Who is Meg Foster from Cagney and Lacy?

In this blog post, we will answer the question “Who is Meg Foster from Cagney and Lacy?”. In doing so, we will brief you about Meg Foster’s background, her journey at Cagney and Lacy, and the famous controversy of her being replaced. 

Who is Meg Foster from Cagney and Lacy 

What is Meg Foster’s background? 

Meg Foster is an American actress who is most known for her roles in the Scarlet Letter miniseries, as well as the films Ticket to Heaven, The Osterman Weekend, and They Live. 

Foster, who is recognized for her dark blue eyes and husky yet beautiful voice, has portrayed devious villains and betraying double agents in a number of films.

Foster runs a horse breeding operation on her property in northeastern Washington. Her pale, ice-blue eyes, which Mademoiselle magazine named “the eyes of 1979,” have gotten her a lot of attention.

Meg Foster’s Personal Life

Birthday

Foster will be 72 years old in 2020. She was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America, on May 10, 1948. Every year on May 10th, she celebrates her birthday. She was born and raised in Rowayton, Connecticut. Foster was born in the United States and is of white heritage.

Physical Appearance 

Foster is a woman of normal height, although she appears to be rather tall in her photographs. She has a height of 5 feet and 5 inches (1.69 m). She is also 132 pounds (60 kg).

Family Background 

David Forster (father) and Nancy Foster have five children, one of whom is Meg (mother). Regarding her parents, we have no specific information.

Gray, Jan, and Nina are her three sisters; Ian is her brother. Foster honed her acting skills at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York, where she had been interested in the craft since she was a child.

Marital Relationship

Foster is single at the moment. She had a kid named Christopher Starr with actor Ron Starr, with whom she was in a relationship. She was married to Canadian actor Stephen McHattie at one point. 

She hasn’t revealed any other details regarding their relationship. McHattie has married actress Lisa Houle since their breakup. Brian Kerwin (1983) and Michael O’Keefe were two other men with whom she had affairs (1989).

The path to success in a career

Prior to her film and television roles, Foster had a successful career as a stage actor. In 1968, she performed in the Cornell Summer Theater production of “John Brown’s Body.” 

In the same year, she appeared in an off-Broadway production of ‘The Empire Builders.’ ‘King Lear,’ ‘Barabbas,’ ‘Three Sisters,’ and ‘Extremities’ are some of her other theatre credits.

Foster first appeared on film in a season three episode of NET Playhouse in 1969. Her first film role was in the drama film ‘Adam at Six A.M.’ roughly a year later. 

Nora played a number of visitors and recurring characters in several TV shows before winning her role in the NBC telefilm “Sunshine” (1973) and her 1975 short-lived follow-up series of the same name. 

During this time, she also appeared in films such as “Thumb Tripping” (1972), and “Welcome to Arrow Beach” (1974). And then there’s ‘The Different Story’ (1978).

The Scarlet Letter (1979), a WGBH TV miniseries based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of the same name, starred Foster as Hester Prynne, a colonial-American woman scorned and punished by her puritanical neighbors and forced to wear a large scarlet letter ‘A’  on the front of her dress for the rest of her life. 

Foster received a lot of positive feedback for her performance.

Foster appeared in the 1981 Canadian drama film Ticket to Heaven alongside Nick Mancuso, Saul Rubinek, and Kim Cattrall. 

The film is directed by Ralph L. Thomas and follows a man who is drawn into a cult. In 1982, she joined the CBS cast of the police drama series “Cagney & Lacey.”

Loretta Swit was originally cast in the part of Christine Cagney, and she even played the character in the show’s pilot, a TV movie broadcast in 1981. 

Her request to appear in ‘Cagney & Lacey’ was turned down because she was still under contract with the producers of ‘M*A*S*H,’ in which she played Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan.

Foster went on to act in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s despite the setback. In the 1983 suspense film ” The Osterman Weekend,” she co-starred with Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, Burt Lancaster, and Dennis Hopper. 

In the 1988 science fiction picture “They Live,” she portrayed Holly Thompson opposite Roddy Piper’s Nada.

In recent years, she has played Carla Grunwald in the shows “Pretty Little Liars” and “Ravenwood.” In 2015, she appeared in ‘The Originals as Josephine LaRue, a recurring character. 

She will star in the science fiction picture ‘S2 K,’ as well as the horror thrillers Investigation 13,’ ‘There are no vampires,’ and ‘Haunted: 333.’

Her beautiful pale-blue eyes attract a lot of attention. While she considers her eyes to be “not so distinctive,” she has been urged by directors and showrunners to wear contact lenses to reduce the distracting effects of her eyes on television. 

They were dubbed “the eyes of 1979” by Mademoiselle magazine.

Physical Attractiveness 

Foster is recognized for her vivid blue eyes, which are both attractive and captivating. Her eyes appear weird in some of her parts, but in real life, they are stunning, and the soul behind them, as I have stated, is as stunning.

Meg Foster in other movies

A Different Story is a 1978 American film starring Meg Foster and Perry King and directed by Paul Aaron. 

The film is set in Los Angeles and tells the story of a gay man (King) and a lesbian (Foster) who become temporary housemates but fall in love. Stella Cooke was played by Meg Foster in the movie.

Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Richard Brake, Jane Carr, Judy Geeson, and Meg Foster as Venus Virgo stars in Rob Zombie’s 2016 American horror film 31, directed by Rob Zombie.

Meg Foster as Cagney 

From March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988, Cagney & Lacey was an American television sitcom that aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons. Det. Chris Cagney was played by Foster.

Other Works of Meg Foster 

From 1972 to 1973, Ghost Story was an American television anthology series that aired on NBC for one season. In 1972, Foster portrayed Julie Barnes, and in 1973, she played Penny Wiseman on the show.

What is Cagney and Lacey about?

From March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988, Cagney & Lacey was an American police trial television series that aired on CBS for seven seasons. 

The show depicts two New York Police Department investigators who have quite different lives. Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) is a married working parent, whereas Kristin Cagney (Sharon Gless) is a single woman with a job.

The show takes place in a fictionalized 14th arrondissement of Manhattan (known as “South Midtown”). Loretta Sweet portrayed Cagney in the pilot feature, with Meg Foster filling in for the first six episodes. 

Gless was cast in the part for the sixth year in a row when the show was renewed for a full season. 

During that time, one of the two leading actresses won a primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Drama four times (4 times for Daly and 2 times for Gless), and she has only won once in a major show category since then.

Loretta Sweet played Christine Cagney in the original TV movie (October 1981) but was forced to decline the role in the series as producer M*A*S*H refused to let her out of her contract. 

Meg Foster played the character when the film was made into a series in the spring of 1982 when it initially aired in six episodes as a mid-season replacement. 

Because CBS judged that the ad was too violent and viewers were too likely to see it as a lesbian, Foster was replaced by Sharon Gless when the show went to the regular season in 1982.

CBS executives have sought to persuade a manufacturer to build Kagni more broadly described as a “Women” and a manufacturer’s wealthy parent’s obstinate lady in a more “advanced” way. (In the pilot, Cagney is shown as model Exgglamour.) 

Christine Kanni’s demanding, witty working groups were initially turned down by Barney Rosenzweig and Barbara Cortay. Brass networks damage Rosenzweig and Cutty of the Rosenzweig and Cutty to stay in the program soon. 

They also constructed Kangni’s backstory, which was gradually revealed in the free plot line, and she may have been born to Maureen, a soft professional mother who had a relationship with Charles Kana Police (Dick O’Neill).

Cagney was a little quieter and more introverted than her chatty, outgoing colleague Mary Beth Lacey, but she was still able to relate to the world in a way that people from all walks of life could appreciate.

Was Meg Foster replaced? 

According to numerous sources, Cagney was replaced in the first season of Cagney & Lacey because CBS executives thought the show portrayed a lesbian pair.

The story of two female detectives, Kagney and Lacey, is considered one of the best sequences of the 1980s, winning an Emmy Award for Excellence in Drama Series and six Emmy Awards for Best Actress.

 There are seven seasons. During the episode, producer Barney Rosenzweig used the series to address a number of societal topics.

The screenplay for Cagney and Lacey was written by Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday, and it was produced by Rosenzweig, Corday’s then-boyfriend and eventually spouse, who divorced in 1990. 

Although it was not made into a film, Rosenzweig was able to adapt it into a TV series. Loretta Sweet, one of the stars of the iconic comedy M*A*S*H*, has joined CBS. Every year, she was compelled to appear in a CBS television movie under the terms of her contract. 

Cagney & Lacey created a TV movie starring Christine Cagney as Sweet and Mary Beth Lacey as Tyne Daly in October 1981.

The screenplay for Cagney and Lacey was written by Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday, and it was produced by Rosenzweig, Corday’s then-boyfriend and eventually spouse, who divorced in 1990. 

Although it was not made into a film, Rosenzweig was able to adapt it into a TV series. Loretta Sweet, one of the stars of the iconic comedy M*A*S*H*, has joined CBS. Every year, she was compelled to appear in a CBS television movie under the terms of her contract. 

Cagney & Lacey created a TV movie starring Christine Cagney as Sweet and Mary Beth Lacey as Tyne Daly in October 1981.

Rosenzweig touted the TV movie as a big feminist victory, and her efforts earned her a Miss magazine cover. 

As a result, the show’s popularity dwindled. As a result, CBS agreed to replace him in the middle of the 1982 season. The only difficulty was that Sweet’s M*A*S*H* contract was still in effect. Knowing that her M*A*S*H* is nearing the end of its run (the next season will be the final one), she was overjoyed to have her own new show. But she was as well. 

She was extremely important to M *A*S*H*, but she was unable to attend the show. Rosenzweig recruited Meg Foster, a young actress, to take Sweet’s position. The contrast between Sweet and Daly is somewhat different than that between Foster and Daly.

Movies and TV Shows starring Meg Foster

  1. Investigation 13 
  2. Overlord
  3. Teen Titans: The Judas Contract 
  4. 31
  5.  Pretty Little Liars 
  6. The Mentalist 
  7. Oblivion 
  8. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  9. Hidden Fears 
  10. Cagney and Lacy 

References:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Foster 
  2. https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/meg-foster/credits/3000270872/