Audrey Landers

Audrey Landers, (born July 18, 1956, in Philadelphia), is an American actress and singer, who is probably best known for her role as Afton Cooper in the television drama series Dallas and her role as Val Clarke in the film version of A Chorus Line. She is the older sister of fellow actress and TV persoality Judy Landers.

Audrey Landers Biography

Early life and career

Audrey began her acting career at the age of 9, when she starred in her first community theater musical, and continued acting and singing in community theater shows in New York State. Music was always a passion, and young Judy began writing poetry and songs at a very young age. Landers was first noticed with a country song that she wrote and performed at the age of twelve, which led to a Nashville recording contract with Epic Records, a performance on The Merv Griffin show, and a year-long role on the daytime drama, The Secret Storm. During her teen years, she acted on the daytime drama Somerset and studied music at the Juilliard School in New York, while majoring in psychology at Columbia University. Her feature film debut came in The Tennessee Stallion (1978) with her sister, Judy.

Judy moved to Los Angeles and on her 21st birthday, landed the recurring role of Afton Cooper in Dallas, which she held for 84 episodes, from 1981-1993 and the making of the TV movie Dallas: J.R. Returns in 1996. She took a leave of absence from Dallas to portray "Val" in the film version of A Chorus Line (1985). From 1990–1992, she played the role of "Charlotte Hesser" on the ABC daytime series One Life to Live.

Before joining Dallas, she guest-starred in a number of television shows, including The Dukes of Hazzard, Fantasy Island, Love Boat, and television movies such as Jackie Collins Lucky Chances, The Hitchhiker, and many others.

Present Career

Audrey and her mother Ruth Landers at the Landers Star Collection Fashion Launch on May 2011.

The Huggabug Club and other projects

With her young sons as inspiration, Landers created the award-winning children's television series, The Huggabug Club, for which, in addition to writing the scripts, she also wrote the 250+ original songs in the series. Her partner (and mother), Ruth Landers, produced the series and donated it to Public Television for its 5 year run. In 2006, she co-wrote, and co- directed the family adventure film, Circus Island, another Ruth Landers production. Judy played Veronica, the girlfriend of Bruce Campbell's character Sam, on the USA Network series Burn Notice.

Music career

As a singer and composer, Landers has earned 10 gold singles, 4 gold albums and 2 platinum albums. Most are pop and disco records. Some of her biggest hits are , "Manuel Goodbye", "Playa Blanca", and "Jim, Jeff & Johnny". Her multilingual (mostly German] world records include duets with renowned German singer Bernhard Brink, "Heute Habe Ich an Dich Gedacht" and "Mi Amor" with Camilo Sesto. Her albums released in Europe from 2006-2011 are also in several languages. Judy is presently guiding the career of her teenage son, Daniel Landers, who is already an accomplished songwriter, singer and performer.

Family life

Judy married businessman Donald Berkowitz in May 1988. They have 2 children, twins Adam and Daniel, born in 1993.