Laurette Spang-McCook

Last updated
Laurette Spang-McCook
Born
Laurette Spang

May 16, 1951
Alma mater American Academy of Dramatic Arts
OccupationActress
Years active1972–2007
Known for Battlestar Galactica
Spouse
(m. 1980)
Children3, including Molly McCook

Laurette Spang-McCook, credited as Laurette Spang, is an American television actress. She is best known for playing the character Cassiopeia on the original Battlestar Galactica (1978).

Contents

Early life/family

Spang was born on May 16, 1951 in Buffalo, New York, and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Speech courses during her high school years sparked her interest in acting. [1] During her youth, she was an active letter-writer, penning letters to actors. She was also a huge fan of the gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows and of the television Western, Bonanza . She is related to Bollywood producer-actor Stegath Dorr.[ citation needed ]

At age 16, she accompanied her father on a business trip to New York City, where she waited at the stage door of Dark Shadows. The stage guard allowed her to walk in, leading her to actress Kathryn Leigh Scott. After their meeting, Scott would answer Spang's fan mail through high-school.[ citation needed ]

The summer of her junior year, Spang worked with the Williamstown Summer Theater. [2] A year later, Scott set up an audition for Spang at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She received a scholarship and graduated from there two years later. Following graduation in 1969, Spang returned to Michigan where she attended Adrian College, living dorm life on a small campus, but not far from her family in Ann Arbor. She dropped out of Adrian before completing her first year after her poor grades led her father to stop providing money. [3] For two years, Spang was a typist in a real estate office, earning money to support herself and study acting. [3]

Career

After a Universal Studios talent agent spotted her in 1972, Spang signed a 7-year contract with the studio. She then had a succession of guest-starring roles in television series including Emergency! (Episodes: Dinner Date, The Old Engine and Kidding), Adam-12 (Episode: Venice Division), The Streets of San Francisco , The Six Million Dollar Man , Happy Days , Chase , The Secrets of Isis , Charlie's Angels and Lou Grant . Spang also appeared in the television movies Short Walk to Daylight, Runaway! and Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic . She co-starred in a production of Winesburg, Ohio on KCET's Hollywood Television Theatre.[ citation needed ]

Towards the end of her contract with Universal (by which time, according to People Weekly Magazine, October 2, 1978, [4] her money was almost exhausted and she had been evicted from an apartment she had been renting), Spang was cast as Cassiopeia in the Battlestar Galactica pilot movie, "Saga of a Star World". An initial draft of the script had her killed off in the pilot film, in which the insectoid Ovions consumed her, almost cannibal-style. However, the character survived and the network kept her on in a regular role in the subsequent weekly series, [5] but "Standards and Practices" (network censors) forced a change of profession upon her. (The censors would no longer allow her to be a socialator, so Glen Larson and Donald P. Bellisario had her character become a medtech in the series, beginning with "Lost Planet of the Gods, Parts 1 & 2").[ citation needed ]

Spang's later acting performances were in The Love Boat , Fantasy Island , The Dukes of Hazzard , BJ and the Bear , Magnum, P.I. , Three's Company , Man from Atlantis , The Gemini Man [6] and more. She took a de facto retirement from acting in 1984, though she made a brief appearance in the 2007 horror film Plot 7, which also featured her by-then husband John McCook. Spang appeared in the Battlestar Galactica episode of Sciography documentary series on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2002. In 2003, she appeared in another Battlestar Galactica documentary included as an extra feature in the DVD box set of the series released for the series' 25th anniversary.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

Spang married actor John McCook on February 16, 1980; the couple have three children, including actress Molly McCook.[ citation needed ]

