Katey Sagal might be best known for her role as Peggy Bundy in the raunchy family sitcom Married…with Children, but her career didn’t stop there. Since the show ended in 1997, having first premiered in 1987, Sagal has remained a presence in Hollywood, whether she’s making cameos in other popular sitcoms or headlining network dramas.
These days, the actor doesn’t have too many new projects in the pipeline, but that hiatus likely won’t last for long given her track record for always finding new projects that excite her. Sagal even admits that her longevity in the entertainment business surprises her sometimes. She told Entertainment Weekly in 2021, “The biggest comment I get is, 'Wow, you're still working!' I've started to say it to myself sometimes. I'm like, 'Wow, this is so great that I'm able to continue to be a working actor and still be interested in the roles that I'm getting to play.' I feel very grateful about that." Read on to find out what Sagal, now 67 years old, has been up to.
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Sagal comes from a showbiz family.
Evan Agostini/ImageDirect/Getty ImagesSagal was all but destined to become a Hollywood staple. She was born in Los Angeles in 1954 to Sara Macon, who was a singer, producer, and TV writer, and Boris Sagal, a television director who worked on the likes of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and was nominated for four Primetime Emmys for his work on Rich Man, Poor Man.
Sagal's mother died in 1975, and her father remarried in 1977, tying the knot with dancer Marge Champion. Boris died shortly after in 1979, after an accident on the set of World War II, leaving the actor and her five brothers and sisters behind.
The Sagal family is so connected in the business that the Married...with Children star's godfather is legendary sitcom writer and producer Norman Lear. Soon, she became a sitcom icon herself.
She started her career as a musician.
Raymond Boyd/Getty ImagesAlthough she might be best known for her acting roles, Sagal started her career as singer and songwriter. In the early 1970s and well in the ‘80s, she was a backup singer for the likes of Bob Dylan, Etta James, and Tanya Tucker, and was also a member of The Harlettes, Bette Midler’s backup group of singers. She was also in a band called The Group with No Name.
While still starring on Married…with Children, Sagal released a solo album, Well, in 1994. It wasn’t until a decade later in 2004 that she released another album, likely because she was so busy booking acting roles off the popularity of the iconic sitcom. Her most recent album, Covered, came out in 2013 and features her take on several classic songs.
She's probably been on one of your favorite shows.
Jon Kopaloff/Getty ImagesWith over 87 acting credits on her IMDb page, chances are good that Sagal has been in one of your favorite shows. Some of her most notable roles are voicing Turanga Leela in the animated series Futurama, which is about to be revived, and playing Randy in Superior Donuts, Dr. Ingrid Jones in Shameless, and Jake Peralta’s mom in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She’s also appeared on Dead To Me, The Big Bang Theory, and many, many others shows.
One of her biggest roles in (sort of) recent times was as Gemma Teller, the tough-talking matriarch of a motorcycle gang, in Sons of Anarchy. She also reprised her role in a guest spot on the spinoff, Mayans M.C. In 2021, she starred in and produced the ABC drama Rebel. She spoke out when the network canceled it after just five episodes, calling it "shocking" when speaking to Entertainment Tonight. Currently, she plays the recurring character of Louise Conner in the Roseanne spinoff, The Conners, and can soon be seen in the Blumhouse horror movie, Tattered Hearts, which will air sometime this year on Epix.
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She's been married four times.
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty ImagesIn addition to her rich professional life, Sagal is also a mother of three children and has a pretty epic romantic history.
One of her first relationships was with Gene Simmons of the rock band KISS. But she cut it off with him to marry another musician, bassist Freddie Beckmeier in 1978. They split in 1981, and she then went on to marry Freddie Drummond in 1986. That marriage was also short-lived, and after the couple split in 1989, Sagal then married drummer Jack White—no relation to the White Stripes member, however.
The couple had two kids together, Sarah Grace, in 1994, and a son, Jackson James, in 1996. She was still starring on Married…with Children at the time, and her first pregnancy was written into the show’s plot, though her second one, was hidden in classic television fashion—by merely obscuring her baby bump with props and costumes. After divorcing White in 2000, Sagal married Kurt Sutter in 2007, and they welcomed a daughter, Esme, via a surrogate that same year. Sutter famously created Sons of Anarchy four years later and cast his wife in one of the leading roles.
The couple is still together today and have a great bond. In October 2021, when Sagal was in a car accident, Sutter joked on Instagram, “She’s the only one bringing in money right now… so I’ll be picking her up from the hospital later, taking her to that Dancing With the Stars audition.”
Sagal was, in fact, released the next day, and while she hasn’t made it to the DWTS stage just yet, given her work ethic, fans shouldn’t put it past her.
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