Brenda Strong
Strong at Desperate Housewives Paley Fest in Beverly Hills, 2009
Born	Brenda Lee Strong (1960-03-25) March 25, 1960 (age 52) Brightwood, Oregon, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Tom Henri (1989-2011) 1 child

Brenda Lee Strong (born March 25, 1960) is an American actress and yoga instructor, best known for her role as Mary Alice Young on the ABC television comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives (2004–2012), for which she was nominated for Emmy Awards.^[1] She also is known for role as Sally Sasser on the ABC comedy-drama Sports Night (1998–2000) and currently starring as Ann Ewing on the TNT drama series Dallas.

Early life[link]

Strong was born in Brightwood, Oregon, and grew up near Portland, Oregon, graduating in 1978 from Sandy Union High School in Sandy, Oregon. She later moved to Arizona to attend college, and graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Music in musical theater. Strong was crowned Miss Arizona in 1980; she is 6'0" (1.83 m) tall.^[2]

Career[link]

Her first break after college was a spot in Billy Crystal’s 1984 music video You Look Marvelous. Her first television appearances came in 1985 with brief stints on St. Elsewhere, MacGyver, and Cheers. She also made guest appearances on Matlock, Murphy Brown, Herman's Head, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Blossom, and had a brief role on the cult favorite Twin Peaks.

By the mid-1990s she was a regular guest player on dozens of series, with prominent recurring roles on 3rd Rock from the Sun and Party of Five. Strong also appeared on ER, Picket Fences, Silk Stalkings, and Dawson's Creek. She played Captain Deladier in the 1997 science fiction movie Starship Troopers.

One of Strong's most prominent roles during the 1990s was a recurring stint as Elaine’s nemesis Sue Ellen Mischke, the “bra-less wonder” and "Oh Henry!" candy bar heiress, on several episodes of Seinfeld.^[3]

She is well known for her recurring role on Sports Night as Sally Sasser, the nemesis of Felicity Huffman's Dana Whitaker. She also guest-starred on The WB's popular 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, and Everwood. While working for The WB, she also had guest appearances on Ally McBeal, Nip/Tuck, CSI, Malcolm in the Middle, and the short-lived The Lyon’s Den. She also starred on the short-lived series Scorch (1992) and The Help (2004).

Dana Delany, Teri Hatcher, Brenda Strong and Andrea Bowen at the 2009 GLAAD Media Awards

Strong appeared in movies such as The Craft, Spaceballs, The Deep End of the Ocean, Red Dragon, Black Dog, Exposed, Starship Troopers, and Starship Troopers 2 (her character died in the original, but she returned in a different role in the second movie). More recently, she could be seen in the dramatic Lifetime movie Family in Hiding, which premiered on August 6, 2006, as well as Curb Your Enthusiasm, where she plays a love interest of Larry David. Strong also appeared in the 2009 movie Ocean of Pearls.

Between 2004 and 2006, she costarred in the motion picture trilogy The Work and the Glory, based on a bestselling nine-volume series of the same name by Gerald N. Lund. Strong made an appearance on Boston Legal as a judge presiding over a murder trial in 2008.

[edit] Desperate Housewives

Strong starred, mostly off-screen, on Desperate Housewives, opposite Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, and Teri Hatcher from 2004 to 2012, during the show's run. She plays the deceased Mary Alice Young, who narrates the events of her friends' and neighbors' lives from beyond the grave. Her narations yielded an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 2011.

Strong's character has narrated all but two episodes of the series. One of the two exceptions is the Season 3 episode narrated by Steven Culp, in which his character, Rex Van de Kamp, is killed by George Williams. The other episode is narrated by Nicollette Sheridan, in which her character, Edie Britt, dies.

Strong has appeared several times in flashbacks and in a dream episode in which Lynette struggles to understand why she could not stop Mary Alice's suicide. She played another deceased wife on the television series Everwood, appearing mainly in flashback sequences as the late Julia Brown. Coincidentally, Marcia Cross played Dr. Linda Abbott, a love interest for Brown's widower, during the second season of Everwood.

[edit] Dallas

In 2012, Strong will be starring as Ann Ryland Ewing on the TNT original drama series Dallas.^[4] The series is a continuation of the original series of the same name that aired on CBS from 1978 to 1991, and is not a reboot. Show will premiere in summer 2012.^[5]

Personal life[link]

A certified yoga instructor and fertility expert,^[6] Strong has experience teaching at UCLA's Mind/Body Institute. She is working on a book about yoga and the woman's journey.