Filmography

Film and Television
YearTitleRoleNotes
1972 The Bold Ones: The New Doctors Real Estate LadyEpisode: "Is This Operation Necessary?"
1972Short Walk to DaylightSandyTelevision film
1972 Emergency! Betsy PowerEpisode: "Dinner Date"
1973 Alias Smith and Jones Emma SterlingEpisode: "Only Three to a Bed"
1973 Winesburg, Ohio Helen WhiteTelevision film
1973 Marcus Welby, M.D. Episode: "The Panic Path"
1973 Chase Jill BronstonEpisode: "Foul-Up"
1973 Runaway! CoedTelevision film
1973 Emergency! SallyEpisode: "The Old Engine"
1973 Adam-12 Carla RogersEpisode: "Venice Division"
1973 The Streets of San Francisco KimEpisode: "Harem"
1973 Maneater PollyTelevision film
1973 Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law SherryEpisode: "A Girl Named Tham"
1974 Happy Days Arlene HolderEpisode: "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"
1974 The Six Million Dollar Man Yeoman Helen MaychickEpisode: "Survival of the Fittest"
1974 Airport 1975 ArleneFeature film
1974The RangersJulie BeckTelevision film
1975 Emergency! Mrs. LongEpisode: "Kidding"
1975 Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic NancyTelevision film
1975 Sunshine CathyEpisode: "Jill"
1975 Happy Days Denise HudsonEpisode: "Kiss Me Sickly"
1976 The Love Boat Juanita HavlicekTelevision film
1976 The Secrets of Isis AnnEpisode: "The Cheerleader"
1976 Gemini Man MaggieEpisode: "Run, Sam, Run"
1976 Charlie's Angels Tracy MartelEpisode: "Consenting Adults"
1977McNamara's BandHelga ZimhoffTV pilot episode
1977 Happy Days ArleneEpisode: "The Graduation" (Part 1)
1977 Happy Days Wendy3-part episodes: "Hollywood"
1978 Lou Grant Joanie HumeEpisodes: "Airliner" / "Spies"
1978 The Love Boat Melanie TaylorEpisode: "A Very Special Girl"
1978 Man from Atlantis Amanda TrevanianEpisode: "The Siren"
1978Colorado C.I.Chris MorrisonTV pilot episode
1978 Project U.F.O. Linda CollinsEpisode: "Sighting 4015: The Underwater Incident"
1978–79 Battlestar Galactica Cassiopeia21 episodes, 3 of these episodes were also edited and released as a feature film in 1978
1979 B. J. and the Bear Snow White2-part episodes: "Snow White and the Seven Lady Truckers"
1980 Barnaby Jones LucyEpisode: "The Final Victim"
1980TouristRoseAnne WickerTV film
1980 Three's Company IngaEpisode: "Downhill Chaser"
1981 B. J. and the Bear Snow WhiteEpisode: "B.J. and the Seven Lady Truckers: Part 2"
1981 The Love Boat LindaEpisode: "Split Personality"
1981 Aloha Paradise Episode: "Blue Honeymoon"
1981 Fantasy Island Karen Saunders-HolmesEpisode: "The Searcher"
1981 The Dukes of Hazzard Mindy Lou HaleEpisode: "The Fugitive"
1982The Day the Bubble BurstFrances PierceTelevision film
1984 Magnum, P.I. Marge Atherton / Zelda FitzgeraldEpisode: "The Case of the Red-Faced Thespian"
2003GalacticonHerselfDocumentary
2007Plot 7Lady in White

References

  1. Gross, Edward; Altman, Mark A. (21 August 2018). So Say We All: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Battlestar Galactica. Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN   978-1-250-12895-9 . Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  2. "Ever Hear Of Laurette Spang? She's Contract Player On Way Up". Argus-Leader. South Dakota, Sioux Falls. October 21, 1973. p. 10. Retrieved January 30, 2021 via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 "'Battlestar Galactica' Socialator Has Improved Role, Rosy Future". The Wichita Eagle-Beacon. December 3, 1978. p. 240. Retrieved January 30, 2021 via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Blast-Off or Rip-Off?". PEOPLE.com.
  5. Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 79. ISBN   978-0-7864-6477-7.
  6. Stein, Megan (2019-05-10). "Wait a Minute: 'Last Man Standing' Star Molly McCook's Mom Is Famous, Too?". Country Living. Retrieved 2020-07-28.