Annette O'Toole

Annette O'Toole grew up in the Houston dance studio run by her mother. She made her television debut at the age of two, as a kid on a weekly local talent show, "The Don Mahoney Kiddie Trooper Show." When she was 13, with ten years of singing and dancing lessons behind her, she and her mother went to L.A. for a year to see if she could have a career in show business. Within two months, she got her first professional job: dancing with Danny Kaye on "The Danny Kaye Show (CBS, 1963-67)." O'Toole began her acting career in earnest with an episode of "Gunsmoke." She made her feature film debut as a savvy beauty contestant in "Smile" (1975) and next was Robby Benson's leading lady in "One on One" (1977). O'Toole then had a role opposite Eric Roberts in "King of the Gypsies" (1978), in which he was a gypsy warring with his family and his background and she was his "American" girlfriend. She has subsequently played Lana Lang, the high school sweetheart of Clark Kent in "Superman III" (1983) and co-starred with Martin Short in "Cross My Heart" (1987). O'Toole made her TV-movie debut with "The Girl Most Likely To..." (ABC, 1973) and played country singer Tammy Wynette in the biopic, "Stand By Your Man" (CBS, 1981). Among her other roles were Lola Lamar, love interest for Barry Manilow in his TV-movie debut, "Copacabana" (CBS, 1985), Pamela Sue Martin's roommate, a woman who only wants to get married, in the syndicated "Arthur Hailey's Strong Medicine" (1986), the wife of Oliver North (David Keith) in "Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North" (CBS, 1989), and Rose Kennedy, matriarch of "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" (ABC, 1990). In 1996, starred as Don Johnson's ex-wife in her first TV series, "Nash Bridges" (CBS, 1995-2000). Among others, O'Toole has since had regular roles on "Smallville" (WB/CW, 2001-10), "The Punisher" (Netflix, 2017-19) and "Virgin River" (Netflix, 2019-).