Strong married Tom Henri in July 1989; they have a child, Zakery Henri. She filed for divorce on January 14, 2011.^[7]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brenda Strong

• Brenda Strong at the Internet Movie Database
• Brenda Strong on Twitter
• Brenda Strong at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

Patrick George Duffy (born March 17, 1949) is an American character actor of stage and film. He is best known for his role on the CBS television drama Dallas, where he played Bobby Ewing from 1978 to 1985 and from 1986 to 1991. Duffy will return to reprise his role as Bobby in a new up-to-date Dallas currently scheduled to air its 10-episode first season in Summer 2012. He is also well known for his role on the ABC television sitcom Step by Step as Frank Lambert, the husband of Carol Lambert, played by Suzanne Somers, from 1991 to 1998.

Career[link]

In 1976, Duffy landed the role of Mark Harris in the short-lived television series Man from Atlantis. Following the series' cancellation in early 1978, he got his big break in the role of Bobby Ewing on the TV series Dallas. The show became a worldwide phenomenon, ranking in the top 3 for the first half of the 1980s. Despite its success, Duffy opted to leave the series in 1985 with his character being killed off onscreen. However, with both the show and his career on the decline, he returned in 1986 in the infamous shower scene that rendered the entire 1985–1986 season "just a dream". Duffy then remained with the series until its cancellation in 1991. He also appeared in several episodes of the spin-off series Knots Landing between 1979-82. Throughout the 13-year run of Dallas, Duffy directed several episodes of the series. In 1992, he began a role of the public announcing host and Pete's rival, Harold Hatchback (which is from Rob Paulsen's voice role) in the episode, "Buddy Building" from Goof Troop.

At the end of Dallas' run in 1991, Duffy began another popular television role, as Frank Lambert on the family sitcom, Step by Step in which he co-starred with Suzanne Somers. The series ran until 1998, and Duffy also directed 49 episodes. Also in the 1990s, he appeared in two Dallas reunion TV movies; J.R. Returns (1996) and War of the Ewings (1998), both of which he also co-produced. In an interview on the UK's Mrs. Merton chat show in 1997, Duffy stated that he and Dallas co-star Larry Hagman were planning a third Dallas TV movie, but this project failed to materialize. He has reunited on several occasions with many of his Dallas co-stars both onscreen and off, most notably for the non-fiction television special Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork in 2004.

Duffy continued to act in the occasional guest or voice acting appearance, including the shows Family Guy (in which he appeared in a live action scene with Victoria Principal as they spoofed the Dallas shower scene), as well as Justice League and Touched by an Angel.

More recently, Duffy starred in television movies Falling in Love With the Girl Next Door and Desolation Canyon. In 2006, he began a limited run on the daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful as Stephen Logan, returning to the role every now and then. From April - July 2008, he also hosted Bingo America, a partially interactive game show on GSN.

Duffy has also tried his hand at singing and in 1983 he had a hit in Europe with "Together We're Strong", a duet with French female singer Mireille Mathieu.^{[citation needed]} The single reached number 5 in The Netherlands in April 1983.

In 2010, Duffy began appearing as a paid spokesperson for "Miracle Ear" hearing aids.^[1]

In 2010, Duffy narrated the ESPN 30-for-30 documentary entitled "Pony Excess", which profiled the SMU football scandal of the 1980s. Coincidentally, SMU is located in Dallas.

Personal life[link]

Duffy was born in Townsend, Montana, the son of tavern owners Marie and Terence Duffy.^[2][3] During high school, Duffy was living in Everett, Washington and attended school there.^[3] Academically, Duffy earned credentials in theater arts that entitled him to teach, graduating from the University of Washington in 1971 with a degree in drama.^[4] He ruptured both his vocal cords during his senior year of college, so he created the position of actor-in-residence, where he worked as an interpreter for ballet, opera, and orchestra companies in Washington. He also taught mime and movement classes during this period, during which he met his wife.^[5]

He is of Irish descent.^{[citation needed]} Duffy married Carlyn Rosser, ten years his senior, in a Nichiren Buddhist ceremony conducted on February 15, 1974. The couple had two sons, Padraic Terrence Duffy (b. 1974) and Conor Frederick Duffy (b. 1979) and currently live near Eagle Point, Oregon.^[6] Duffy was an avid collector of antique dolls and children's books.^[4] Though a former Catholic^{[citation needed]} and named after St. Patrick because he was born on March 17, he converted to Nichiren Buddhism and began chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo at the approximate time of his earliest encounters with his wife, who was then a ballet dancer with the First Chamber Dance Company of New York.^[4] He and his family are long-time active members of the American Buddhist group SGI-USA (Sōka Gakkai International - USA).

His nephew is Major League Baseball pitcher Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants, whose mother is Duffy's sister-in-law.^[7]

On November 18, 1986, Duffy's parents were murdered by two young men, Kenneth Miller and Sean Wentz, during an armed robbery of the Montana bar his parents owned. Wentz and Miller, who were teenagers at the time, were convicted of the murders and sentenced to 75 years in prison. In 2001, Miller appeared before the Montana Parole board after Sean Wentz recanted his original story, admitting that he was the sole gunman. Miller was denied clemency in 2001 but was released on parole in December 2007.^[8]

Filmography[link]