Leigh Taylor-Young

Sylphlike actress Leigh Taylor-Young first came to the attention of televiewers in 1966, when she was cast as Rachael Welles on the nighttime soap Peyton Place. She rose to film prominence with a series of "flower child" characterizations, notably the hash-brownie baking heroine of I Love You, Alice B. Toklas.

She was born Leigh Young on January 25, 1945 in Washington, DC. Her parents divorced when she was young. When she began her acting career in the mid-1960s, the actress adopted a hyphenated surname in honor of both her father and her stepfather. After studies at the Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC, Taylor-Young made her Broadway debut in the short-lived Gower Champion-directed play Three Bags Full (1966).

Traveling to California for health reasons, she auditioned and was cast in the primetime ABC serial Peyton Place in 1966 as Rachael Welles, a young woman claiming to have information about the disappearance of Allison Mackenzie (Mia Farrow). During her run on the series, she became romantically involved with co-star Ryan O'Neal, whom she married in 1967. After the birth of their son, Taylor-Young was tapped to play the free-spirited, free-loving hippie who changes Peter Sellers' outlook on life in her debut I Love You Alice B. Toklas (1968). Other plum feature roles followed, including the female lead alongside Jerry Orbach and Robert De Niro in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) and opposite Charlton Heston in Soylent Green (1973). The very public break-up of her marriage to O'Neal (who was conducting an affair with his What's Up Doc? co-star Barbra Streisand) caused Taylor-Young to leave Hollywood.

After a spiritual quest that took her to India and a second marriage to agent and film executive Guy McElwaine (who preferred she not work), Taylor-Young returned to

She reemerged as a character actress in the early 1980s in Can't Stop the Music (1980) and essaying such meaty film roles as the surprise murder witness in The Jagged Edge (1985).

Still popular among Hollywood insiders from her days as an ingenue, Taylor-Young turned to TV, playing secretary to Rock Hudson in the short-lived The Devlin Connection (NBC, 1982) and returned to primetime soaps as the wife of a department store heir in the summer series The Hamptons (ABC, 1983).

During the 1987-88 season, Taylor-Young joined the cast of CBS' Dallas as the wife of one of J.R. Ewing's nemeses. She joined the cast of CBS' Picket Fences in 1993 in the regular role of Rachel Harris, who becomes mayor after her predecessor dies of spontaneous combustion. The role was supposed to be just for a season, but when she was the surprise winner of a Best Supporting Actress Emmy, the character was written back into the series briefly. Taylor-Young then landed the recurring role Naomi, the mother of the partner of The Sentinel (1996–1999) on the UPN series. Long-time friend Aaron Spelling then offered her the role of earth mother Elaine Stevens on the NBC daytime soap Sunset Beach (1997).

She also had cameos in I Can't Lose (1997) and Bliss (1997), directed by her brother Lance Young.

Source: Wikipedia, Starpulse, Yahoo Movies