Gail Fisher impacted the image of Black women on TV!


Gail Fisher
Date: 
Sun, 1935-08-18

*On this date, we celebrate the birth of Gail Fisher in 1935. She was an African-American actress best known for portraying widowed secretary Peggy Fair on the CBS detective show Mannix, a part she played from 1968 to 1975.

Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Fisher landed her first television appearance at age 25 in the 1960-syndicated program, Play of the Week. Although her television work was sparse thereafter, her career perked up in the late '60s. In 1968, while a regular on Mannix, she also made appearances on My Three Sons, Love, American Style and Room 222. In 1970, Fisher was honored for her work on that series with an Emmy Award for outstanding performance by an actress in a dramatic supporting role (She won over Susan Saint James and Barbara Anderson).

In addition to this honor, Fisher was well regarded as a role model, having served (along with Dihann Carroll in 1968's "Julia") as one of the first African-American women to find substantive work in American television. Her television appearances after the 1975 cancellation of Mannix were few; most notably, she guest-starred in a 1980 episode of The White Shadow. Gail Fisher died in December 2001 at the age of 66.

Reference:
Jet Magazine
Johnson Publishing
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To become an Actress

Person / name: 

Fisher, Gail