A vivacious, red-haired actress who began her career as a dancer on a Danny Kaye special and now often plays wives and girlfriends, Annette O'Toole began her acting career in earnest with an episode of "Gunsmoke". She made her feature film debut as a savvy beauty contestant in "Smile" (1975) and next was Robby Benson's leading lady in "One on One" (1977), in which he was a misunderstood college student on a basketball scholarship and she gave him the support he needed. O'Toole had a similar role opposite Eric Roberts in "King of the Gypsies" (1978), in which he was a gypsy warring with his family and his background and she was his "American" girlfriend. She has subsequently played Lana Lang, the high school sweetheart of Clark Kent in "Superman III" (1983) and co-starred with Martin Short in "Cross My Heart" (1987).O'Toole has had better luck with her TV roles. She made her TV-movie debut with "The Girl Most Likely To..." (ABC, 1973) and played country singer Tammy Wynette in the biopic, "Stand By Your Man" (CBS, 1981). Among her other roles were Lola Lamar, love interest for Barry Manilow in his TV-movie debut, "Copacabana" (CBS, 1985), Pamela Sue Martin's roommate, a woman who only wants to get married, in the syndicated "Arthur Hailey's Strong Medicine" (1986), the wife of Oliver North (David Keith) in "Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North" (CBS, 1989), and Rose Kennedy, matriarch of "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" (ABC, 1990). In 1996, she took on series TV for the first time as Don Johnson's first ex-wife in the CBS series "Nash Bridges".
Profession(s):
Actor
Sometimes Credited As:
Annette Toole
Family
daughter:Anna Geisdinger (born c. 1988)
daughter:Nell Geisdinger (born c. 1984)
husband:Bill Geisdinger (has worked with the Oregon Shakespeare festival; divorced)
husband:Michael McKean (announced engagement in November 1998; married on March 20, 1999)
Companion(s)
Robby Benson
, Companion
, ```..linked romantically in late-1970s after appearing together in "One on One"
2003 Cast in "A Mighty Wind"; received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song
2001 Cast as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in The WB series "Smallville"
2000 Had title role of a widow who assumes her husband's business as a bounty hunter in the based-on-fact USA Network movie "The Huntress"
2000 Returned to the big screen as Leelee Sobieski's mother in "Here on Earth"
2000 Reprised title role in spin-off series "The Huntress" (USA Network)
1996 Played ex-wife of Don Johnson on CBS series, "Nash Bridges"
1994 Last feature for more than five years, "Imaginary Crimes"
1990 Played Mrs. Oliver North in miniseries "Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North"
1987 Had lead in the romantic comedy "Cross My Heart"
1985 Offered fine turn as the romantic heroine Lola in the CBS film "Copacabana"
1983 Cast as Lana Lang in "Superman III"
1981 Played Tammy Wynette in TV-movie "Stand By Your Man"
1977 Had first romantic leading role, "One on One"
1975 Made film acting debut in "Smile"
1973 Made TV-movie debut, "The Girl Most Likely To..."
1969 Won first dramatic TV role in episode of "Gunsmoke"
1967 Began performing as dancer on TV's "The Danny Kaye Show" at age 16 (date approximate)
1964 Moved to Los Angeles with family (date approximate)
