Biography
Kathleen Cody, often credited as Kathy Cody during her childhood, is an American actress born on October 30, 1954. She is best known for her roles as Hallie Stokes and Carrie Stokes on the original cult classic TV series "Dark Shadows," which aired from 1966 to 1971.
Kathleen began performing at just six months old with her first television commercial and continued to work successfully as a child actor through her adolescence, teens, and into adulthood. Her stage career started at age six with a role in Summer Stock at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida. By age nine, she had made it to Broadway for a two-year run in Meredith Willson's musical "Here's Love," directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd.
In 1965, at age eleven, she was selected by author Arthur Miller and producer David Susskind to co-star as Betty Parris in Susskind's television production of Miller's "The Crucible," which starred George C. Scott, Melvyn Douglas, Colleen Dewhurst, and Tuesday Weld. The production won three Emmy Awards: Best Actor for George C. Scott, Best Actress for Colleen Dewhurst, and Best Director for Alex Segal.
Following "The Crucible," Kathleen co-starred again with Colleen Dewhurst in a television special based on Colette’s 1922 autobiographical play "My Mother's House." Dewhurst portrayed Colette’s mother, while Kathleen played the playwright from adolescence through her teenage years. This production also received three Emmy nominations.
At fourteen, director Bob Fosse cast Kathleen in her film debut in the musical "Sweet Charity," starring Shirley MacLaine. In 1971, she moved from New York to Hollywood to star in her first film, "Hot Summer Week" (later retitled "Girls on the Road"), alongside Ralph Waite and Michael Ontkean.
Kathleen’s performance in "Hot Summer Week" led Walt Disney Studios to invite her for a screen test. After a successful audition, she signed an exclusive three-picture contract with Disney, becoming the last actress signed to a multi-film deal with the studio since Annette Funicello.
Her first Disney film was "Snowball Express," directed by Norman Tokar, followed by "Charley and the Angel," directed by Vincent McEveety and starring Fred MacMurray and Cloris Leachman as her parents, along with Harry Morgan and Kurt Russell. She completed her contract with Disney starring in "Superdad," again directed by McEveety and co-starring Bob Crane and Kurt Russell.
Kathleen guest-starred in numerous prime time television shows, including four episodes of "Gunsmoke" alongside James Arness, James Whitmore, Richard Jaeckel, Buck Taylor, Nicholas Hammond, and Louise Latham; "The Partridge Family" with David Cassidy; "Doc Elliot" with James Farentino; a segment of "Love, American Style" titled "Love and the Model Apartment," where she played the newlywed wife of Davy Jones; "Barbary Coast" with William Shatner and Doug McClure; "The Waltons" episode "The Ring" with Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, and Will Geer; "Cannon," in which she played a dual role with William Conrad, Mitch Ryan, and Ralph Meeker; "Three for the Road" with Vincent Van Patten; "Barnaby Jones" with Buddy Ebsen and Kristoffer Tabori; and "Dirty Sally" with Jeanette Nolan.
She co-starred in three television movies. First, a remake of the 1945 film "Double Indemnity," portraying Lola Dietrickson alongside Richard Crenna, Lee J. Cobb, and Samantha Eggar. In 1975, she appeared in the biographical telemovie "Babe," about Babe Didrikson, directed by Buzz Kulik, starring Susan Clark and Alex Karras. That same year, she appeared in her final film directed by longtime friend and mentor Vincent McEveety, the TV movie "The Last Day," starring Richard Widmark, Barbara Rush, Tim Matheson, and Robert Conrad, playing Julia Johnson, Matheson’s love interest.
In 1976, Kathleen starred as "Snowy" in the television pilot "The Cheerleaders," directed by Richard Deanna and co-starring Debbie Zipp, Mary Kay Place, and Darel Glaser.
Later in 1976, Kathleen returned to her home in Connecticut and married. She had a daughter, Megan, in 1981 and divorced a few years later. In 1983, she moved back to Los Angeles with her two-year-old daughter and was cast in the TV series "The Rousters" with Chad Everett. After the series was canceled, Kathleen decided to leave Los Angeles and her acting career to focus on being a full-time mother.
In 1987, she answered a call from Peter Bogdanovich to appear in her final film, "Illegally Yours," starring Rob Lowe.
Overall, Kathleen’s career in stage, film, and television has spanned over 30 years.
