Kay Ann Lenz is an American actress.

A former child performer, Lenz has worked primarily in television and has won two Emmy Awards.

Background

Born in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, the daughter of a producer/commentator father and a model/radio engineer mother, Lenz began working as a child actress, appearing in such television shows as The Andy Griffith Show

The Andy Griffith Show

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...

(under the stage name Kay Ann Kemper), Opie's Group (1967) as well as in stage productions. She made a brief appearance in the film American Graffiti

American Graffiti

American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...

(1973) as one of the girls at the dance.

She achieved recognition for her title-role performance as the free spirit who captivates William Holden

William Holden

William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...

 in Breezy

Breezy

Breezy is a 1973 American romantic drama film, starring William Holden and Kay Lenz. It was written by Jo Heims, and was the third film directed by Clint Eastwood, who appears uncredited as a man in crowd on a pier.-Plot:...

, directed by Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...

. Lenz and Breezy figure into the storyline of Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick

Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...

's novel VALIS

VALIS

VALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God....

.

She made guest appearances in television series such as The Streets of San Francisco

The Streets of San Francisco

The Streets of San Francisco is a 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros...

, Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, MacGyver

MacGyver

MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...

, McCloud

McCloud

McCloud is an American television police drama that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1977. The title role was played by Dennis Weaver as Marshal Sam McCloud, a law officer from Taos, New Mexico on semi-permanent "special assignment" with the New York City Police Department.-History:The first choice for...

, Cannon

Cannon (TV series)

Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976.The primary protagonist was the title character, Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad....

, and Petrocelli

Petrocelli

Petrocelli is an American legal drama which ran for two seasons on NBC from September 11, 1974 to March 31, 1976.-Plot:Tony Petrocelli was an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who grew up in South Boston and gave up the big money and frenetic pace of major-metropolitan life to practice in a...

and played a lead role in the film White Line Fever

White Line Fever (film)

White Line Fever is an American movie about truck drivers released in 1975 and starring Jan-Michael Vincent.-Backstory:Sam Hummer was a local truck driver from Tucson Arizona who worked for a Tucson-based produce-shipper called "Red River". His driving partners were Duane Haller and "Pops" Dinwiddie...

(1975) before being cast in the miniseries

Miniseries

A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 Rich Man, Poor Man

Rich Man, Poor Man

Rich Man, Poor Man is a novel written by Irwin Shaw in 1969. It is the last of the novels of Shaw's middle period before he began to concentrate, in his last works such as Evening In Byzantium, Nightwork, Bread Upon The Waters, and Acceptable Losses, on the inevitability of impending death...

in 1976, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She reprised her role for the sequel, Rich Man, Poor Man Book II

Rich Man, Poor Man Book II

Rich Man, Poor Man Book II is an American television miniseries that aired on ABC in one-hour episodes at 9:00pm ET/PT on Tuesday nights between September 21, 1976 and March 8, 1977...

(1976).

Since the 1980s, she has played guest roles in numerous television series. She won an Emmy in 1989 for Midnight Caller

Midnight Caller

Midnight Caller is a dramatic NBC television series created by Richard DiLello, which ran from 1988 to 1991. It was one of the first television series to address the dramatic possibilities of the then-growing phenomenon of talk radio...

.

Filmography

Film and television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1973	American Graffiti American Graffiti American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...	Jane, girl at dance	as Kay Ann Kemper
1973	Breezy Breezy Breezy is a 1973 American romantic drama film, starring William Holden and Kay Lenz. It was written by Jo Heims, and was the third film directed by Clint Eastwood, who appears uncredited as a man in crowd on a pier.-Plot:...	Edith Alice Breezerman ('Breezy')
1975	White Line Fever White Line Fever (film) White Line Fever is an American movie about truck drivers released in 1975 and starring Jan-Michael Vincent.-Backstory:Sam Hummer was a local truck driver from Tucson Arizona who worked for a Tucson-based produce-shipper called "Red River". His driving partners were Duane Haller and "Pops" Dinwiddie...	Jerri Kane Hummer
1976	Moving Violation	Cam Johnson
1976	The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday is a 1976 film directed by Don Taylor starring Lee Marvin and Kay Lenz.-Cast:* Lee Marvin as Sam Longwood* Oliver Reed as Joe Knox* Robert Culp as Jack Colby* Kay Lenz as Thursday* Elizabeth Ashley as Nancy Sue...	Thursday
1978	Mean Dog Blues Mean Dog Blues Mean Dog Blues is a 1978 drama film directed by Mel Stuart. It stars Gregg Henry and Kay Lenz.-Cast:*Gregg Henry as Paul Ramsey*Kay Lenz as Linda Ramsey*Scatman Crothers as Mudcat*Tina Louise as Donna Lacey*Felton Perry as Jake Turner...	Linda Ramsey
1979	The Passage	Leah Bergson
1981	Sekai meisaku dôwa: Hakuchô no mizûmi Swan Lake (1981 film) is an anime film based on the ballet Swan Lake by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The film was released in Japan on 14 March 1981 by Toei.The film was produced by the Japanese company Toei Animation and directed by Kimio Yabuki. The adaptation uses Tchaikovsky's score and remains relatively faithful to the story...	Odille	voice
1982	Fast-Walking Fast-Walking Fast-Walking is a 1982 dramatic film directed by James B. Harris. The film is based on Ernest Brawley's 1974 novel The Rap. It was also issued theatrically in the U.S. under the title The Joint....	Moke
1983	Prisoners of the Lost Universe Prisoners of the Lost Universe Prisoners of the Lost Universe is a low budget 1983 film set in a parallel universe.Three people are transported to another world when an earthquake occurs just as the scientist is experimenting with his "matter" transmitter...	Carrie Madison
1983	Trial by Terror	Karen Armstrong
1986	House	Sandy Sinclair
1987	Death Wish 4: The Crackdown Death Wish 4: The Crackdown Death Wish 4: The Crackdown is a 1987 action thriller, and the third sequel to the 1974 film, Death Wish, once again starring Charles Bronson....	Karen Sheldon
1987	Stripped to Kill Stripped to Kill Stripped to Kill is a 1987 erotic thriller/sexploitation film, it was directed by Katt Shea, and stars Greg Evigan, Kay Lenz & Norman Fell.- Plot :...	Detective Cody Sheenan
1988	Fear	Sharon Haden
1989	Headhunter	Katherine Hall
1989	Physical Evidence	Deborah Quinn
1990	Streets	Sargent
1991	Shakespeare's Plan 12 from Outer Space	Sebastian
1992	Falling From Grace	P.J. Parks
1992	Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa is an American animated television series created by comic book artist Ryan Brown, known for his work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The show was produced by King World and ABC's Greengrass Productions and animated by Gunther-Wahl Productions for its first season...	Cowlamity Kate Cudster (voice)
1994	Trapped in Space	Gillings
1995	Gunfighter's Moon	Linda Yarnell
1997		Peep/Madge
1998		Detective Hill
2003	Southside	Claire Coleman
2007	House House (TV series) House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...	Mrs Bradberry
2008	NCIS NCIS (TV series) NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...	Connie Quinn Wheeler
2009	Cold Case	Hillary Rhodes
2010	The Closer The Closer The Closer is an American crime drama, starring Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, a Georgia police detective who often closes her cases using sometimes-questionable methods...	Mrs Tatem
2011	Southland Southland (TV series) Southland is an American drama series created by writer Ann Biderman and produced by Warner Bros. Television. It premiered on NBC on April 9, 2009...	Naomi Chester

External links