Dixie Carter

This article is about the actress. For the businesswoman, please see Dixie Carter (wrestling).

Dixie Carter
File:DesigningDixie.jpg Dixie Carter
Born	Dixie Virginia Carter
Spouse	Hal Holbrook
Website	http://www.dixiecarter.com

Dixie Virginia Carter, born on May 25, 1939 in McLemoresville, Tennessee, United States is an American actress.

Biography

Early Life

Dixie Carter was born in tiny McLemoresville, Tennessee and spent many of her early years in Memphis. She attended college at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College). She is a graduate of Memphis State (now University of Memphis) with a degree in English. At school, she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. In 1959, Carter competed in the Miss Tennessee pageant, where she placed first runner-up to Mickie Weyland.

Career

In 1960, Carter made her professional stage debut in a Memphis production of Carousel (musical). She moved to New York in 1963 and got a part in a production of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale.

After an eight-year hiatus from acting, she returned to the craft in 1974, when she filled in for actress Nancy Pinkerton as Dorian Cramer Lord on One Life to Live, while Pinkerton was on maternity leave. She subsequently was cast in the role of 'Assistant D.A. Brandy Henderson' on the soap opera The Edge of Night, on which she appeared from 1974 - 1976. It was with this role that Carter was first noticed, and after exiting The Edge of Night, Carter pursued prime time television roles. She also appeared in series such as Out of the blue, On Our Own, Diff'rent Strokes, and Filthy Rich (1982), and on Broadway as diva Maria Callas in Master Class.

Carter's appearance in Filthy Rich paved the way for Carter's best known role, that of interior decorator Julia Sugarbaker in the 1980s/1990s television program Designing Women, set in Atlanta, Georgia. Filthy Rich had been created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who went on to create Designing Women. (Filthy Rich also featured future Designing Women cast member Delta Burke in its cast.) The show enjoyed a seven-year run and made Carter a household name. Hal Holbrook, her husband, had a recurring role as Julia's beau, Reese.

From 1999 to 2002, she portrayed brash Southern attorney Randi King on the legal drama series Family Law. She also starred in several Broadway musicals and plays, including portraying the late opera singer and diva Maria Callas in Master Class, for which she very effectively lost her regional accent. (Actress Faye Dunaway subsequently sought the film rights to the play, but no film has been made as of this writing.)

Dixie Carter is noted for her portrayals of Southern women and is known for her Southern pride, which is evident in her product endorsements, like her appearances in commercials for Southern Bell (later BellSouth).

In 2006 and 2007, Dixie found renewed fame with a new generation of fans as Gloria Hodge on Desperate Housewives.

Future Projects

Dixie Carter gave an interview in 2006 for the feature length documentary, "That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor,"[1] on the life of Dub Taylor, which has received support from the Taylor Family and many of Dub's previous co-workers, including Bill Cosby, Peter Fonda, Don Collier, Cheryl Rogers-Barnett as well as many others.

Dixie Carter worked with Dub Taylor on "Designing Women". The project is scheduled to have its World Premiere at Taylor's childhood hometown of Augusta, Georgia on April 14, 2007. The project is from Executive Producers Stokes and James Kicklighter from JamesWorks Entertainment and Professor Pauper Productions.

Political Views

Carter is also a registered Republican who describes her political views as libertarian. [2] She was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly along with Pat Boone at the 2000 Republican National Convention. This affiliation often put her at odds with what she was expected to say as Julia Sugarbaker during her years on Designing Women. Julia was nicknamed "the Terminator" for her cutting tirades; many of the earliest monologues were witty and full of common sense, and Julia also espoused very liberal thoughts, especially as the series progressed, at one point toasting Bill Clinton on air. Carter, who had established a singing career and been featured as the headliner in many concerts, made a deal with the show's producers; for every liberal tirade, she'd get to sing a song in an upcoming episode. Carter once jokingly described herself as "the only Republican in show business." [3]

Personal Life

In 1967 she married businessman Arthur Carter (no relation). With Arthur Carter, she had two daughters, Mary Dixie and Ginna (who would later appear in an episode of Designing Women.) Following the birth of her daughters, she left acting for eight years to focus on raising her children.

She divorced Arthur Carter in 1977, and married Broadway and TV actor George Hearn the same year. Two years later, in 1979, she divorced Hearn and married again five years later, on May 27, 1984, to the somewhat older actor Hal Holbrook, who is most noted for his appearances as Mark Twain. Carter recently renovated her old family home in McLemoresville. She and Holbrook divide their time between their homes in Beverly Hills and McLemoresville, where Carter's elderly father, Halbert, now resides.

In 1996, Carter published a memoir entitled Trying to Get to Heaven, where she talked frankly about her life with Hal Holbrook, Designing Women, and her plastic surgery during the show's run.

External links and references

• The Cabaret (official website)
• Dixie Carter at IMDb
• Dixie Carter at the Internet Broadway Database
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• Cat Angels Jeff Rovin Harper Paperbacks ISBN 0-06-100972-5