Sally Struthers rose to prominence as Gloria Stivic in the 1970s sitcom All In The Family. Millions of people watched the show as it explored societal concerns and taboos, turning them tragic or amusing, and sometimes both.
Struthers appeared with other well-known names who went on to have great careers as a result of the show. Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, and Danielle Brisebois were among them.
During its tenure, the show won 42 awards and got a whopping 73 nominations. Even today, many of us return to it when we want to be reminded of the good old days of television.
“At first, I behaved like an idiot on the set,” Struthers said to the Longview Daily News in 1973, of the character she played. That was my plan for making people like me. On the set, I was educated. I’ve learned to be true to myself. They now respect me.”
It’s a fascinating story how she ended up on a show. Struthers was found while dancing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour by producer Norman Lear, who the actress described as a “father to us all.”
The show was so popular that Struthers, then 22, couldn’t even leave her house without being followed by fans who wanted to meet her.
Struthers requested that her character become more dramatic as the show progressed from season to season.
“I want to do something different when we go on break,” she remarked.
“And there are so many different ways to portray a lady. I’d like to play a murderess, an unmarried mother, a nun, and an elderly Jewish mother. At the end of my career, I want people to say I’m as hilarious as Judy Holliday and as revered as Ruth Gordon.”
Struthers found herself typecast when the program ended, making it difficult for her to secure roles she wanted to portray. Sally was a semi-regular panelist on the panel game show Match Game in the 1990s; others may recognize her as Babette Dell from Gilmore Girls.
She has been a regular at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine since the early 2000s.
“I’ve arrived. I live in Los Angeles. I’ve made myself available. I’m not sure why I’m never approached to audition. I’ve never been offered a job here. But give me Texas, Maine, Virginia, New York, and Connecticut, and there will always be a job for me. “They’re clamoring for me to return the next year in something else,” she says.
Struthers, who has been a Christian Children’s Fund spokeswoman for many years, has one daughter. She used to believe she wouldn’t be a mother since she didn’t want a kid, but that changed after she met her ex-husband, famed psychiatrist William C. Rader.
“Before meeting Bill, I had never wanted a child. I was always the first to say that it wouldn’t make me happy, that I didn’t need a carbon copy of myself. “Then you fall in love,” she told People in 1981.
“And you want to be the mother of a child who is a product of your love for each other.”
Samantha Struthers Rader, her daughter, is a professional psychologist with her own practice.
Struthers is now 75 years old, yet she is still extremely active in the teather.
“I’ve wanted to make people laugh since I was able to walk and say a few words,” she told Spectrum News in 2022.
“And when I hear other people laugh, and I know that whatever silly expression I’ve made or some line reading causes them to double over, I’m transported to heaven. That’s my specialty. Laughter.”
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