Sharon Lawrence
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
A prolific television and stage actress, Sharon Lawrence proved she had the stuff of small-screen success with her very first television role as ambitious assistant district attorney Sylvia Costas on "NYPD Blue" (ABC, 1993-2005). Her consistently praised performance earned the actress three Emmy nominations, and between regular detours back to Broadway, Lawrence continued to be a presence in primetime with a memorable season as a stay-at-home-prostitute on the saucy hit "Desperate Housewives" (ABC, 2004-2012). Several attempts to build dramas and comedy series around the actress proved short-lived, but in her lively appearances on many series including "Monk" (USA, 2002-09), Lawrence could always be counted on to deliver a smart, sharp-tongued law professional or a comically self-indulgent resident of the upper-middle-class.
Lawrence was born June 29, 1961, and raised first in Charlotte and then Raleigh, NC, where her father was a television news anchor. A Junior Miss pageant winner, Lawrence intended to follow in her father's footsteps by studying journalism at UNC Chapel Hill, but when the on-air part of the job began to hold more appeal than the news reporting, she moved to New York City to pursue acting. She had already been singing on cruise ships and at night clubs to earn money during college, and her seasoned pipes brought Lawrence her first break in 1984 when she was cast opposite Anthony Quinn in a national tour of "Zorba." Harold Prince's revival of "Cabaret" marked her Broadway debut in 1987, and the actress spent 1989 to 1992 immersed in "Fiddler on the Roof" - first, as a member of a national tour and then on Broadway. Following her first TV guest spot on Steven Bochco's divorce court series "Civil Wars" (ABC, 1991-93), producers recalled her performance later that year when casting the controversial new police drama "NYPD Blue."
Her role as Sylvia Costas, the earnest, no-nonsense assistant district attorney, began with only a few lines as a day player in the premiere, but producers liked what they saw and eventually added Lawrence to the cast. The sophisticated, ambitious lawyer developed a heated romance with and eventual marriage to older tough cop Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz). The fledgling TV actress obviously had the appeal and the grit the show required, and was honored with Emmy Award nominations in 1994, 1995 and 1996 for portraying the loyal Sylvia as she went through the birth of a child, her husband's cancer treatment, and the couple's eventual separation over Sipowicz' drinking problem. During her hiatus, Lawrence ducked back onto the stage, this time the Los Angeles stage in Matrix Theater Company productions of dramas "The Seagull" and "The Homecoming." Offers poured in, and Lawrence was cast in the TV movie "In the Line of Duty: The Price of Vengeance" (NBC, 1994) and a remake of the family film "The Shaggy Dog" (ABC, 1994). The following year, she appeared in TNT's adaptation of Wendy Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Heidi Chronicles" (1995), and gave a powerful performance as the accused murderess Mary Carelli in the NBC miniseries "Degree of Guilt" (1995).
When Lawrence returned to "NYPD Blue" after a Broadway run in "Chicago," her character's prominence had been reduced somewhat to a recurring rather than a cast role; concurrently, NBC cast her in her own sitcom, "Fired Up" (1997-98), where she played a flamboyant executive forced by downsizing to go into business with her former secretary. When that series fizzled quickly, the actress put in one more season as working mother and supportive spouse Sylvia until her character was dramatically killed off in a courtroom shoot-out. She promptly returned to the New York stage in "Tongue of a Bird" (1999), reprising a role she played a few years earlier at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum. Lawrence was not absent from primetime for long, with CBS casting her on "Ladies Man" (1999-2000), as the pregnant wife of Alfred Molina, a long-suffering male in the midst of an extended family of five women who hopes against hope that his new baby will be a boy.
Lawrence enjoyed a Broadway run as Velma Kelly in "Cabaret" and starred on another short-lived, hour-long drama series, "Wolf Lake" (CBS, 2001-02). In September 2002, she appeared in "Under the Blue Sky" by David Eldridge at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Following a supporting role in the romantic comedy "Little Black Book" (2004), Lawrence scored big with a recurring stint as suburban housewife-turned-call girl Maisy Gibbons on season one of the hit primetime drama "Desperate Housewives" (ABC, 2004-2012). From there, she joined USA Network's comic detective series "Monk," in a recurring role as a real estate agent-turned-murderer, and did double-duty as the deadbeat mom of estranged sisters Megan and Lily on the short-lived, luxury-set series "Privileged" (The CW, 2008-09). However a guest spot as the mother of doctor Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) on "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC, 2005- ) earned Lawrence another Emmy Award nomination in 2009.
By Susan Clarke
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1978
Won the title of Junior Miss Raleigh and was runner-up in the state pageant at age 17
1984
Acted in the Off-Broadway production of "Panache"
1984
Worked as a singer on a cruise ship after graduating college
1985
Cast in the national tour of "Zorba"; starred opposite Anthony Quinn
1987
Made Broadway debut in the Harold Prince-directed revival of "Cabaret"
1989
Played Tzeitel in "Fiddler on the Roof" on tour and later on Broadway
1992
First appeared on prime-time TV in ABC's "Civil Wars"; first collaboration with producer Steven Bocho
1993
Made guest appearances on "Beverly Hills, 90210" (Fox) and "Cheers" (NBC)
1993
Played Sylvia Costas on the Bochco-produced police drama, "NYPD Blue" (ABC), earned three Emmy (1994, 1995, 1996) nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
1994
Made TV-movie debut in "In the Line of Duty: The Price of Vengeance" (NBC)
1994
Played the romantic lead, opposite Ed Begley Jr., in the TV-movie remake of "The Shaggy Dog" (ABC)
1995
Guest-starred as Amelia Earhart in the second season premiere of "Star Trek: Voyager" (UPN)
1995
Gave a powerful performance as the accused murderess Mary Carelli in the NBC miniseries "Degree of Guilt"
1995
Acted in TNT's adaptation of Wendy Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Heidi Chronicles"
1997
Feature debut in "The Only Thrill"
1997
Starred as a suburban houswife taken hostage in the NBC movie "Five Desperate Hours"; also first producing credit (co-producer)
1997
Was the star of the short-lived sitcom, "Fired Up" (NBC)
1999
Returned to the NY stage as Cherry Jones' dead mother Evie in "Tongue of a Bird"
1999
Starred as Cass Medieros in the CBS movie "Blue Moon"
1999
Appeared opposite Alfred Molina in the CBS sitcom "Ladies Man"
2000
Returned to Broadway to play Velma in the hit revival of "Chicago"
2001
Cast in the short-lived CBS series "Wolf Lake"
2004
Cast in the romantic comedy "Little Black Book," starring Brittany Murphy
2004
Had a recurring role as Maisy Gibbons, a housewife and neighborhood prostitute on ABC's "Desperate Housewives"
2006
Played the recurring role of Linda Fusco on the USA Network series, "Monk"
2007
Cast on the CW's short-lived drama "Hidden Palms" as Tess Wiatt, a Southern beauty with a taste for younger men
2008
Cast in as Shelby, deadbeat mom to Megan and Lily, in the CW series "Privileged"
2009
Had a memoriable guest-starring role as Izzie Stevens' mother on "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC), earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
2009
Guest-starred on Lifetime's "Drop Dead Diva"
Family
Companions
