Lisa Hartman Black (who went by Lisa Hartman at the time), made television history after her character, a musician named Ciji Dunne, was killed off in the fifth season of the primetime soap opera Knots Landing. It wasn’t the character’s murder that was so extraordinary in 1983, but rather the uprising from angry fans of the Dallas spinoff. Even before the advent of social media, the resulting clamor was somehow loud enough that Hartman Black was brought back to play Cathy Geary, another singer, just three episodes later. She continued to star on the series until she was written off again, for good this time, in 1986.
But that all occurred early on in what would become a decades-long career in the entertainment business. Read on to find out more about Hartman Black's life now, post-Knots Landing.
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She married a country icon.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesIn 1991, Hartman married renowned country artist Clint Black, and they remain together today. Last year, on the occasion of their 30th anniversary, she told People of their meeting, “We knew pretty quickly. It happened pretty quickly. I mean it was an immediate attraction, and then we went on our first date and we just talked about everything under the sun. I don’t know. We just clicked. You just know when there’s something."
It was a match made in music heaven, as Hartman Black had established herself as a musician before she started acting. She released four solo studio albums between 1976 and 1987, then music took a backseat until the late '90s, when she began collaborating with her husband. She is featured on his singles 1999's “When I Said I Do,” for which they won a CMA Award and were nominated for a Grammy, 2002's “Easy For Me To Say," 2016's "You Still Get to Me," and 2020's ‘Till The End Of Time."
She hasn't acted as often in recent years.
Vince Bucci/Getty ImagesBefore Knots Landing, Hartman Black had played roles in a few TV movies, appeared on shows including The Love Boat and Fantasy Island, and starred as the grown-up daughter of Samantha and Darrin Stephens in the short-lived Bewitched spinoff Tabitha.
After her stint on the series, the star continued acting regularly for a few years. She made guest appearances on Matlock and TheHitchhiker, voiced herself on King of the Hill, and tried her hand at another primetime soap: 2000 Malibu Road, which also starred Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Beals, and Tuesday Knight and only lasted for six episodes. But you could spot Hartman Black most frequently in TV movies, two of which she also produced.
Since the 2000s, the star has mostly focused on her personal life and making music with her husband. However, in 2005, she took part in the special Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again, and in 2012, she starred alongside Black and their daughter Lily Pearl Black in the straight-to-DVD sequel Flicka: Country Pride. Hartman Black has been on her husband's 2022 talk show Talking in Circles and will play a character named Parker in the upcoming “post-pandemic Christmas comedy," A Wonderful Time of Year.
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Their daughter is following in their footsteps.
Music is truly a family business for Hartman Black. Twenty-one-year-old Lily, the couple's only child, is also a musician, and the threesome often perform together. Last year, Black and Hartman Black embarked on their first full tour together, aptly titled "Mostly Hits and the Mrs." Lily joined them on stage, including in a performance that was filmed for a special that aired on PBS. Hartman Black shared on Instagram that the clan is hitting the road again this month, with dates booked through 2023. She and her husband are also frequent guest stars in Lily's TikTok videos.
She competed on The Masked Singer.
John Shearer/ACMA2020/Getty Images for ACMIn 2020, Hartman made television history again by teaming up with her husband as the first duo to compete on The Masked Singer. The couple were unmasked as the Snow Owls, who moved together in a shared egg-mobile. “It was tough moving it around, and trying to make it get to go where we needed it to go and wanted it to go. But it was a lot of fun. I was holding Clint's hand a lot,” Hartman told Entertainment Weekly in their exit interview. She added that she was a little miffed that they didn’t make it farther into the season, having been eliminated in episode four.
“We were just glad to be involved as long as we could. That's what I'm supposed say—I don't really mean that. I wanted to stay and perform a couple more," she admitted. "We wanted to come out of the egg and do a little more, but that's just the way it goes... It's just that as you go into this [show], it's a different world, and The Masked Singer's creative process is really quite extraordinary."
