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Judith Light
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Judith Light (born February 9, 1949) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, and is now starring as Claire Meade on ABC's Ugly Betty.
udith Ellen Licht was born in Trenton, New Jersey of Jewish heritage,
the daughter of Pearl Sue (née Hollander), a model, and Sidney Licht, an accountant.
Light graduated from highschool at St.
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Judith Light (born February 9, 1949) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, and is now starring as Claire Meade on ABC's Ugly Betty.
Biography
Early life
Judith Ellen Licht was born in Trenton, New Jersey of Jewish heritage,
the daughter of Pearl Sue (née Hollander), a model, and Sidney Licht, an accountant.
Light graduated from highschool at St. Mary's Hall, now Doane Academy, in Burlington, New Jersey.
After graduating from Carnegie-Mellon University with a degree in drama, she started out on stage, making her professional debut in Richard III at the California Shakespeare Festival in 1970, before moving to Broadway to star in A Doll's House in 1975. Light also acted for medium size theatre companies including "The Rep" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Career
She first found television fame after being recast in the role of Karen Wolek on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. (The Karen Wolek role had previously been portrayed by actresses Kathryn Breech and Julia Duffy). This role was quite lucrative for Light and spawned one of the show's most-remembered storylines; Light's character became a prostitute after she became bored with her life as a housewife. On trial, Karen saved her friend Viki Lord from being convicted of killing her pimp by admitting that she had been a prostitute to the entire town, including her faithful husband. Light won Daytime Emmy Awards in 1980 and 1981.
She appeared in a St. Elsewhere episode during season one called "Dog Day Hospital" in which she played a housewife who became pregnant for the 11th time even though her husband claimed he had a vasectomy. In an effort to punish the doctor who botched the job she took an operating room hostage though it was later revealed that her husband had not had the procedure.
After this success on daytime, she landed the role of assertive advertising executive Angela Bower on the ABC sitcom Who's the Boss. Co-starring Tony Danza, who played her housekeeper (and eventual lover), the show ran for eight seasons from 1984 to 1992. TV Guide has Who's the Boss? ranked as the 109th best sitcom of all time.
Light spent most of the 1990s starring in made-for-television films, such as "Men Don't Tell" and the 1997 film "Too Close to Home", co-starring Rick Schroder. She also starred in the sitcom Phenom, which ran for one season (1993-1994).
In 2000 she received critical acclaim when she starred on stage as Dr. Vivian Bearing in Wit, Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a dying academic.
Since 2002, she has had a recurring role on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where she plays Judge Elizabeth Donnelly, who served as an EADA and Bureau Chief in the Manhattan District Attorney's office before being appointed to the bench in Season 7.
In 2006 she landed the recurring role of Claire Meade, the alcoholic mother of Daniel and Alexis Meade, on ABC's Ugly Betty.
Light appeared in a May 2006 episode of Family Guy ("Untitled Griffin Family History") wherein she voiced a cartoon version of herself obsessed with former co-star Tony Danza and making out with a constructed dummy of Tony in her house. She also recently appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Twenty Good Years.
Personal life
Light is a gay rights activist and helped former Who's the Boss? co-star Danny Pintauro to come out of the closet. She has done work for many LGBT charities. She sits on the board of the and spoke at the 1993 March on Washington. In 1998, she had a library named after her at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
She is also a prominent AIDS activist and played Ryan White's mother in a 1989 TV movie on his life. Also, she sits on the board of the Point Foundation, a LGBT organization that provides financial support, mentoring, leadership training and hope to meritorious students who are marginalized due to sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Family
She has been married to television actor Robert Desiderio since 1985, when they met while co-starring on One Life to Live. They have no children.
External links
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