Cindy Pickett
Encyclopedia
Cindy Lou Pickett is an American
actress best known for her 1970s role as Jackie Marler-Spaulding on the CBS soap Guiding Light
; her role as Dr. Carol Novino on the hugely popular television drama St. Elsewhere
in the 1980s; for her critically acclaimed performance as the real-life Kay Stayner, the mother of a boy who was kidnapped for several years, in the dramatic TV movie I Know My First Name Is Steven
; and for her cinematic roles and performances as Valerie St. John in Roger Vadim
's little-known 1980 erotic cult film, Night Games, for which she would have the leading role, and as the tough-as-nails and heroic Dr. Jane Norris in the 1989 sci-fi-horror film DeepStar Six
. Pickett, however, is handily best known to audiences for her highly memorable turn as Katie Bueller, Matthew Broderick
's titular character's loving and unsuspecting mother, in the 1986 classic and iconic American comedy
movie
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
.
. It was a sexually charged role involving numerous nude scenes, however the film never found an audience and did not boost Pickett's career. In the 1981 mystery/crime drama Margin for Murder, Pickett played the role of Velda, Mike Hammer's (Kevin Dobson
) loyal and devoted secretary. She played "Jackie Marler" on the soap opera
The Guiding Light from 1976 to 1980, "Vanessa Sarnac" on the ABC
weekly TV series Call to Glory
from 1984 to 1985, and she appeared on the hospital drama TV series St. Elsewhere
from 1986 to 1988.
TV series she has guest-starred on include Simon & Simon
, Magnum, P.I.
, L.A. Law
, Murder, She Wrote
, The Pretender
, NYPD Blue
, CSI: Miami
, Without a Trace
, Crossing Jordan
and Burn Notice.
, daughter of Cecil Pickett, a director and drama teacher at the University of Houston
. She met Lyman Ward
, on the set of Ferris Bueller's Day Off (the actors' characters were husband and wife), and they married sometime afterwards, although they have since divorced.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress best known for her 1970s role as Jackie Marler-Spaulding on the CBS soap Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
; her role as Dr. Carol Novino on the hugely popular television drama St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
in the 1980s; for her critically acclaimed performance as the real-life Kay Stayner, the mother of a boy who was kidnapped for several years, in the dramatic TV movie I Know My First Name Is Steven
Steven Stayner
Steven Gregory Stayner was an American kidnap victim. Stayner was abducted from the Northern California city and county of Merced, California at the age of seven and held until he was 14, when he escaped and rescued another victim, Timothy White, in 1980...
; and for her cinematic roles and performances as Valerie St. John in Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...
's little-known 1980 erotic cult film, Night Games, for which she would have the leading role, and as the tough-as-nails and heroic Dr. Jane Norris in the 1989 sci-fi-horror film DeepStar Six
Deepstar Six
DeepStar Six is an American 1989 science fiction horror film about the struggles of the crew of an underwater military outpost to defend their base against the attacks of a monster ....
. Pickett, however, is handily best known to audiences for her highly memorable turn as Katie Bueller, Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
's titular character's loving and unsuspecting mother, in the 1986 classic and iconic American comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...
.
Career
Pickett made a major departure from her soap opera image when she played the central role in the 1980 erotic film Night Games, directed by Roger VadimRoger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...
. It was a sexually charged role involving numerous nude scenes, however the film never found an audience and did not boost Pickett's career. In the 1981 mystery/crime drama Margin for Murder, Pickett played the role of Velda, Mike Hammer's (Kevin Dobson
Kevin Dobson
Kevin Patrick Dobson is an American film and television actor of Irish descent, who is primarily known for his roles on television. His most prominent roles were as Lt. Theo Kojak's trusted partner, Det. Bobby Crocker on the popular 1970s TV crime drama Kojak, and as Karen MacKenzie's second...
