Sharon Marguerite Gless (born 31 May 1943) is an Emmy Award winning US actress who has starred in soap operas and movies and on television.
She is best known for her role as Sgt. Christine Cagney, the title role in the 1980s police procedural drama series Cagney & Lacey, which aired on the CBS television network (1982-1988). For this role she won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Before her role as Cagney, her first long-running role was that of Eddie Albert's and Robert Wagner's young classy secretary, Maggie Philbin, on the CBS private detective/con artist series Switch (1975-1978). Gless also appeared as Hal Sparks's supportive and somewhat overbearing mother, Debbie Novotny, in the acclaimed Showtime cable television series Queer as Folk (2000-2005). Currently she plays Jeffrey Donovan's mother, Madeline Westen, on the USA Network series, Burn Notice. Her recent work is Colleen Rose, fatal overbearing LA talent agent in Nip/Tuck.
A female fan was sentenced to 6 years for breaking into her home with a rifle in 1990.
Aunt of Bridget Gless
Gless performed to positive reviews on the London stage in "Misery," a 1992 stage version of the hit film, playing the Kathy Bates (I) role, and in 1996, starred with Tom Conti in Neil Simon's "Chapter Two".
Gless, who was best known for her Chris Cagney role on the female cop series "Cagney & Lacey" (1982), married the producer of the show, Barney Rosenzweig, in 1991. A year earlier, Rosenzweig had divorced his wife of 11 years, Barbara Corday, who was the creator/writer of "Cagney & Lacey" (1982).
Her grandfather Neil McCarthy was an entertainment lawyer whose clients included Howard Hughes (I), Louis B. Mayer and Cecil B. DeMille.
By 1982, she was the last remaining performer to be working under a standard studio contract, having been signed to a 10-year contract in 1974.
