Debralee Scott


Debralee Scott was a comedic American actress best known for her roles on the sitcoms Welcome Back, Kotter; Angie; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; and Forever Fernwood. Scott was born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and later lived in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where she was a cheerleader.

Film and TV roles

At age 22, she found fame on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman playing Mary's sister Cathy Shumway. She appeared on the first season of the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter as Rosalie "Hotsy" Totsy, guest-starred in an episode of Gibbsville in 1976 and played Angie's younger sister Marie Falco in the Donna Pescow situation comedy Angie.
Among her feature-film credits were the 1973 feature film American Graffiti, the 1974 film Earthquake, and the 1984 film Police Academy.
Scott was a fixture on the game-show circuit in the late 1970s and early 1980s, frequently serving as a celebrity guest on shows including Match Game, The $20,000 Pyramid, Riddlers, and Password Plus.
Scott also appeared on Celebrity Family Feud in 1979 with the cast of Angie. In one game, she got 176 points in the 200-point fast-money round with partner Robert Hays, as they won $10,000 for their charity. In another game, she achieved 234 points in the first part of the fast-money round, winning before her partner got a chance to play. Host Richard Dawson remarked that she was the first celebrity player and the fourth player in the show's history to win a fast-money round single-handedly.
For a while, Scott continued to work in front of the camera, appearing in two Police Academy movies, but she later retired and chose a career behind the camera, becoming an agent for a company in New York City called Empowered Artists.
In 2000, Scott appeared on a panel with her former Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman castmates at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills.

Death

Scott's fiancé John Dennis Levi, a police officer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
In 2005, Scott moved to Florida to live with her sister. Shortly after her arrival, Scott collapsed into a coma. She soon recovered and was released from the hospital on her birthday. On April 5, 2005, three days after her 52nd birthday and being released from the hospital, she took a nap and apparently died in her sleep. Scott's body was cremated. Her fiancé's mother stated that Scott had a drinking problem that led to her developing cirrhosis, which led to her death. Her sister Jerri said, "She never did get over Dennis' death."

Filmography

Film