Annie Potts Bio - Biography

Name Annie Potts
Height 5' 3"
Naionality American
Date of Birth 28 October 1952
Place of Birth Franklin, Kentucky, USA
Famous for
Since her early years, Annie Potts has been working in amateur stage works, making her amateur stage debut at age 12 in a stage production of "Heidi." She then joined in summer stock theater and spent some time at the Community Theater of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she worked in costume and set design area while gradually recovering from her injuries.

In 1976, the aspiring actress shared the stage with Roddy McDowall, Vincent Price and Coral Browne while touring with a production of Brandon Thomas' three-act farce, "Charley's Aunt." In the following year, she began appearing on television, making her small screen debut in an NBC failed pilot "Hollywood High" and appeared in her first made-for-television movie, "Black Market Baby," ABC's movie inspired by the novel by Elizabeth Christman.

The new comer soon entered the big screen in 1978, in Matthew Robbins-directed action/adventure/comedy "Corvette Summer." In her first film work, Potts was handed a female lead role, as Vanessa, a self-described "prostitute-in-training" who teams with Mark Hamill's car nut character to steal back his Stingray. Her film debut performance received general positive reviews, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Acting Debut – Female.

In 1981, Potts received praise, winning a Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress, for her turn in Donald Shebib's independent comedy motion-picture "Heartaches," which also stars Margot Kidder, Winston Rekert and Robert Carradine. Two years later, in 1983, she offered a memorable supporting turn as Janine Melnitz, the personal secretary to the "Ghost Busters" (played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis), in Ivan Reitman's sci-fi-horror comedy film of the same name.

From 1986 to 1993, Potts played Mary Jo Shively, the pragmatic interior designer, on the popular CBS sitcom "Designing Women." Meanwhile, she had a small part as the advice-giving friend of Molly Ringwald's lead character in Howard Deutch's popular teenage film "Pretty in Pink" (1986), reprised her role in "Ghostbusters II" (1989), and gave a distinctive supporting turn as the unhappy wife of Jeff Bridges' character in Peter Bogdanovich's "Texasville" (1990), the sequel to "The Last Picture Show" and is based on the book of the same name by Larry McMurtry. She also appeared in a TV commercial for Pop Secret Popcorn.

"When people ask me about 'Designing Women' now, I feel how James Taylor must feel when he has to play 'Fire and Rain' again. To tell the truth, I've moved on." Annie Potts.

After “Designing Women” ended in 1993, Potts joined the cast of the CBS sitcom, "Love & War," replacing Susan Dey as the series' female lead Dana Palladino. She stayed in the show until it was canceled in 1995, and her work in the show has been awarded an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Potts lent her voice to character Bo Peep, the sweet and lovable porcelain shepherdess figurine, in the computer animated hit "Toy Story" (1995), which she reprised later in its sequel, "Toy Story 2" (1999).

Meanwhile, she returned to series TV in the ABC drama series "Dangerous Minds" (1996). In the show that was based on the continuation story of the 1995 autobiographical motion picture film of the same name starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Potts took the role that was previously played by Pfeiffer, LouAnne Johnson, a Marine who left her career to become a teacher at a well-off high school attended by bussed-in students from a ghetto.

Potts was subsequently cast in the short-running ABC sitcom "Over the Top" (1997), opposite Tim Curry, and appeared in that same year's TV commercial for Jolly Time Popcorn. In the following year, she scored another TV series regular role, this time on the Lifetime original drama "Any Day Now" (1998). In the show, she co-starred with Lorraine Toussaint, playing two best friends with different races. Her character, Mary Elizabeth Sims, is an outgoing Caucasian girl, while Toussaint's character Renee Jackson is her shy Africa-American childhood friend who now becomes a successful lawyer. Staying on the show until 2002, Potts received Screen Actors Guild Award nominations twice (1999 and 2000), both for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series category.

During her "Any Day Now" stint, Potts appeared in a number of TV commercials, including for One-A-Day nutritional supplements, Biography Channel, and Alpo. She also went to stage and made her New York stage debut in April 2000 in "The Vagina Monologues."

When "Any Day Now" came to end in 2002, Potts went to starred in two made-for-television movies, "Defending Our Kids: The Julie Posey Story" (2003), playing the title role of a homemaker poses as a lonely teenager to help expose sexual predator after her daughter was approached by a pedophile in an on-line chat room, and the NBC comedy "Stuck in the Middle with You" (2003). She also returned to Stephens College in December 2003 to join students in a production of "A Little Night Music."

After supporting John Corbett and Kim Basinger in Joel Zwick's romantic comedy film "Elvis Has Left the Building" (2004), Potts played the recurring role of Doris Johnson, the mother of Huff's (played by Hank Azaria) now dead patient who wants to know more about her son, in the Showtime drama series "Huff." She also played Lieutenant Lucy Preston (2004-2005) in the CBS fantasy/family drama series starring Amber Tamblyn, "Joan of Arcadia."

In the next years, Potts landed more recurring roles, as Sophie Devere (2005-2007) in the NBC cop/crime drama series "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," and as Mary Alice/Annie's (Emily Bergl) mother (2007) in ABC's romantic dramedy series starring Anne Heche, "Men in Trees."

During this time, Potts starred in the play "Diva" (January-February 2006), a Hollywood satire about a TV sitcom star, at The Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena, California, and was spotted as a guest in an episode of CBS crime/legal drama series "Close to Home" and appeared in the pilot episode of the action/comedy show "Julie Reno, Bounty Hunter." She also starred in the failed pilot "Spellbound" (2007) and played the lead in Danielle Shamash's 15-minute short film "The Sunday Man" (2007).

Most recently, in 2008, Potts could be seen as a guest in an episode of ABC's award-winning dramedy starring America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty," and portrayed the mother in the Lifetime drama/comedy movie starring Nikki Blonsky about an overweight girl elected Homecoming queen by the mean girls in the high school, "Queen Sized."

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