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| Birth Name(s) : Michele Lee |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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N/A |
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Full Michele Lee Biography
After she sang and starred in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), she became known for her roles in the films The Love Bug (1969), and The Comic (1969). Lee’s movie The Love Bug became the biggest blockbuster movie of 1969. That same year, she starred in a special television production of the Jerome Kern - Otto Harbach musical, Roberta, in which she sang Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. After the birth of her son, she worked infrequently until accepting a role on Broadway in Seesaw, which netted her a Tony Award nomination in 1974. After her mother's death, she stopped working, wanting to spend time with her only son.
Although Lee was having great success, her marriage to actor James Farentino was failing. She and Farentino divorced at around the same time Lee's onscreen husband, Don Murray left the show. Lee thus played a single mother on Knots at the same time she was becoming one in real-life. In 2005, Lee revealed that when her character took off her wedding ring in 1983, after a year of mourning, Lee was taking off her real life wedding band.
Knots Landing ended in 1993. Lee has since appeared in many made-for-TV movies, including a biopic of late country star Dottie West ( Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story) and the Knots Landing reunion special, Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. In 1996, she became the first woman to star in, direct, and produce a TV movie for Lifetime, Color Me Perfect. In 1998 Lee portrayed Hollywood novelist Jacqueline Susann in the television biopic Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story. In 2004, she returned to feature films in the role of Ben Stiller's mother in Along Came Polly. She guest-starred alongside Chita Rivera in a February 2005 episode of Will & Grace. She and her son relocated to New York.
In 1963, she met actor James Farentino on the set of the theatrical play, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and in 1964 they were married. Their son, David Farentino, was born July 6, 1969. She lost her father, Jack Dusick, in 1970 from a massive heart attack. In 1976, she lost her mother, Sylvia Dusick.
Throughout the time of her life, Michele has 8 hobbies: singing, collects and wears size 9 shoes, spending time with her family, traveling, drinking/collecting white wine, gets massages, jogging, and singing. On one episode of Knots Landing, Lee sang a Christmas song to dedicate the memory of co-star, Steve Shaw, who died in 1990.
Michele on her rise to stardom as a youth: "The first audition I ever went on, I was accompanied by my mother at the instruction of my father. 'You have to learn how to take rejection if you really want to be an actor,' He said. He had to eat his own words. I got the job." (Source: USIMDB.com)
Michele on what it was like working with two blondes (Joan Van Ark and Donna Mills) together: "I walked up to the photographer beore we started and said, 'I think the 2 blondes should be standing together.' because I didn't think it would look good with me is the center with a blonde on either side. The reason this show ran so long is because we are all healthy professionals. Donna speaks out for what she wants, quietly. Joan does her own thing, and I make it very understood what my needs are, and defuse a lot of humor." (Source: USAtoday.com)
Michele when she demonstrated the differentiation between the two copycat dramedies (Knots Landing and Desperate Housewives): "The Teri Hatcher character, Susan Mayer, who is the moral center if you will that would be like a Karen, my character. Then, there's the bad girl, Nicolette Sheridan, Edie Britt, who is much like Donna Mills. (Source: ETOnline.com)
Michele on the cancellation of Knots Landing: "I really didn't believe 'Knots Landing' was over, until it happened. It was very strange. It was like living in total denial, and I also didn't realize how hard it was going to hit me; and how it would be so affected by it." (Source: Lifetimetv.com)
Michele: "I think I went out of my mind, a little bit, when I lost my mother. My mother was never the same after my father passed away. She just had a broken heart, it was as simple as that. I mean, if they were in their 80s, they've would've gone right afterwards. At that time, I started looking at life through different eyes." (Source: Lifetimetv.com)
Michele on her friendship with Robert Morse: "And he says, 'You just listen to what they have to tell you to do.' Technically, you'll learn what you have to learn. 'When it's time, you just keep yourself centered and concentrated, and of course, look at Bobby Morse!'" (Source: Lifetimetv.com) |
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