Biography for
Michele Lee (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

24 June 1942, Los Angeles, California, USA

Birth Name

Michelle Lee Dusick

Height

5' 8½" (1.74 m)

Mini Biography

The daughter of a premier makeup artist and the sister of a United States District Attorney, Michele Lee was born Michele Lee Dusick in Los Angeles, California on June 24, 1942. Her childhood was consumed by the Hollywood entertainment industry. Lee was outgoing and had taken every chance to do plays in front of her family and friends. In Junior High, she continued acting in school plays. When she was in the 10th grade at Los Angeles' Alexander Hamilton High School, she tried out for the band and was the lead singer for that. Prior to her graduation from Hamilton, she landed her first role in the Broadway revue, "Vintage '60" and her career was launched. A small role in "Bravo Giovanni" and the lead role as Rosemary in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" followed. Her musical talent was brought to the attention of Columbia Records (now Sony) and she signed to the label in a hurry. Shortly after she appeared in Broadway shows and became a singer, she began making a number of guest appearances on television doing dancing, singing and performing comedy routines on most live-action segments, most notably "The Danny Kaye Show" (1963). She was only 22 and her career was off to a firing start. She continued making guest appearances on a number of television specials and live-action shows. However, the silver screen took precedence as she made her movie debut with the film, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), followed by The Comic (1969), co-starring Dick Van Dyke. A year that, after her first child was born and soon after, she was back at work, starring as Secretary Carole Bennett on The Love Bug (1968), that it was the best movie of 1970 and it made it to the top of the box office all across the country. While her laughter was brought unto the world and after giving birth to David Farentino, several months later her father passed away of a severe heart attack in 1970 at age 54. Ms. Lee was devastated by the loss of her father but she quickly directed herself to head back to work. She accepted a role on Broadway in "Seesaw", where her work gave her a 1974 Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Tragedy haunted Michele, however. She was unable to spring back for a long time after her mother died in 1976. Near the end of 1979, after being on vacation with her husband and only child, she accepted the leading role of the feisty-yet-friendly neighbor, Karen Fairgate MacKenzie in the prime-time soap opera, "Knots Landing" (1979), which spun-off the immensely popular serial "Dallas" (1978) on CBS. For 14 of those years, Michele was the big asset of the show and by the very first year that it debuted, it had low ratings and producers, at times, wanted to send "Dallas" stars to the cul-de-sac, including that of Larry Hagman, who met Lee after the pilot episode. By the Fall of 1980, Lee and the producers of "Knots Landing" always wanted to do something better in order to boost up the ratings and in September of that same year, after refusing to accept "no" for an answer, former dancer and movie starlet, Donna Mills came to the show by playing Lee's manipulative, nasty and least popular sister-in-law, Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner, and the show became #1 for the next 13 seasons, among other 1980s soaps that stood the test of time. By 1982, she was nominated for one Emmy, but had won the Soap Opera Digest Award, three times. The triumph of the series was splendid but in real-life, her marriage to James Farentino was a burden and the couple was divorced in 1983. In 1989, while going on strong with her role on "Knots Landing", she also became the series' director, starting to direct several episodes of the show and just before Donna Mills left, making Lee the big star of the show. By the 14th and the final season, most of her co-stars of "Knots Landing" were asked to be absent (except co-star Joan Van Ark, who left in 1992) a number of times on the show, but for Lee, she had declined to be absent and wanted to show up without pay. In 1993, "Knots Landing" was cancelled when her second family came to a close and due to high salary amongst her co-stars. When the series was dropped away from its schedule on CBS, she was open to new opportunities. She began to produce and develop her own television movies through her own production company. She has had an incredible career that spans almost 40 years in television, film and on stage and in 1999, she earned her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is located not far from the site of her very first audition for "Vintage '60". In 1995, after learning a lot from her idol, Dottie West, she appeared in the CBS TV movie, Big Dreams & Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story (1995) (TV), playing the character of the same name doing all the singing and knowing what it was like to be Dottie West. Before she came back to do a reunion movie called, "Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac" (1997), she played a retarded woman named Dina Blake on Lifetime's Color Me Perfect (1996) (TV) and was the first lady to star, write and produce a movie for Cable Television and, like The Love Bug, it was the best movie on Cable Television in 1996. In 2000, she starred opposite, Valerie Harper in the Broadway Play "Tale of the Allergist's Wife" in New York and almost four years later after a 35-year-absence, she returned to the big screen to play Ben Stiller's mother in Along Came Polly (2004).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Richard Collins II (hugsarealwaysinorder@yahoo.com)

Spouse

Fred A. Rappoport	(27 September 1987 - present)
James Farentino	(20 February 1966 - 1983) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Holds the record for the greatest number of consecutive appearances by a leading actress in an hour-long prime-time dramatic series, for her 344 appearances on "Knots Landing" (1979).

