Carrie Hamilton

Carrie Louise Hamilton (December 5, 1963 – January 20, 2002) was an American actress, playwright, and singer born in New York, New York. The eldest daughter of comedian Carol Burnett and producer Joe Hamilton, she was also the elder sister of actress Jody Hamilton and singer-producer Erin Hamilton. Hamilton pursued studies in music and acting at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, before building a career across stage, film, and television.

Hamilton gained early television recognition through the musical drama Fame, taking on the recurring role of Reggie Higgins during the show's fifth and sixth seasons from 1985 to 1987. Her mother appeared alongside her in a 1987 Fame episode titled "Reggie and Rose." The two also co-starred in the 1988 television movie Hostage and competed together on five episodes of Family Feud in 1995, facing a team captained by Betty White. In 1997, they shared the screen again in a Touched by an Angel episode titled "The Comeback," in which Hamilton played an aspiring Broadway performer whose mother, portrayed by Burnett, had previously pursued a stage career of her own. Rita Moreno also appeared in that episode. In 1999, Hamilton starred in a sixth-season episode of The X-Files titled "Monday," playing Pam, the girlfriend of a would-be bank robber who is compelled to relive the same day repeatedly.

Her film work included Tokyo Pop (1988), in which she portrayed an American singer who travels to Japan, performs several songs, and becomes involved with both a musician played by Diamond Yukai and a band that reaches the top ten of the Tokyo pop charts. In 1992, she appeared in a minor role in the live-action film Cool World. Beyond acting, Hamilton contributed musically outside of film and television: in 1991 she played piano on the track "Everything About You" for Ugly Kid Joe's album As Ugly as They Wanna Be.

On stage, Hamilton portrayed Maureen Johnson in the first national tour of the musical Rent, a performance that earned considerable acclaim. She also collaborated with her mother to adapt Burnett's memoir One More Time into the stage play Hollywood Arms, a production listed among her Broadway credits. Hamilton did not live to see Hollywood Arms reach the stage. She married musician Mark Templin in 1994 on the same sound stage where The Carol Burnett Show was recorded; the couple divorced in 1998.

Hamilton died on January 20, 2002, in Los Angeles, California, from pneumonia resulting from lung cancer that had spread to her brain. She was 38 years old and is interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. In July 2006, the former Balcony Theatre of the Pasadena Playhouse was rededicated as the Carrie Hamilton Theatre in her memory. On March 23, 2010, Carol Burnett participated in the establishment of the Anaheim University Carrie Hamilton Entertainment Institute. Burnett also published a memoir about her daughter titled Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story, released on April 8, 2014, which became a New York Times bestselling book.