Sharon Gless, who played hard-drinking cop Christine Cagney, says she would drink scotch after every filming session
Cagney and Lacey star Sharon Gless has revealed the full extent of her battle with booze when she was filming the hit US cop show.
The award-winning actress, on our screens again in Casualty on Saturday, made her name as the hard-drinking policewoman Christine Cagney in the 80s show.
But off screen she was facing her own struggles.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday People , Sharon said: “I never drank while I was at work. But as soon as they would yell ‘wrap’ every day, a Styrofoam cup with scotch and ice was put in my hand and everyone would call it Sharon’s apple juice.
“I don’t drink now, it’s been five years since my last drink. Back then I didn’t think I had a problem. Now I believe I’m an alcoholic.”
Sharon found fame as hard-drinking cop Christine in 80s drama Cagney and Lacey (Image: Everett Collection/Rex)
But she says she struggled off screen and would drink after wrapping up filming (Image: BBC)
In 1982 Sharon, now 74, landed the role in the ground-breaking police drama opposite Tyne Daly, 71, who played Mary Beth Lacey.
As the single, career-minded New York cop Cagney, Sharon went on to win two Emmys – but off screen she was struggling.
She said: “I’ve loved every part of my career but I have battled demons. My character on Cagney & Lacey was an alcoholic . I was facing the same demons as her.”
Sharon believes it was inevitable that, like her mother, she would become an alcoholic.
She said: “I’ve always suffered with being overly critical of myself. I’ve always been fighting my weight and if I watch myself I go, ‘Gee, I look fat’ or ‘That was a terrible performance, what was I thinking?’ That’s not a good thing.
“My manager would say to me it was my responsibility to watch myself on screen, as Tyne watched every single episode.
“I just said, ‘Good for Tyne.’ We had totally different ways of going about things and I hated to look at myself on screen. The only time I’d watch myself, I’d mix myself a stiff drink and after a couple of drinks I’d say, ‘Looks good to me.’”
The actress, who hasn’t touched booze for five years, is back on screens in BBC’s Casualty (Image: BBC)
She plays surgeon Zsa Zsa Harper-Jenkinson in the one-off episode (Image: BBC)
Sharon joins Casualty, Britain’s longest-running medical series, as charismatic, world-renowned surgeon Zsa Zsa Harper-Jenkinson in a one-off episode but she has never watched the show.
Even so, she said: “There is nothing I love more than working on a hit TV show and when the offer to be on one of the world’s most successful medical dramas came in, I couldn’t refuse. Zsa Zsa is a wonderful character. I was in Cardiff filming for two weeks, which was really exciting as I had never been to Wales.
“I was so nervous though. The BBC told me they had never flown an American over to film the show, due to budgets. So I knew that was a big deal.”
It was also her first role in a medical drama. She had to rely on any tricky medical terms being written on sticky tape so she would not forget them.
Sharon said: “The cast could not have been more welcoming and day by day I grew a little less nervous. By the end I was just plain cocky. To me, starring in a hit TV show is orgasmic and my favourite thing to do. The whole experience was wonderful and everyone was so kind to me.”
Cagney & Lacey ran from 1982 to 1988. Now, 29 years on, Sharon has fond thoughts of that time, despite all the problems. She not only made a lifelong friend in co-star Tyne, but also fell in love and later married the show’s executive producer Barney Rosenzweig.
She also opened up on her time starring alongside co-star Tyne Daly (Image: Getty)
The pair became firm friends and Sharon even met her husband on cop drama Cagney & Lacey (Image: Getty)
The couple don’t have children together but Sharon is stepmum to Barney’s three daughters, who have three kids of their own. She said falling in love with a boss had been a little awkward but it worked out and they have been married for 26 years.
Sharon was the third actress to play Cagney and did not got off to the best start with Tyne.
She said: “I think Tyne was fed up with all the changes and not that excited about me coming on board. However, she could not have been more welcoming and we hit it off immediately. We’d work 17, 18-hour days and at the end of them, Tyne and I’d go to our trailer and learn the next day’s lines.
“We were so committed and had each other’s backs. Given the amount of time we spent together, it would be easy to think we would fall out, but we didn’t and still today I count her as one of my closest friends.”
Sharon told how she had initially rejected the part.
Sharon says she had to write down the medical terms on sticky tape so she didn’t forget them while filming her scenes for Casualty (Image: BBC)
She recalled: “I had no idea what I was walking into and had turned the role down twice before I finally accepted it begrudgingly. Back then I’d have rather had a movie career. But then I never regretted a moment of it. I loved my character. I don’t think there’s ever been such a wonderful female role on television.”
In the light of the Hollywood sex scandal, Sharon revealed she also has been the victim of sexual harassment. She had heard the jokes about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein but did not know him. Yet she was far from surprised by the sleazy revelations.
She said he is the most powerful man to be accused of preying on women but is not alone, adding: “This kind of behaviour has been going on since the beginning of time. Now hopefully it will stop other men trying it.”
The man who made a pass at Sharon was less powerful than she was and she laughed it off.
She said: “I didn’t get upset. I just thought he was a loser.”
Since Cagney & Lacey ended, Sharon has worked constantly. She has performed in West End theatre and enjoyed roles the in BBC hit show The State Within and US television dramas including Nip/Tuck, The Trials of Rosie O’Neill, Queer as Folk and Burn Notice.
She says: “I feel incredibly lucky to be still landing such fun roles on TV. You can’t ask for more than that.”
