval, the look transitioned into the show.

After the end of Married... with Children, several more television films followed; she also guest starred on the children's cartoon Recess as the voice of Spinelli's mother. In 1998, Matt Groening chose her to provide the character voice of the purple-haired mutant spaceship captain, Leela, in his science-fiction animated comedy Futurama. The show developed a cult following, but was cancelled after four seasons.^[12] However, syndication on Adult Swim^[13] and Comedy Central^[14] increased the show's popularity and led Comedy Central to commission a season of Futurama direct-to-DVD films, which the network later retransmitted as a 16-episode season five.^[15] She reprised her role as Leela in these films, and in the sixth season that began airing June 24, 2010. The series ended in 2013.^[16] Sagal guest-starred as Edna Hyde, Steven Hyde's mother, in three episodes of That '70s Show. She starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom Tucker in 2000.^[17]

Sagal was cast as the wife of John Ritter in the sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter in 2002. (Kaley Cuoco portrayed the daughter in the series.) Ritter had completed only three episodes of the second season before his death,^[18] and the show was cancelled in 2005 after its third season.^[19]

In 2005 and 2006, she made two appearances on Lost as Helen Norwood. In 2007, she had a role in the season finale of The Winner as Glen Abbot's former, and Josh's current, teacher, with whom Glen has his first sexual experience. In 2008, she appeared in four episodes of the short-lived comedy-drama series Eli Stone.^[20]

Sagal in March 2012.

In January 2009, Sagal reunited with her TV son David Faustino (Bud Bundy from Married... with Children) for an episode of Faustino's show Star-ving.^[21] In 2010, she appeared twice more on Lost. In 2009, she starred in the film House Broken with Danny DeVito. In 2010, she returned to the stage in Randy Newman's musical Harps & Angels.^[22]

From 2008 to 2014, Sagal starred as Gemma Teller Morrow on the TV show Sons of Anarchy, whose creator, Kurt Sutter, she had married in 2004, four years before the series premiered.

In 2013, Sagal had a cameo on Glee as Nancy Abrams, Artie Abrams's mother. She co-starred in Pitch Perfect 2, released in 2015, as the mother of Hailee Steinfeld's character.^[23][24][25] She next appeared in the biography drama film Bleed for This, as the mother of Vinny Pazienza.^[26]

On September 9, 2014, Sagal received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on which most of the Married ... with Children cast – including Ed O'Neill, Christina Applegate, and David Faustino – were present to celebrate the actor's recognition.^[27]

Sagal had a guest-starring role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Karen Peralta, Jake's mother.

On September 20, 2016, Sagal appeared as Susan, Penny's mother, on The Big Bang Theory. (She had, as stated above, previously played the mother of Kaley Cuoco's character on 8 Simple Rules.)

Musical career

Sagal started her career in show business as a singer and songwriter. In 1973, she worked as a backing vocalist for various singers, including Bob Dylan and Tanya Tucker. In 1976, while a member of The Group With No Name, she contributed to the album Moon over Brooklyn (on which she was credited as "Katie Sagal"). She was a member of Bette Midler's backup group The Harlettes in 1978, and again from 1982–83.^[28] She performed backing vocals on the self-titled Gene Simmons solo album, the Molly Hatchet album Take No Prisoners, and on Olivia Newton-John's 1985 single "Soul Kiss". She performed the song "It's the Time for Love" that appears in the movie Silent Rage featuring Chuck Norris, music and lyrics by Morgan Stoddard. Sagal also provided the vocals for "Loose Cannons", the theme song for the movie featuring Gene Hackman and Dan Aykroyd in 1990. The song featured her singing most of the song, while Aykroyd sang the chorus and did some background impersonations from the movie.

On April 19, 1994, she released her first solo album, Well.... On June 1, 2004, she released her second album, Room.^[29] She has also contributed to the Sons of Anarchy soundtrack.^[30]

Activism

In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the 2016 Orlando gay nightclub shooting; in the video, Sagal and others told the stories of the people killed there.^[31][32]

Personal life

Sagal was married to musician Freddie Beckmeier from 1978 to 1981 and drummer Jack White from 1993 to 2000. In 2004, she married Kurt Sutter.

In 1991, while working on Married... with Children, Sagal learned that she was pregnant. This was unexpected, so the pregnancy was written into the storyline of the show. In October 1991, however, she had to have an emergency Caesarean section in her seventh month of pregnancy, ending in the stillbirth of a daughter. The pregnancy on the show was then regarded as a "dream", which was mentioned only briefly at the end of the episode "Al Bundy, Shoe Dick". Sagal and White eventually had two children — a daughter, Sarah Grace, in 1994 and a son, Jackson James, in 1996. The writers of Married... with Children deliberately did not write Sagal's two later pregnancies into the show due to the earlier stillbirth, opting instead to write off her absences in a subplot in which Peg is traveling the world to reunite her redneck parents. In scenes where Peg was shown, Sagal had her midsection obscured, such as in a taxicab or at a craps table in Las Vegas, and was often seen or heard talking to family members over the phone.^[33]

One after effect of Sagal's having lost her stillborn daughter was that the tragedy inspired her to write the lyrics for "(You) Can't Hurry the Harvest". She recorded this selection on her debut album, Well..., which was released in April 1994.

Sagal and White divorced in 2000.^[34]

Sagal married writer-producer Kurt Sutter in a private ceremony on October 2, 2004, at their home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz. They have a daughter, Esmé Louise, born in 2007 through a surrogate mother.^[35]

Filmography

Katey Sagal's star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Film

Television

Discography

Albums

Awards and nominations

Katey Sagal at the 41st Emmy Awards in 1989

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Katey Sagal.

• Official website
• Katey Sagal on IMDb
• Katey Sagal cast bio on The WB