) loyal and devoted secretary. She played "Jackie Marler" on the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
The Guiding Light from 1976 to 1980, "Vanessa Sarnac" on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
weekly TV series Call to Glory
Call to Glory
Call to Glory was an American television series that aired 23 episodes during the 1984-1985 TV season on the ABC-TV network. Starring Craig T. Nelson as a USAF pilot, Colonel Raynor Sarnac. In the course of its production run, it drifted away from its original reasonably authentic setting and...
from 1984 to 1985, and she appeared on the hospital drama TV series St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
from 1986 to 1988.
TV series she has guest-starred on include Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon is an American detective television series starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker.-History:The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in Florida...
, Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
, L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
, Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
, The Pretender
The Pretender (TV series)
The Pretender is an American television series that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series starred Michael T. Weiss as Jarod, a genius and former child prodigy with "the ability to become anyone he wants to be," i.e., to flawlessly impersonate anyone in virtually any line of work...
, NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
, CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
, Without a Trace
Without a Trace
Without a Trace is an American television drama which originally ran on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009. The series was set in New York City and concerned a fictitious FBI Missing Persons Unit.-Premise:...
, Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan is an American television crime/drama series that aired on NBC from September 24, 2001 to May 16, 2007. It stars Jill Hennessy as Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D., a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed in the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Medical Examiner's Office...
and Burn Notice.
Personal life
Pickett was born in Sand Springs, OklahomaSand Springs, Oklahoma
Sand Springs is a city in Osage and Tulsa counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. A suburb of Tulsa, it is located predominantly in Tulsa County. The population was 18,906 in the 2010 U. S. Census, compared to 17,451 at the 2000 census. The city was founded in 1911, by Oklahoma philanthropist...
, daughter of Cecil Pickett, a director and drama teacher at the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
. She met Lyman Ward
Lyman Ward
Lyman Ward is a Canadian actor.-Biography:Ward was born and raised in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada and graduated from Saint Malachy's Memorial High School in the class of 1958, and then in 1963 from St...
, on the set of Ferris Bueller's Day Off (the actors' characters were husband and wife), and they married sometime afterwards, although they have since divorced.
Selected filmography
- Night Games (1980)
- Circle of PowerCircle of PowerCircle of Power is a 1983 film, co-produced by Gary Mehlman, Anthony Quinn and Jeffrey White, and based on the book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled...
(1983) - Call To GloryCall to GloryCall to Glory was an American television series that aired 23 episodes during the 1984-1985 TV season on the ABC-TV network. Starring Craig T. Nelson as a USAF pilot, Colonel Raynor Sarnac. In the course of its production run, it drifted away from its original reasonably authentic setting and...
(1984–1985) - St. ElsewhereSt. ElsewhereSt. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
Dr. Carol Novino (50 episodes, 1986–1988) - Ferris Bueller's Day OffFerris Bueller's Day OffFerris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...
(1986) - DeepStar SixDeepstar SixDeepStar Six is an American 1989 science fiction horror film about the struggles of the crew of an underwater military outpost to defend their base against the attacks of a monster ....
(1989) - SleepwalkersSleepwalkers (film)Sleepwalkers is a 1992 American horror film based on an original screenplay by Stephen King and directed by Mick Garris.-Plot summary:...
(1992) - Son in LawSon in LawSon in Law is a 1993 comedy film starring Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, Lane Smith, Cindy Pickett, Tiffani Thiessen, Patrick Renna, Dan Gauthier and Dennis Burkley.-Plot:...
(1993) - Hate CrimeHate Crime (film)Hate Crime is a 2006 drama film, written and directed by first-time director/writer Tommy Stovall and starring Seth Peterson, Bruce Davison, Chad Donella, Cindy Pickett, and Brian J. Smith...
(2005) - The Village BarbershopThe Village BarbershopThe Village Barbershop is a 2008 independent film written and directed by Chris J. Ford, starring John Ratzenberger and Shelly Cole. Ratzenberger plays Art Leroldi, a small-town barber forced to hire a new employee, Gloria MacIntyre, played by Cole, after the death of his longtime business partner...
(2008)