Lithe and lovely Lesley Ann Warren started gearing towards a life in show business right off the bat as a child ballerina; little did she know that Hollywood stardom would come to her in the form of a "Cinderella" story -- literally!

The New York-born actress (born in 1946) was the daughter of a realtor and a night club singer who gave up her own entertainment career for marriage and family. Lesley attended New York's Professional Children's School and eventually studied under Lee Strasberg at his Actors Studio, the youngest student to be accepted at the time (age 17). The talented hopeful gathered musical stage experience in such shows as "Bye Bye Birdie" playing swooning teen Kim McAfee. She made her illustrious Broadway debut in "110 in the Shade", the 1963 musical version of "The Rainmaker," and subsequently received the Theatre World Award for her work in the 1965 tunefest "Drat! The Cat!"

The attention she received immediately led to her capturing the beguiling title role in the Rodgers and Hammerstein TV musical production of Cinderella. Although sweet-voiced stardom was certainly hers on a silver platter, she didn't necessarily carry the sweet tooth for it. Her impact as Cinderella led to her signing with the Walt Disney Studio as their principal ingénue. Co-starring in the rather blah musical showcases The Happiest Millionaire and The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band further convinced her that she needed to nip the saccharine stereotype in the bud if she was to grow as an actress and sustain some type of career longevity.

Rebelling against her studio-imposed image, she left Disney determined to pursue roles with more depth, drama and character. Changing her name temporarily to "Lesley Warren" to reinforce her goal, she replaced Barbara Bain in the long-running espionage series Mission: Impossible in 1970, but the audiences were quite cool in their reception to the "new and improved" Lesley and didn't buy her as a femme-fatale replacement for the cool and aloof Ms. Bain. After only one season she left the show and sought greener pastures in the TV mini-movie market playing a wide range of vulnerable neurotics as well as sexy, worldly ladies. She made her mark in such sudsy 1970s material as Love Hate Love co-starring Ryan O'Neal; The Legend of Valentino; the rags-to-riches story Harold Robbins' 79 Park Avenue, for which she won a Golden Globe award; the epic WWII story Pearl; Betrayal; and The Secret Life of Susie Hanson.

In the early 1980s Lesley's movie career resurrected itself with a priceless performance as kingpin James Garner's whiny-voiced, peroxide-blonde spitfire Norma Cassady in the musical film slapstick Victor/Victoria. This scene-stealing turn led to a couple of other quality offbeat films: Choose Me and Songwriter, along with the usual quota of TV projects. She also matured into a steamy, sexier "older woman" type and earned some worldly roles opposite various gorgeous young guns, including Christopher Atkins in the critically-drubbed A Night in Heaven. Her riotous "dumb blonde" act, however, had Hollywood discovering her potential as a scatter-brained comedienne, an image she has reinforced over the years with recurring TV guest parts on such popular shows as "Will & Grace" and "Desperate Housewives." Lesley has a son, Christopher Peters, from her 1967-1977 union to makeup artist/hair stylist-cum-film producer Jon Peters. Since 2000 she has been married to advertising exec Ronald Taft, a former v.p. at Columbia and sometime actor. From Cinderella to sexy mamas, the effervescent Lesley is still going strong in a career now hitting four-and-a-half decades.



Youngest actor ever to have attended NY's Actors Studio, when she was 17. Lives in LA with her companion Ronald Taft, an ad executive. Tried out for the role of Lois Lane in Superman (1978), but lost to Margot Kidder. She has a son, Christopher Peters, from producer Jon Peters. At age 13, she won a scholarship to study with ballet legend George Balanchine. Warren says she won the highly-coveted part of Susan's high-maintenance mom "Sophie" on "Desperate Housewives" (2004) because of her son, Christopher Peters. Was very proud of her work in Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story (1992) (TV), and was disappointed that it got clobbered by an HBO movie on the same story (The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993) (TV)) that came out at about the same time, starring Holly Hunter. When she first auditioned for Cinderella, she was so nervous that the audition tanked. She had to audition a second time, and then was hired. Says her favorite genre is the Musical. Walt Disney hand-picked Lesley for the ingénue role in the film The Happiest Millionaire (1967) after her "Cinderella" success. This film was the last live-action movie Disney supervised before his death. Lesley was to co-star in the beautician comedy series "Snip" (1976), a TV takeoff of the Warren Beatty movie Shampoo (1975) starring David Brenner as a divorced hairdresser. Just before its scheduled September 30, 1976, debut, NBC abruptly canceled the show, so fast in fact that TV Guide did not even have time to remove a special feature on the show in its Fall Preview of September 18-24, 1976. Why? One of the show's supporting characters, a fellow hairdresser named "Michael", was openly gay and NBC got cold feet at the last minute. Had "Snip" (1976) premiered, it would have been a first on American series TV. Instead, Billy Crystal went on to receive that honor with his gay character a year later on the popular series "Soap" (1977). Seven episodes of "Snip" (1976) were completed when it got the ax. The only place the series ended up airing was in Australia, and it became the highest rated show in Australian history up until that time. Friend of Marianne Williamson. Appeared as one of the celebrity models in a charity fashion show staged by Thierry Mugler to benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles. [April 1992] Was originally offered Jean Seberg's role in Paint Your Wagon (1969). Suffered from Anorexia nervosa in her teen years and into her twenties.