Sharon Gless a Golden Globe in 1986 and Emmys in 1986 and 1987 for "Cagney & Lacey", and a second Golden Globe in 1991 for "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill". Gless received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995. A fifth-generation Californian, Sharon Gless was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Marjorie (McCarthy) and sportswear manufacturing executive Dennis J. Gless. She was raised Roman Catholic. She has two brothers, Michael and Aric; and her parents divorced when she was in her teens. Her maternal grandfather was Neil McCarthy, a prominent Los Angeles attorney for Howard Hughes, who also
Sharon Gless debut in Lillian Hellman's "Watch on the Rhine" at Stage West in Springfield, Massachusetts. Gless has extensive stage experience including two appearances in London's West End, first in 1993 with Bill Paterson, when she created the role of Annie Wilkes in the stage version of Stephen King's "Misery" at the Criterion Theatre, and then in 1996, where she appeared opposite Tom Conti in Neil Simon's "Chapter Two", at the Gielgud Theatre. She starred at Chicago playhouse The Victory Gardens Theater in Claudia Allen's "Cahoots", as well as several stints, including an evening at Madison Square Garden with the National Company