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Florence Henderson biography

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Best Known For

Actress Florence Henderson played Carol Brady, the mom of a blended family with six children, on The Brady Bunch sitcom.


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Synopsis

Actress Florence Henderson was born on February 14, 1934, in Dale, Indiana. She appeared on Broadway and also starred in the national tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma. Henderson was The Tonight Show’s first female guest host. In 1969 she landed the role that made her famous, Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch. The sitcom ran for five years. Starting in 2008, she hosted The Florence Henderson Show.

Early Career

Actress Florence Henderson was born on February 14, 1934, in Dale, Indiana. The youngest of 10 children, Henderson began performing at an early age. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and quickly started a successful theater career. Rodgers & Hammerstein selected her for the lead in the national tour of Oklahoma, and she appeared on Broadway in Noel Coward's The Girl Who Came to Supper.

Acting Career

In 1970, she made her first feature film, The Song of Norway and she was a regular guest on variety and talk shows with Ed Sullivan, Merv Griffin, Steve Allen and Dean Martin. Henderson holds the distinction of being the first woman ever to guest host The Tonight Show.

'The Brady Bunch'

The role for which Henderson is most famous came in 1969. For five years, she played the quintessential sitcom mom Carol Brady on TV's The Brady Bunch. The show was a hit, and became increasingly popular in re-runs. It is now considered a cultural icon of the '70s, spawning two feature "spoof" films in the mid-'90s.

Recent Work

Since then, Henderson worked as a producer on the Nashville Network's Country Kitchen for nine seasons, and guest starred on numerous sitcoms, including Roseanne, and as a recurring character on Dave's World. In 1999, Henderson joined NBC News as c-ohost of the morning show Later Today.

In 2008 Henderson became the host of her own show, The Florence Henderson Show which was nominated for an Emmy in 2010.

Personal Life

Henderson has four children, Barbara, Lizzie, Joseph, and Robert, with her first husband Ira Bernstein, to whom she was married from 1955 to 1985. She married hypnotherapist John Kappas in 1987. He passed away in 2002.

© 2013 A+E Networks. All rights reserved.

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    • TV Moms: 1960s

      As traditional family structures changed in America, so did the women of 1960s television. Mary Tyler Moore began wearing the pants in the family, when she traded in her housedress for capris on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Florence Henderson played the head of a blended family on The Brady Bunch, and Lucille Ball starred as a widow with big career aspirations on The Lucy Show. These shows, and others like them, reflected the burgeoning 1960s feminist movement. Their popularity among female viewers also proved a growing national interest in women's equality.

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      TV Moms: 1960s 5 people in this group

    • The Ed Sullivan Show Guests

      Originally called Toast of the Town, The Ed Sullivan Show ran from 1948-1971 on CBS and was an American staple in the 50s and 60s. The American variety show featured the Who's Who of celebritydom over the decades, including Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Tony Bennett, Carol Channing, Lucille Ball, The Jackson 5, and The Doors.

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      The famous dance-competition show Dancing with the Stars has seen more than a dozen seasons and a gamut of stars, including Apolo Anton Ohno, Kirstie Alley, Joey Fatone, Jennifer Grey, David Hasselhoff, Buzz Aldrin, Brandy, Wynonna Judd, Dorothy Hamill, D.L. Hughley and Aly Raisman. Learn more about the show's contestants, who, for a period, swapped their skills as athletes, actors, musicians, comedians, TV personalities and politicians for a chance to show off their footwork on national TV.

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      Cast of Dancing with the Stars 91 people in this group

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