Ellen Tyne Daly (born February 21, 1946) is an American actress who will played as Phyllis on the revival CBS sitcom Murphy Brown, she also played as Mary Beth Lacey on the CBS original crime drama series Cagney & Lacey and Maxine Gray in legal drama series Judging Amy.
Early life[]
Daly was born in Madison, Wisconsin, to actor James Daly and actress Mary Hope (née Newell). Her younger brother is actor Tim Daly, and she has two sisters, Mary Glynn and Pegeen Michael.
She was raised in Westchester County, New York, where she started her career by performing in summer stock with her family; she earned her Equity Card at age 15. She studied at Brandeis University and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
Career[]
Television[]
Daly portrayed one of the two title characters in the CBS police-procedural crime drama Cagney & Lacey as Mary Beth Lacey, the married working mother. She won the Emmy Award, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, four times, in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, and was a nominee in 1986 and 1987. Between co-star Sharon Gless and herself, they won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series six years in a row.
In 1991, Daly guest-starred on her brother Tim's series Wings, playing a woman who dates Brian Hackett (Steven Weber), brother of Tim's character Joe. She appeared as social worker Maxine Gray, who was also the mother to the show's title character on the CBS drama Judging Amy, which ran from 1999 to 2005. Addressing a conference of the National Association of Social Workers in 2000, Daly said she had learned from social workers and social work texts to improve her portrayal of her character, and she added: "I take from you because you are the ones dealing with all the bad institutions of our society: institutionalized poverty, institutionalized racism, institutionalized cynicism."
Daly appeared in a made-for-TV movie for Lifetime in 2003 titled Undercover Christmas, as Anne Cunningham. She played the role of a traditional mother and peacemaker at Christmas time in a wealthy family of lawyers, who initially disapproves of her FBI agent son's girlfriend. Among her later television roles, Daly reunited with Cagney & Lacy costar Sharon Gless in a 2010 guest role on the series Burn Notice.
On April 19, 2018, Daly is return to CBS and she will play as Phyllis in revival sitcom Murphy Brown since her younger brother Tim Daly is CBS family starring on the diplomatic drama Madam Secretary, which was renewed season five.
Personal life[]
Daly was married to Georg Stanford Brown from 1966 to 1990 and they have three daughters, including actress Kathryne Dora Brown.