Biography
This page uses content from the Erin Gray biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Erin Gray (born January 7, 1950) is an American actress. She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
At the age of eight her parents separated and she moved to California with her mother. By the age of 15 she began pursuing a career in modelling, and within a few years she was considered one of the top models in New York.
In 1967 she made her debut on television as a dancer in the variety series Malibu U. A year later she married her high school sweetheart Ken Schwartz, and their son Kevan was born in 1976. While living in New York she began to develop an interest in acting, and so her family moved with her to Hollywood. Her first starring role was on the mini-series Evening In Byzantium, in 1978.
Gray is best known for her roles as Colonel Wilma Deering in the 1979–1981 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Kate Summers in the 1982–1987 television series Silver Spoons. Concerning her Buck Rogers role, she told an interviewer "I was the first female colonel. I enjoyed being that kind of role model for young women watching the show. A woman can be a colonel! A woman can be in charge! Those were new ideas then."
In 1991, she had a featured role in Jason Goes To Hell, an entry in the Friday the 13th series.
During the 1990s her marriage ended in a divorce, and she also suffered through several deaths in her family. She married Richard Hissong, and they had a daughter Samantha in 1991.
Besides her acting work, Gray is also active in teaching Tai Chi and in the late 1990s wrote a book entitled Act Right which contains advice for novice television and movie actors; a revised edition (ISBN 1-58436-000-3) was published in 2001.
Gray continues to act and in 2005 appeared in the film, Siren.
Gray was interviewed about her various acting roles as well as how she broke into Hollywood in the February 25, 2006 episode of the award winning podcast The Future And You. (Like most podcasts, all episodes of The Future And You remain available for free download.)
In June 2006, Erin appeared at the Bionicon convention in Tampa Fl.
External links
- Erin Gray World Wide Official site
- Unofficial Erin Gray Web Site Photo site
- Podcast ending with an 11 minute interview with Erin Gray
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

