- Christine Belford
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Christine Belford Born January 14, 1949
Amityville, New York, USAOccupation Actor Years active 1971–Present Spouse Nicholas Pryor Christine Belford (also credited as Christina Belford) is an American television and film actor.
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Early life
Christine Belford was born January 14, 1949 in Amityville, New York. As a child, she lived in the "Amityville Horror" house (pre-horror), for about 5 years, from 1960-1965 — the estate of the original owners of the house had sold it to her parents; after her parents' divorce, the house was sold to Ronald DeFeo, the father of the man who committed the murders that supposedly led to the horrific aspects of the house.
As a young child and teenager on Long Island, NY, she was active in equestrian trials, winning many horsemanship awards.[1]
After graduating high school in 1966, she attended Hofstra University, initially interested in a career in psychiatry. But, the classwork she did with Joseph Leon, the head of the drama department there, inspired her to become an actress.[1]
After college, around June 1970, she moved to New York City and did some modeling work there, but no acting. For both personal and professional reasons, she moved to Los Angeles around the end of 1970. There, at the suggestion of friend Carrie Snodgress, she auditioned at Universal Pictures, doing a scene from The Country Girl for talent head Monique James — Christine then received a seven-year acting contract from Universal Pictures.[1]
Television career
Christine Belford is best-known for her portrayal of exasperated insurance investigator Carlie Kirkland during the second season (1973–74) of the George Peppard TV series Banacek.
Her first appearance on television was as a un-named extra on the last show of the one-season Vince Edwards series Matt Lincoln, in the episode entitled Christopher, broadcast on the ABC network January 14, 1971. Her first appearance on television in a named role was as 'Gretchen Greer' in the political-thriller TV-movie Vanished, first broadcast March 8, 1971 on the NBC network.
She had recurring roles in many TV series:
- Aunt Emily in Married: The First Year (1979)
- Jackie Willow, wife of Jack Willow (Richard Masur), in the short-lived corporate comedy Empire (1984)
- Maggie Randall, the modern-day police deputy in the cowboys/time-travel series Outlaws (1987)
- Sandy, the daughter of Doctor Welby, in several episodes of Marcus Welby M.D. (1972)
- Baroness Paula Von Gunther in the Wonder Woman TV series (1976)
- Evelyn Stratton, the rarely-seen mother of Ricky Stratton (Ricky Schroeder), on Silver Spoons (1984–87)
- Nurse Susan Farragut on Dynasty (1982)
- Samantha Sanders, mother to Steve Sanders (played by Ian Ziering), in the original Beverly Hills 90210 (1992–98)
She also appeared in many television shows of the 1970s, 1980's, and 1990's, including The Sixth Sense, Alias Smith and Jones, Ironside, Mannix, Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, The Six Million Dollar Man, Cannon, Police Story, Harry O, Tales of the Unexpected, Quincy M.E., Battlestar Galactica, The White Shadow, The Paper Chase, Barnaby Jones, CHiPS, Magnum, P.I., The Incredible Hulk, Cagney and Lacey, Hart to Hart, The Greatest American Hero, Fantasy Island, The Golden Girls, Family Ties, My Two Dads, L.A. Law, Empty Nest, Freddy's Nightmares, Diagnosis Murder, Who's the Boss, Night Court, Blossom, Step by Step, and Murder, She Wrote.
She appeared in many TV movies in the same period:
- as 'Adrienne / Marcella Pascal', with James Farentino , in 1972's Cool Million
- as 'Lil', in the 1976 Freddie Prinze comedy The Million Dollar Rip-Off
- as 'Agnes Cusack', in the 1978 Desi Arnaz Jr. thriller To Kill a Cop
- starring as 'Carla Winters', in her own 1978 private-eye movie, Colorado C.I.
- as 'Sgt. Liz Spencer', with Mike Connors and David Birney, in 1979's police thriller High Midnight
- as 'Eliza', in 1980's Kenny Rogers as The Gambler
- as 'Meg Penner', in the 1982 racial drama The Neighborhood
- as 'Rosemary Barton', in the 1983 Agatha Christie mystery-thriller Sparkling Cyanide
- as 'Margo Slater', in the 1986 Sharon Stone police comedy/thriller Mr. and Mrs. Ryan
- as "Randy Emerson", in the 1991 Susan Lucci drama The Woman Who Sinned
Her last appearance on television was in the horse-racing TV movie Ruffian, starring Sam Shepard and broadcast on the ABC network June 9, 2007.
She tried something completely different in 1983, when she co-hosted, in Los Angeles, with Steve Edwards, Cathy Kronkite, and Ruth Batchelor, an unsuccessful pilot for a daytime-magazine series, Personal & Confidential, over five days, August 1–5, 1983.[2]
Film career
Christine Belford's feature-length films include John Carpenter's/Stephen King's Christine (1983), the Paul Newman film Pocket Money (1972), the George Peppard film The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972), and the straight-to-video 1986 film The Ladies Club, where she played a doctor who aided a rape-victim vigilante group by castrating the rapists captured by the women.
Voiceover career
From the 1990s to the present, Christine Belford has done much voiceover work, including commercials, animations, promotional spots, and narrations.[3]
Personal life
Christine Belford has been married to actor Nicholas Pryor since July 1993.
References
- ^ a b c Pack, Harvey "Christine Belford: Starlet of '72" Sarasota Herald-Tribune (July 2, 1972) page 47 (also available online at the Google Books newspaper archive)
- ^ Terrace, Vincent (1985) "Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials" Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG, ISBN 0918432618, page 325
- ^ The Christina Belford ~ Voiceover Homepage
External links
Categories:- American television actors
- Actors from New York
- 1949 births
- Living people
- Hofstra University alumni
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