Born at 1:25am-PWT.

Mother of David Farentino.

Daughter of makeup artist Jack Dusick.

Graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, California, in 1960.

Was a dancer and a singer before becoming an actress.

After the death of her parents, David Jacobs (creator of "Dallas" (1978)) and producer Michael Filerman had approached her on one of her movies, Bud and Lou (1978) (TV), in which she wasn't doing any singing/dancing and 2 weeks later, asked her to star in a pilot called, "Knots Landing" (1979). In fact, ever since she guest-starred in several television shows, she was looking for a television show to star in, perhaps a situation comedy and instead she ended up on a dramatic series.

Was a heavy smoker at an earlier age.

She participated in the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids.

Is a spokesperson for Parents Involved In Educating Teenagers About Alcohol.

Is a longtime friend of former child star, Rick Schroder. She hired him to play Lee's son in one of her TV movies in the early 1990s, My Son Johnny (1991) (TV).

Relocated to New York in 2001.

Danced on stage with Gregory Hines.

Is a member of the Artists Committee of the John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts.

Her father had worked for MGM Studios in the 1950s and 1960s.

Even during the final season of "Knots Landing" (1979) when other actors/actresses were required to be "absent" for 4 episodes, she offered to appear without pay.

On an episode of "Knots Landing" (1979), her character removed the wedding ring. In real-life, the ring she wore was actually the one given to her by her mother. Although she and husband James Farentino had divorced, they still remain close friends.

Chinese is her favorite food.

Has lived in a Los Angeles house from 1963-2001.

Is an avid jogger.

Drinks white wine.

Has a cat named Kit Ten.

Her family is Russian-Polish.

Dottie West became her idol and she later played the late country singer's life in a TV movie.

Game show legends Chuck Barris and Bill Cullen became favorites of hers.

Appeared alongside Bill Bixby on the pilot of a 1970s trashy game show "Cop Out" that has never aired.

Is a longtime friend of the late Bill Bixby, but didn't attend his funeral in Hawaii, when she was on vacation with her family.

In 1996 she became the first woman to produce, direct, write and star in a motion picture made for television. Color Me Perfect (1996) (TV) won the Christopher Award.

Watches every episode of "60 Minutes" (1968).

"Imagine" by John Lennon is one of her favorite songs.

The only time she worked with Bob Hope was on Broadway.

Was voted the best entertainer in high school.

Her first car was a Plymouth convertible.

Loves to travel to St. Martin (in the Caribbean) and the Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona.

Is an avid The Beatles fan.

Shares the same birthday and was born in the same city as Bruce Johnston.

Her father worked with popular actors Clint Eastwood and Richard Chamberlain before his death in early 1970.

Met her first husband James Farentino after she starred in a 1961 Broadway musical, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying".

Has twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Awards: in 1974 as Best Actress (Musical) for "Seesaw" and in 2001 as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for "A Tale of the Allergist's Wife".

Had a clause in her "Knots Landing" (1979) contract that her character would never be a grandmother.

Is a huge fan of "Desperate Housewives" (2004).

Was friends with Bill Bixby, Rick Schroder, Robert Morse, Sharon Gless, and Stephanie Zimbalist.

Best known by the public for her starring role as Karen Fairgate MacKenzie on "Knots Landing" (1979).

Personal Quotes

I love doing things that may not be everybody else's cup of tea.

I was known as the entertainer, that's where I got my identity.

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.

[Differentiating between 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.

Where Are They Now

(November 2000) (2 November 2000) Co-starring with Valerie Harper in the Broadway Play "Tale of the Allergist's Wife" at The Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York

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