Gloria Loring-Lagler (born Gloria Jean Goff; December 10, 1946)
is an American singer and actress. She is known for playing
Liz Chandler
Liz Chandler (formerly Courtney, DiMera, Craig, and Curtis) is a fictional character on the soap opera, ''Days of Our Lives'', and was played by actress Gloria Loring from 1980 to 1986.
Storylines
Liz came to Salem in 1980. She is the daughter o ...
on ''
Days of Our Lives
''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
'' for six years (1980–86). She and singer-actor
Carl Anderson performed the duet "
Friends and Lovers," which reached number two on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1986.
Early life
Gloria Jean Goff was born in New York City, the daughter of Dorothy Ann (née Tobin), a singer, and Gerald "Buzzy" Lewis Goff, a professional
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
player with the
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...
big band as well as other renowned swing groups; a salesman and hospitality/restaurant industry consultant.
Career
Loring began her music career at age 14, singing with a folk group known as Those Four. Loring released her first album in 1968. It was titled ''Today'' on MGM Records. Several singles, including
cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
s of
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal ove ...
's "
Everybody's Talkin'
"Everybody's Talkin (Echoes)" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Fred Neil in 1966 and released two years later. A version of the song performed by American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson became a hit in 1969, reachin ...
" and
Roger Whittaker
Roger Henry Brough Whittaker (born 22 March 1936) is a British singer-songwriter and musician, who was born in Nairobi to English parents. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs in addition to radio airplay hits. He is bes ...
's "
New World in the Morning
''New World in the Morning'' is a studio album by Roger Whittaker released in 1971. It featured some of his most popular songs, including "The Last Farewell", "A Special Kind of Man", the title track "New World in the Morning" (#12 US Easy Listeni ...
" were released on the Evolution label, though none charted. She also released, as a single, an early cover version of
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...
's "
Chelsea Morning
"Chelsea Morning" is a song written and composed by Joni Mitchell and recorded for the singer's second album, ''Clouds'', which she released in 1969.
Background
The song was inspired by Mitchell's room in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City ...
" in 1968.
She went on to perform on a wide range of television shows in the late 1960s and 1970s, from ''
The Carol Burnett Show
''The Carol Burnett Show'' is an American variety/sketch comedy television show that originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in fall 1991. It starred Carol Burnett, Harvey ...
'' (Season 1, Episode 4, which first aired October 2, 1967) to the
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
ceremony. Signed to
Atco Records
ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the comp ...
, she released the single "Brooklyn", produced by
Mike Post
Mike Post (born Leland Michael Postil, September 29, 1944) is an American composer, best known for his TV theme music for various shows, including ''Law & Order''; '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''; ''The A-Team''; ''NYPD Blue''; ''Renegad ...
, in 1977 under the alias Cody Jameson, and it became her first chart single, climbing to No. 74 on the
Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
and also appearing on the Adult Contemporary and Country Charts.
In March 1977, she flew to Toronto to be the special guest star on the popular weekly variety program ''
The Bobby Vinton Show
''The Bobby Vinton Show'' was a Canadian musical variety television series produced for the CTV Television Network between 1975 and 1978, with a total of 52 episodes broadcast. Featuring Bobby Vinton, a best-selling popular music singer since the ...
'' which was seen all across the United States and Canada. The program was produced by her husband Alan Thicke. Loring performed "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and performed a duet with
Vinton on "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do".
In 1978 and 1979, Loring and then-husband
Alan Thicke
Alan Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffrey; March 1, 1947December 13, 2016) was a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is the father of singer Robin Thicke. In 2013, Thicke was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Thicke was be ...
composed the theme songs to ''
Diff'rent Strokes
''Diff'rent Strokes'' is an American television sitcom, which aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, r ...
'' and ''
The Facts of Life''. There were two versions of the ''Facts of Life'' theme song that Loring sang. One version was used from seasons two through six, and a second was used from seasons seven to nine.
Her son, Brennan, was diagnosed with
Type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar ...
in 1979. A year later, Loring joined ''
Days of Our Lives
''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
'' and got the idea to create and self-publish the ''Days Of Our Lives Celebrity Cookbook'' to raise money for diabetes research. Volume One was published in 1981 and the follow-up Volume Two in 1983. The cookbooks, along with her recording "A Shot in the Dark", raised more than $1 million for the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
JDRF is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that funds type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, provides a broad array of community and activist services to the T1D population and actively advocates for regulation favorable to medical research and approval o ...
("JDRF"). She followed that success with three commercially published books, ''Kids, Food and Diabetes'', ''Parenting a Child with Diabetes'', and ''Living with Type 2 Diabetes: Moving Past the Fear''.
For more than 30 years she has served as a spokesperson for JDRF. JDRF was the official philanthropy of her college sorority,
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Gamma Delta (), also known as Alpha Gam, is an international women's fraternity and social organization. It was founded on May 30, 1904, by eleven female students at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, making it the youngest member ...
, before shifting its focus to fighting hunger in 2017.
In 1980, when Loring joined the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
daytime soap ''Days of Our Lives'' as chanteuse
Liz Chandler
Liz Chandler (formerly Courtney, DiMera, Craig, and Curtis) is a fictional character on the soap opera, ''Days of Our Lives'', and was played by actress Gloria Loring from 1980 to 1986.
