Lee Purcell

Lee Purcell was plucked from obscurity to co-star alongside a promising young actor named Michael Douglas in a tale of hippie-era alienation called "Adam at Six A.M." It was the North Carolina native's first-ever role, and while the movie didn't launch her to stardom, she maintained a solid career as a character actress in film and television.

A copper-haired cutie with a wide smile, Purcell had an impressive ability to change her looks to suit her roles--in 1978, at the age of 31, she convincingly starred as a high schooler in the episodic teen comedy "Almost Summer," and only five years later, she was entirely believable as a seductive suburban mom--a sort of proto-cougar--in the Generation X touchstone "Valley Girl."

Purcell gracefully aged into maternal and professional roles in the '80s and '90s, including a recurring role on the cult favorite police action-comedy "Due South" as the antagonistic State Attorney Louise St. Laurent.

She also works regularly in made-for-TV movies, and garnered Emmy nominations for her roles in the dramas "Long Road Home" and "Secret Sins of the Father."