A 1980s soap opera star who then played the mother of one of the most iconic sitcom characters of the 1990s was unrecognizable in Los Angeles this week.
Born in 1950, she began her career as a body double for Faye Dunaway and then rose to become a reigning sex symbol in her own right.
During the 1970s and 1980s, TV viewers could catch her on some of the top soap operas of the age, ranging from Dallas to Falcon Crest.
By the 1990s she was a regular presence on top sitcoms – with one particular role winning her an enduring fanbase around the world.
During her latest sighting, however, she swapped out her famed glamour-puss image for a dressed-down ensemble including a loose band t-shirt and leggings.
Can you guess who she is?
A 1980s soap opera star who then played the mother of one of the most iconic sitcom characters of the 1990s was unrecognizable in Los Angeles this week
She is none other than Morgan Fairchild, who went from a soap opera siren of the 1980s to Chandler Bing’s mother on Friends in the 1990s.
When she arrived in Hollywood from her native Texas, her silken blonde hair and willowy figure stood her in instant good stead, landing her a job as Faye Dunaway’s body double in the seminal 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde.
Her soap opera career took off in the 1970s, beginning with a four-year run on Search For Tomorrow and then an episode of Dallas in 1978.
In the 1980s, she spent years on Falcon Crest and the short-lived Flamingo Road, establishing herself as a megawatt glamour icon.
She became especially notable for ‘rich b****’ roles, prompting her home state’s paper Texas Monthly to call her ‘evil queen of eighties trash TV.’
Early in her career, a producer had told her: ‘Let me explain something to you. I can get an ingenue anywhere. But a good b**** is hard to find.’
Her platinum blonde hair, angelic face, high camp costumes and icy delivery of withering put-downs made her an unforgettable presence on TV.
In the 1990s her glitzy froideur won her a global audience that lasts to this day, via her role on Friends as Nora Bing, the mother of Matthew Perry’s character Chandler.
During her latest sighting, however, she swapped out her typical glamour-puss image for a dressed-down ensemble including a loose band t-shirt and leggings
She is none other than Morgan Fairchild, who went from a soap opera siren of the 1980s to Chandler Bing’s mother on Friends in the 1990s; pictured in 1995
In the 1990s her glitzy froideur won her a global audience that lasts to this day, via her role on Friends as Nora Bing, the mother of Matthew Perry’s character Chandler
During the 1970s and 1980s, TV viewers could catch her on some of the top soap operas of the age, ranging from Dallas to Falcon Crest; pictured on Falcon Crest in 1985
Her platinum blonde hair, angelic face, high camp costumes and icy delivery of withering put-downs made her an unforgettable TV presence; pictured at the 1996 People’s Choice Awards
As an emotionally distant but sexually insatiable romance novelist, Morgan proved a delight to fans – along with Kathleen Turner as Chandler’s drag queen father.
She has kept acting in recent years, including with a recurring guest shot on General Hospital from 2022 to 2023, a return to the soap opera genre.
Also in 2023, she featured in a Lifetime comedy called Ladies Of The ’80s: A Divas Christmas, about a group of soap stars who reunite – played by actual 1980s TV sirens Morgan, Nicollette Sheridan, Loni Anderson, Donna Mills and Linda Gray.
On the personal front, she tied the knot with music executive Jack Calmes in 1967 when she was only 17, but the marriage fell apart by 1973.
She found lasting love in 1987 with studio executive Mark Seiler, whom she remained with until his death of a heart attack in 2023 at the age of 75.
When Morgan surfaced this week, she still sported the radiant complexion that helped make her one of the most recognizable faces in America.
‘You see a lot of bad aging in Hollywood and I have always tried to live real clean. So that helps. I did no drinking, smoking and no drugs,’ she told DailyMail.com in 2023.
‘When you are younger you just do it because you think it is a good idea. But when you’re older you see other people and say I am glad I didn’t do that. A lot of that hard partying ages you a lot. I am just so boring.’
Morgan observed: ‘It is all about a good diet too. I grew up in Texas, so if I kept eating the way I did with everything deep fat fried it would be a whole other story. Part of it is just educating yourself on nutrition and different therapies.’
