Lisa Hartman Black on AllMovie

The daughter of a lounge singer, Lisa Hartman grew up watching in fascination as audiences responded to her dad's nightclub act. Despite a peripatetic childhood, Hartman was determined to pursue a showbiz career as soon as she was old enough. She fronted a Houston rock band at 16, and headed to LA three years later, where she recorded her first album. It went directly to the one-dollar bin, but Hartman was only slightly fazed by this early failure; if the musical world didn't want her just yet, there were always modelling jobs and TV commercials. Her first TV series was 1977's Tabitha, a foredoomed attempt to bring the Bewitched baby into the adult world of giggles and jiggles. After several ups and down, Hartman was cast as saloon songstress Ciji on the nighttime serial Knot's Landing (1982). Ciji was eventually killed off, but Hartman was back on the series within months as a Ciji look-alike, waitress Cathy Geary. Though this series would firmly establish Hartman as one of TV's best "bad girls," she was able to take a few sabbaticals from villainy, notably as host of the syndicated magazine series Cover Story. Lisa Hartman has remained in the public eye into the 1990s, chiefly as the wife (and frequent singing partner) of country-western star Clint Black.