Judith Light (born February 9, 1949) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, and is now starring as Claire Meade on ABC's Ugly Betty.

Biography

Early life

Light was born in Trenton, New Jersey of Jewish heritage,www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-light19-2008sep19,0,4085247.story the daughter of Pearl Sue (née Hollander), a model, and Sidney Light, an accountant.www.filmreference.com/film/96/Judith-Light.html Ms. Light graduated from highschool at St. Mary's Hall, now Doane Academy, in Burlington, New Jersey. After graduating from Carnegie-Mellon University with a degree in drama, she started out on stage, making her professional debut in Richard III at the California Shakespeare Festival in 1970, before moving to Broadway to star in A Doll's House in 1975. Light also acted for medium size theatre companies including "The Rep" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Career

She first found television fame after being recast in the role of Karen Wolek on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. (The Karen Wolek role had previously been portrayed by actresses Kathryn Breech and Julia Duffy). This role was quite lucrative for Light and spawned one of the show's most-remembered storylines; Light's character became a prostitute after she became bored with her life as a housewife. On trial, Karen saved her friend Viki Lord from being convicted of killing her pimp by admitting that she had been a prostitute to the entire town, including her faithful husband. Light won Daytime Emmy Awards in 1980 and 1981.