|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Add a new website Browse websites
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| Co-host of Live with Regis and Kathy Lee, from 1989-2000, Kathy Lee Gifford "chatted" her way into the hearts of American TV viewers, speaking candidly of her family and her foibles, and routinely teasing co-host, Regis Philbin, but her TV career got its start much earlier. In 1977, Gifford was visiting a friend on the set of the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, when a producer happened by and asked if she could act. For the next year, she played a minor character known as Nurse Callahan. While a regular on Days, she also worked in commercials (often singing the jingles), and she shot numerous network television pilots. Later that year, Gifford became the featured singer on the game show Name That Tune and co-starred in the musical situation comedy Hee Haw Honeys, a spin-off of Hee Haw. In the meantime, thanks to her exposure on Name That Tune, Gifford's nightclub singing career took off. In 1982, Gifford was offered a position as substitute anchor, on Good Morning America and became a special correspondent covering human-interest stories. Three years later, Gifford won the job co-hosting with Philbin, and for the next year, she handled both positions. When she realized that she couldn't continue to spread herself so thin, she opted to give up Good Morning America and kept her permanent place on The Morning Show, which later changed its name to Live With Regis and Kathy Lee. Gifford and Philbin put together a a very popular nightclub act and Gifford continues to appear with symphonies on her own, and has recorded several albums. Kathy Lee and her husband, sportscaster Frank Gifford, whom she married in 1985, have two children, Cody and Cassidy. They are involved in numerous charitable causes such as Variety Club International's "The Children's Charity" and the Association to Benefit Children, which spawned the Cody Foundation. The resources from the foundation continue to support Cody House and Cassidy's Place — facilities that provide shelter and care to HIV-positive and crack-addicted children. She has developed a clothing line, the Kathie Lee Collection at Wal-Mart, and has written books, the proceeds of which go to help support her charitable causes. Gifford was born on August 16, 1953, in Paris, France, moving to the US with her family, when she was a child. She was named Maryland Junior Miss at age 17, and went on to study drama and music at Oral Roberts University. |
|
|