24 Facts About Dixie Carter

1.

Dixie Carter starred as Julia Sugarbaker on the sitcom Designing Women and as Randi King on the drama series Family Law.

2.

Dixie Carter was nominated for the 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Gloria Hodge on Desperate Housewives.

3.

Dixie Carter returned to Broadway to play Maria Callas in the play Master Class in 1997 and to play Mrs Meers in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2004.

4.

Dixie Virginia Carter was born May 25,1939, to Esther Virginia and Halbert Leroy Carter in McLemoresville, Tennessee.

5.

Dixie Carter attended the University of Memphis and Southwestern at Memphis.

6.

In 1959, Dixie Carter competed in the Miss Tennessee pageant, where she placed first runner-up to Mickie Weyland.

7.

Dixie Carter won the Miss Volunteer beauty pageant at the University of Tennessee the same year.

8.

In 1960, Dixie Carter made her professional stage debut in a Memphis production of Carousel, co-starring George Hearn, whom she would go on to marry 17 years later.

9.

Dixie Carter moved to New York City in 1963 and got a part in a production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

10.

Dixie Carter took the role though some advised her that doing a daytime soap might negatively affect her career.

11.

Dixie Carter relocated from New York to Los Angeles and pursued prime-time television roles.

12.

Dixie Carter appeared in series such as Out of the Blue, On Our Own, Diff'rent Strokes, The Greatest American Hero and as the stuck up and conniving Carlotta Beck on Filthy Rich.

13.

Carter's daughters Ginna and Mary Dixie Carter had guest star roles as Julia Sugarbaker's nieces Jennifer and Camilla in the episode "The Naked Truth" in 1989.

14.

In 1997, Dixie Carter starred as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's play Master Class.

15.

Dixie Carter was in the voice cast of My Neighbors the Yamadas, the English language dub of Studio Ghibli's 1999 anime movie of the same.

16.

Dixie Carter gave an interview in 2006 for the feature-length documentary That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor, which received support from Taylor's family and many of Dub's previous coworkers, including Bill Cosby, Peter Fonda, Don Collier, Cheryl Rogers-Barnett and many others.

17.

Dixie Carter divorced Arthur Carter in 1977 and married theater and TV actor George Hearn the same year.

18.

Dixie Carter was married for the third time on May 27,1984, to fellow actor Hal Holbrook whom she met on the set of The Killing of Randy Webster.

19.

In 1996, Dixie Carter published a memoir titled Trying to Get to Heaven, in which she talked frankly about her life with Hal Holbrook, Designing Women and her plastic surgery during the show's run.

20.

Dixie Carter acknowledged, along with other celebrities, having used human growth hormone for its antiaging properties.

21.

Dixie Carter was a registered Republican who described her political views as libertarian.

22.

Dixie Carter was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly along with Pat Boone at the 2000 Republican National Convention, and once jokingly described herself as "the only Republican in show business".

23.

Dixie Carter's husband said her death was caused by complications from endometrial cancer, diagnosed earlier in 2010.

24.

The Dixie Carter Performing Arts and Academic Enrichment Center in Huntingdon, Tennessee, is named in honor of Carter.