Delta Burke

Delta Burke, born July 30, 1956, in Orlando, Florida, is an American actress, producer, and author whose career has spanned television, film, and Broadway. Raised in Orlando, she was adopted by Frederick Burke, a local realtor, after he married her mother, Jean. Burke has two younger siblings, Jonathan and Jennifer, and has never met her biological father.

Burke attended Colonial High School, graduating in 1974 with the senior superlative "Most Likely to Succeed." Her pageant career began early: in 1972 she earned the Miss Flame title from the Orlando Fire Department, and in her senior year she became Miss Florida 1974, the youngest titleholder in the pageant's history at that time. A talent scholarship from the Miss America Organization funded a two-year program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. That same year, her Miss Florida title brought her an appearance on the ABC program Bozo the Clown, filmed in Orlando, and she represented the title at the World Football League's World Bowl, footage of which later appeared in a 2001 episode of Lost Treasures of NFL Films.

Her early television work included a role in the 1980 CBS western miniseries The Chisholms, in which she played the second Bonnie Sue Chisholm. She then spent a year on the CBS series Filthy Rich, playing young widow Kathleen Beck, followed by a recurring role as football-team owner Diane Barrow on 1st & Ten from 1984 to 1986. In 1986, Filthy Rich creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason cast Burke as Suzanne Sugarbaker in the CBS sitcom Designing Women, a role she would hold for five seasons. The show, set at an Atlanta interior design firm, struggled initially and was briefly canceled after its first year before gaining stronger ratings in 1989 when paired with Murphy Brown. Burke became the series' breakout performer and received consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1990 and 1991, the only lead female cast member of the show to be nominated. In 1989, she had asked Bloodworth-Thomason to write an episode addressing her weight; the resulting episode, "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?", in which Suzanne Sugarbaker attends a high school reunion and faces disparaging remarks about her appearance, is considered a factor in Burke's first Emmy nomination. In 1990, Burke publicly voiced dissatisfaction with working conditions on the show, including claims of excessive hours and disputes with colleagues. Her contentious relationship with costar Dixie Carter and with Bloodworth-Thomason led to her dismissal at the end of the fifth season in 1991.

Burke's weight became a recurring subject in the tabloid press from the early 1990s onward, with her struggles with weight, depression, and eating disorders traced back to her pageant years. She was the subject of a Saturday Night Live parody during this period. After her departure from Designing Women, she starred in the 1992 sitcom Delta, playing an aspiring country music singer, but the series was canceled after one season. In 1995, following a reconciliation with Bloodworth-Thomason, Burke reprised the role of Suzanne Sugarbaker in the Designing Women spinoff Women of the House, which also lasted only one season. Her reconciliation with Carter took considerably longer, though Burke eventually guest-starred on an episode of Family Law, on which Carter was a series regular.

Burke's later television work included a costarring role opposite David Alan Grier on the sitcom DAG, which aired from 2000 to 2001. She had lost a significant amount of weight for the role after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She also appeared in a supporting capacity in the Mel Gibson film What Women Want in 2000 and starred in several made-for-television films, including the Hallmark Channel production Bridal Fever, which aired in February 2008. From 2006 to 2007, she played Bella Horowitz in a five-episode arc during the third season of Boston Legal, portraying a former romantic interest of William Shatner's character Denny Crane.

Burke made her Broadway debut in September 2003, taking on the role of the villainous Mrs. Meers in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. She was the third actress to play the part in that production, following Harriet Harris and Terry Burrell, and held the role until February 2004, when she was succeeded by her Designing Women costar Dixie Carter. Her second Broadway credit came with the original Broadway production of Steel Magnolias, in which she played Truvy for the show's complete four-month run from April 4 through July 31, 2005.

In March 2012, Burke was cast in the ABC comedy pilot Counter Culture, but production was suspended after she was injured in a fall on set and the project did not proceed to series. Burke has also collaborated on multiple occasions with playwright and screenwriter Del Shores, including work on Sordid Lives and Southern Baptist Sissies, and has been a supporter of gay rights. In 2006, she and actor Leslie Jordan were uninvited from the Nashville talk show Talk of the Town after the show's managing director determined the subject matter would be offensive to conservative viewers. Burke has said her connection to the cause began during her time studying in London.

On May 28, 1989, Burke married actor Gerald McRaney; the couple has no children together, though McRaney has adult children from previous marriages. Their primary residence is in Los Angeles, and they also own homes in Telluride, Colorado, and New Orleans, as well as an antiques store in Collins, Mississippi. Burke is the designer and manager of Delta Burke Design, a clothing company headquartered in New York City. In addition to her acting career, she authored Delta Style: Eve Wasn't a Size 6 and Neither Am I, published in 1998 by St. Martin's Press. Burke has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and compulsive hoarding syndrome, for which she has received therapy.