Sharon Gless, who worked primarily in supporting roles for a number of series and TV movies in the late 1970s and early 1980s, rose to stardom as Christine Cagney in the female cop show Cagney and Lacey (1982-88).

     Two of her more prominent roles before Cagney and Lacey anticipated aspects of the Cagney character. In a short-lived NBC sitcom, Turnabout (1979), Gless played Penny Alston, whose mind and spirit are exchanged with those of her husband. Gless's character thus explored gender differences through the split between a feminine exterior and masculine motivations. Three years later, Gless was tapped to take over the co-starring role in House Calls when Lynn Redgrave was forced out of the series.

     It was the experience of trying to take over in the wake of a popular actor's departure that made Gless hesitate when she was offered the role of Christine Cagney. In the TV movie, Cagney had been played by Loretta Switt, and in the first season of the series, the character had been portrayed by Meg Foster. A CBS executive touched off a protest from fans, however, when he made a statement suggesting Foster was not feminine enough for the role, making the team of Chris Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey (played by Tyne Daly) look like "a pair of dykes." Renewal of the series was contingent on replacing Foster with someone "softer." Though initially seen by fans as a sellout to the network, Gless soon gained acceptance from the devoted audience of Cagney and Lacey. Ironically, she developed a substantial following among lesbian viewers, according to critic Julie D'Acci.

     Not only did Cagney contrast with her married, working-class partner, but, as played by Gless, Chris­ tine Cagney embodied a number of contradictions in class and gender. Her soft blonde beauty played against the tough shell she maintained both on the job and in many of her personal encounters. Her working­-class Irish cop identity, inherited from her father, clashed with the sleek, upper-crust veneer she had acquired from her mother. Her career success contrasted with a string of unhappy romances in her personal life. 

     Although Gless has said she considers herself primarily a comedian, Cagney and Lacey provided the opportunity for her to grow as a dramatic actor. In the first three years of the series, Gless was nominated for an Emmy, but Daly received the award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series. The following two years, however, the Emmy went to Gless, and in the final year of the series, the Emmy went back to Daly. Gless took pride in her contribution to the substance and quality of the series: "We're pioneering," she said in a story for McCall's. "We're showing women who can do a so-called man's job without ever forgetting that they are women."

     Since the end of Cagney and Lacey in 1988, Gless has married Barney Rosenzweig, who created another series for her, The Trials of Rosie O'Neill (1990-91). In the role of the title character, Gless again portrayed a single, upscale character connected with the law­ this time a newly divorced, well-healed lawyer, working in the cramped, underfunded offices of Los Angeles public defenders. Gless won a Golden Globe Award for her work in the series before it was canceled. In the 1990s she joined Tyne Daly in four Cagney and Lacey reunion movies and has appeared in a number of other TV and theatrical movies. In 200 l Gless returned to series work, in a departure from her upscale roles, as Debbie Novotny, Michael's waitress mother, in Queer As Folk for Showtime.