Denise Nicholas

This tall, attractive light-skinned black actress is perhaps best recalled for her portrayals of high school guidance counselor Liz McIntyre on "Room 222" (ABC, 1969-74) and Harriet DeLong, who won the heart of Southern Sheriff Gillespie (Carroll O'Connor) despite the interracial nature of their relationship, on the TV version of "In the Heat of the Night" (NBC and CBS). Denise Nicholas left the University of Michigan during the peak of the Civil Rights movement to perform with the Free Southern Theatre in the front lines of Mississippi. By 1966, she was appearing in the Off-Broadway show "Viet Rock." The following year, she joined Douglas Turner Ward's famed Negro Ensemble Company, appearing in several plays, including Lonnie Elder III's "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men" (1968). In 1967, Nicholas had landed a recurring role in three episodes of the ABC series "N.Y.P.D.," shot on location in Manhattan. She headed to Hollywood in 1969 for a five season stint on "Room 222" in 1969, one of the first series to confront the socio-political issues of the day. Nicholas subsequently appeared in the frothy short-lived "Baby, I'm Back" (CBS, 1978), about a woman about to remarry when her missing husband comes back to town. It took over a decade before she found another worthy series role. During the 1989-90 season, Nicholas joined the cast of NBC's "In the Heat of the Night" as Harriet DeLong, a city councilwoman who eventual married the sheriff of a small Southern town. The actress scripted several episodes and remained with the show when it moved to CBS for its final season in 1992-93. She also reprised the role in a handful of TV-movie sequels. Much of Nicholas' feature film work has been alongside Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. She was their leading lady in the above-average crime comedies "Let's Do It Again" (1975) and "A Piece of the Action" (1977) while she was Cosby's girlfriend in the Poitier-directed "Ghost Dad" (1990). Her other film roles have included the cult classic "Blacula" (1972), in which she succumbs to the charms of William Marshall's vampire, "The Soul of Nigger Charley" (1973), as Fred Williamson's romantic interest, and the thriller "Capricorn One" (1978), as the wife of an astronaut (O J Simpson). In addition to her acting career, Nicholas has branched out as a writer with the historical play "Buses" which examined the stands by both Mary Ellen Pleasant in the 19th Century and Rosa Parks in the 20th Century. She has also produced short films, taught acting at USC and co-produced "Voices of Our People: In Celebration of Black Poetry" for PBS via KCET in Los Angeles. (The series earned 12 local area Emmy Awards.) Nicholas has been married three times, to producer-director Gilbert Moses, singer Bill Withers and sportscaster Jim Hill. During that marriage in the early 1980s, she was billed as Denise Nicholas-Hill.