Sons of anarchy
before epic biker drama sons of anarchy (2008-2014) came along, katey sagal was known for just one role: tv’s worst mom, peg bundy from sitcom married… with children (1987-1997). not that her sons character gemma teller-morrow is any better. at least katey’s the opposite…
showbiz is in the 60-year-old’s blood. her younger twin sisters jean and liz and brother joe are actors and her late parents boris and sara worked behind the cameras as a director (boris died in a set accident in 1981) and a writer (sara died in 1975 from heart disease). born catherine louise sagal, she’s not big on religion and says that while she’s “culturally jewish”, she doesn’t follow any particular faith. acting’s her main job, but katey still loves to sing. she sang at least one song in every season of sons of anarchy, which was created by her hubby of 11 years kurt sutter (he played otto in the series). she started out in showbiz as a backup singer for bob dylan, bette midler and gene simmons from rockband kiss in the late ’70s. acting has also brought katey a lot of pain and sadness. in 1989, she suffered a miscarriage on the set of married… with children. in 1991, she was rushed to hospital from the set for an emergency c-section – her daughter was stillborn. in 2003, while katey rehearsed with john ritter, the lead star of 8 simple rules (2002-2005), john suffered an aortic dissection and was taken to hospital, where he died. of john’s untimely death, katey says that “it was so hard to fill that household, near impossible”. these days, katey plays mom to 20-year-old daughter sarah grace and 18-year-old son jackson james from her marriage to country musician jack white, and seven-year-old daughter esmé louise, via surrogacy with kurt.