Erin Gray (born January 7, 1950) is an American
model,
casting agent, and actress whose roles include Colonel
Wilma Deering in the
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
television series ''
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'' and Kate Summers-Stratton in the
situation comedy
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new ...
''
Silver Spoons''.
Early life
Gray was born on January 7, 1950, in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the isla ...
,
Territory of Hawaii
The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory ( Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding ...
(now state of
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
), the daughter of Diane and Daniel Gray. When Gray was eight, her parents separated.
Gray lived with her grandparents in
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by lan ...
for a few years. Eventually she and her mother moved to
Larkspur, California
Larkspur is a city in Marin County, California, United States. Larkspur is located south of San Rafael, at an elevation of . As of the 2020 Census, the city's population was
13,064. Larkspur's Police Department is shared with that of the ...
.
Gray attended
Redwood High School and finished her last semester at
Pacific Palisades High School. She briefly attended college at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
,
majoring in mathematics,
but she left school to pursue a career in modeling and moved to New York.
Career
Gray started her career in modelling. She entered her first contest and won a modelling assignment in
St. Louis when she was 14 years old. Commercials followed in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
. She also appeared on television in 1967 as a dancer in ''
Malibu U''. However, she decided to move to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to further her modeling career. "By 1975, Gray was one of the nation's top TV models, earning $100,000 a year."
Having developed an interest in acting, she auditioned for parts during her frequent trips to Los Angeles.
In 1978, she landed her first starring role, on the miniseries ''
Evening in Byzantium''. Following good notices, Gray was put on a seven-year contract at
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
, which led directly to her taking the role of Colonel
Wilma Deering in ''
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'', at first for a theatrically released movie, then for a weekly TV series.
Gray's trim, shapely figure, augmented by a tight, one-piece Spandex jumpsuit uniform, was popular with the show's predominantly young male audience.
Gray was aware of the sexiness of her uniform, which was so tight that she had to be sewn into it. Her character, the female lead, also had a high profile in the show, second only to
Gil Gerard in the starring role and representing an early example of a strong female character in a science fiction setting. Gray was thus seen as an important role model for female viewers, as she explained to an interviewer:
Shortly after ''Buck Rogers'', Gray appeared in the first season ''
Magnum, P.I.''
episode, "J. 'Digger' Doyle", in which she played security expert Joy 'Digger' Doyle. The role was intended to become recurring, and even possibly
spun off into a separate series, but neither happened, and it remained the character's only appearance in the series. In 1982, Gray played the role of Lilah in the summer
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
''
Six Pack'' as
Kenny Rogers' love interest. Gray's role as Kate Summers in the TV sitcom ''
Silver Spoons'' lasted for several years in the 1980s.
When that show ended, she took regular film and TV work; she appeared in an episode of ''
Superboy'' and ''
Murder, She Wrote
''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The seri ...
''. In 1993, Gray had a featured role in ''
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday'', the ninth entry in the ''
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, which happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. ...
'' series. She also appeared in the 2005 film ''Siren''.
In 2010, Gray and Gil Gerard returned to ''Buck Rogers'' by playing the characters' parents in the
pilot episode
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in television in the United States, United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a te ...
of the ''Buck Rogers''
web series. Among her work in commercials
was a 2010
spot
Spot or SPOT may refer to:
Places
* Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States
* The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia
* South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse
People
* Spot (produ ...
for
Pup-Peroni dog treats.
Gray is now a
casting agent whose agency, Heroes for Hire, specializes in booking sci-fi and fantasy stars for personal appearances, speaking engagements, and charity events.
Gray also teaches
T'ai chi.
[
In 1998, Gray wrote a book, ''Act Right'', with Mara Purl which contains advice for novice television and movie actors. A revised edition was published in 2002.][Gray, Erin; Purl, Mara. ''Act Right: A Manual for the On-Camera Actor'', 2002 expanded edition, ]
Gray starred in the 2011 film ''Dreams Awake'' (with ''Alien Nation
''Alien Nation'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Rockne S. O'Bannon (later known for ''Farscape''), comprising film, television, and other media productions about alien refugees living on Earth. The series began with th ...
'' co-star Gary Graham
Gary Graham (born June 6, 1950) is an American actor, musician, and author. He may be best known for his starring role as Detective Matthew Sikes in the television series '' Alien Nation'' (1989–1990) and five subsequent ''Alien Nation'' televi ...
). She also played the role of Madeline Twain on the web series '' The Guild''.
Gray guest-starred in the 2014 webisode " Lolani" from the web series '' Star Trek Continues'' as Commodore Gray, an episode that also starred Lou Ferrigno. Commodore Gray reappears in 2016, with the seventh episode " Embracing the Winds."
Personal life
Gray has been married twice. She met Ken Schwartz in high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
[Calio, Jim]
"Buck Rogers Wouldn't Dare Tell Erin Gray What She's Heard for 14 Years from Ken Schwartz: Go Fly a Kite"
. ''People
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
''. 7 July 1980, Vol. 14, No. 1. and their marriage lasted from 1968 to 1990, during which they had one son, Kevan Ray Schwartz, born in 1976. Ken Schwartz, a successful real estate executive, remained in New York with their young son when Gray first started working on ''Buck Rogers'', and eventually moved to Los Angeles to work as her manager when her acting career flourished.[McKinstry, Lohr]
"Buck Rogers returns"
, ''Press Republican'', November 9, 2009.
Filmography
Movies
Television
Video game
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Erin
1950 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Honolulu
American film actresses
American soap opera actresses
American television actresses
Female models from Hawaii
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Redwood High School (Larkspur, California) alumni