Much like Maude Apatow, Catherine Sagal was born to a noted television and film director. Her father is Boris Sagal. She began performing at age 5 and studied voice and acting at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. A singing waitress during her “salad” years, she started performing with the band “The Group With No Name,” then caught a break after hooking up with Gene Simmons and his 1970s rock band KISS. She was a dynamic performer who did a live show with diva Bette Midler as one of her “Harlettes” in Bette’s wildly avant-garde stage shows during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1985 she was spotted on stage in a musical by talent agents who subsequently cast her as Mary Tyler Moore’s feisty co-worker Jo Tucker in Mary (1985), a short-lived comedy series. From that point on she focused on film and television. She would go onto then become someone as iconic as Jennifer Grey from the 80s.
Today the actress resides in the Los Angeles area with husband writer/producer/director/creator Kurt Sutter, whose acclaimed work includes The Shield (2002) and the offbeat Sons of Anarchy (2008), which Sutter formed, in which she was intriguingly cast as a motorcycle-club family matriarch. Together they have three children: Sarah, Jackson, and Esme; and three dogs: Lumpy, Lola and Blue
What did Katey Sagal do after Married With Children?
Singer and actress Katey Sagal became a household name in the late 1980s as the undomesticated Peg Bundy on the longest running Fox series Married… with Children (1987). With the show she received three Golden Globe and two American Comedy Award nominations. As identifiable as her Peg Bundy persona was, Katey assertively moved on after the show went off the air, not only starring in other sitcoms and television movies, but portraying characters that were polar opposites! In 2008 she became Gemma Teller Morrow, the matriarch of a Hell’s- Angels-esque California biker gang, on the series Sons of Anarchy (2008). This earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama.
In her post-Bundy career, Katey has continued to demonstrate a strong range, playing a much more responsible parent in the popular sitcom 8 Simple Rules (2002), co-starring the late John Ritter. She has earned equally-fine kudos for her television movies like Chance of a Lifetime (1998), a charming romantic comedy that also co-starred John Ritter, God’s New Plan (1999), a tearjerker in which she played a dying mother, and the Disney offerings Smart House (1999) and The Wonderful World of Disney: Mr. Headmistress (1998).
Katey Sagal is a songwriter:
In addition to her busy on-camera scheduling, Katey has retraced her steps to her first love: singing and songwriting. With the assistance of her record label Valley Entertainment, she released the album “Room” in 2004 that combined classics like “Feel a Whole Lot Better” and “(For the Love of) Money” with original songs she penned, including “Life Goes Round,” “Daddy’s Girl,” and “Wish I Were a Kid.” “Room” is her first CD since her 1994 debut “Well.”
Quick Facts:
- Wore a red wig for her role as Peg Bundy on Married… with Children (1987).
- Older sister of Liz Sagal, David Sagal, Jean Sagal, and Joey Sagal.
- Daughter of Boris Sagal and Sara Macon. Her father was a Russian Jewish immigrant. Her mother had English, German and Scottish ancestry.
- She has been a backup singer for Bob Dylan, Bette Midler, Gene Simmons, and Tanya Tucker.
- Her father, Boris Sagal, was a director, and her mother, Sara Macon, was a singer.
- In a far cry from the red-wigged, stiletto-heeled Peg Bundy on Married… with Children(1987), she played the responsible sitcom mother Cate Hennessey on 8 Simple Rules (2002).
- Released a second CD in June 2004: “Room,” a collection of pop classics and originals.
- After her mother’s death, her father married renowned dancer/choreographer Marge Champion.
- Was hired to sing backup for Bob Dylan during his 1978 tour but was fired along with half the band a week before it started.
- Her godfather is producer Norman Lear.
- Her younger brother Joey Sagal appeared in a couple of Married… with Children (1987) episodes.
- Her older brother David Sagal is a lawyer and studio executive at Warner Brothers.
- At the Married… with Children (1987) auditions, it was her own idea to dress Peg in clothes from the 1960s.
- Parodied her role of Peg Bundy via a similarly-attired character in the Futurama (1999) episode Futurama: A Bicyclops Built for Two (2000).
- After two months of pregnancy with her first child, she suffered a miscarriage. [December 1989]
- Gave birth to her second child at age 42, son Jackson James White, on March 1, 1996. Child’s father is her second husband, Jack White.
- Became a mother for the third time at age 52 when daughter Esme Louise Sutter was born via surrogate on January 10, 2007. Child’s father is her third husband, Kurt Sutter.
- She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on September 9, 2014.
- Graduated from Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades, California in 1971.
- Married her boyfriend of two years Kurt Sutter in a private ceremony at their home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz on October 2, 2004.
- Her band, The Group With No Name, released its self-titled album on Casablanca Records on September 3 1976.
- Katey Sagal’s band, The Group With No Name, released two singles, “Baby Love (How Could You Leave Me)” and “Get Out in the Sunshine.” They did a live appearance on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert (1973).