Storylines
Liz came to Salem in 1980. She is the daughter o ...
, the show was going through a dry spell, with many veterans dropped and many new faces alienating long-time fans. Of the nine new characters introduced in the 1980–1981 season, only Liz garnered a fan following, and was the only one to have her contract renewed. For three years, in real-life, Loring dated
Don Diamont
Don Bruce Diamont (born Donald Feinberg; December 31, 1962) is an American actor. His best known roles include Brad Carlton on ''The Young and the Restless'' and Bill Spencer Jr. on ''The Bold and the Beautiful''. In 1990, Diamont was chosen as ...
, the actor who played Carlo Forenza who was murdered by her TV husband Dr.
Neil Curtis
Neil Curtis is a fictional character from the television drama '' Days of Our Lives''. He was portrayed by Joseph Gallison from February 13, 1974, to October 16, 1991.
Neil was a doctor and a compulsive gambler. He had a daughter, Sarah Horton ...
.
In 1986, Loring scored a No. 2 Pop and No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit record in the United States with "
Friends and Lovers", with
Carl Anderson (also a No. 1 country hit in 1986 for
Eddie Rabbitt
Edward Thomas Rabbitt (November 27, 1941 – May 7, 1998) was an American country music singer and songwriter. His career began as a songwriter in the late 1960s, springboarding to a recording career after composing hits such as "Kentucky Rain" ...
and
Juice Newton
Judith Kay "Juice" Newton (born February 18, 1952) is an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. Newton has received five Grammy Award nominations in the Pop and Country Best Female Vocalist categorieswinning once in 1983as well ...
under the title "Both to Each Other"). She originally performed "Friends and Lovers" on ''Days of Our Lives'' more than a year before it hit the charts. Her performance of the song generated the largest mail response of any song in NBC daytime history. First recorded as a duet with Anderson (who appeared on ''Days of Our Lives'' to sing the song with Loring) in 1985, its release as a single was delayed for a year by legal complications.
Loring left ''Days'' in 1986 and made sporadic film and television appearances over the next few decades. Her main efforts were spent in theater and in her recording career (though "Friends and Lovers" was her only major hit single).
In 2003, Loring released her first holiday album, ''You Make It Christmas''. In 2008, she released ''A Playlist'', which included a new recording of the song "Friends and Lovers" with
Carl Anderson, recorded one year before he died.
Loring's book, ''Coincidence Is God's Way of Remaining Anonymous'', is a
spiritual autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
of how a series of coincidences transformed her life. It was released in October 2012 by
HCI, Inc.
Personal life
Loring was married to actor
Alan Thicke
Alan Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffrey; March 1, 1947December 13, 2016) was a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is the father of singer Robin Thicke. In 2013, Thicke was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Thicke was be ...
from 1970 until 1986.
She has two sons with Thicke, Brennan and singer
Robin.
Loring was married to actor Christopher Beaumont from 1988 to 1993.
"Gloria Loring Biography"
Film Reference In 1994, Loring married production designer
In film and television, the production designer is the individual responsible for the overall aesthetic of the story. The production design gives the viewers a sense of the time period, the plot location, and character actions and feelings. Wo ...
René Lagler. They had met 24 years earlier on the set of Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting ''The Glen Campbell Goodt ...
's variety series.
Loring has been honored with the Lifetime Commitment Award from JDRF
JDRF is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that funds type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, provides a broad array of community and activist services to the T1D population and actively advocates for regulation favorable to medical research and approval o ...
, and received the Woman of Achievement Award from the Miss America Organization
Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...
. She has been featured in ''Who's Who in America
Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...
''.
Discography
*1968: ''Today'' (MGM Records); includes the original version of " One Way Ticket"
*1970: ''And Now We Come to Distances'' (Evolution Records)
*1972: ''Sing a Song for the Mountain'' (Evolution Records)
*1984: ''A Shot in the Dark'' (Glitz Records); includes the full version of "The Facts of Life"
*1986: ''Gloria Loring'' (Atlantic Records); includes the original version of "Friends and Lovers" with Carl Anderson – AUS #83[
*1988: ''Full Moon/No Hesitation'' (Atlantic Records) – AUS #62]
*1991: ''Is There Anybody Out There'' (Silk Purse); includes a solo version of "Friends and Lovers"
*1999: ''Turn The Page'' (Silk Purse)
*2000: ''By Request'' (Silk Purse); includes an acoustic recording of "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love", the song adopted by Bo & Hope as their theme song on ''Days of Our Lives
''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
''
*2001: ''Friends and Lovers'' (Silk Purse)
*2003: ''You Make It Christmas'' (Silk Purse)
*2008: ''A Playlist'' (Silk Purse); she and Carl Anderson re-recorded "Friends and Lovers" for this project, just one year prior to his death
References
External links
*
*
Gloria Loring Approved Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loring, Gloria
1946 births
American women singers
American soap opera actresses
Living people
Singers from New York City
American mezzo-sopranos
American people of Swedish descent
21st-century American women