Lipton, Peggy 1947–

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Lipton, Peggy 1947–

PERSONAL: Born August 30, 1947, in New York, NY; daughter of Harold (a corporate lawyer) and Rita (an artist) Lipton; married Quincy Jones (a producer, composer, actor, music conductor and arranger, and executive), September 14, 1974 (divorced, c. 1987); children: Kidada, Rashida (daughters).

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY; and Los Angeles, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, St. Martin's Press, 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Actress in films and television, including television series The John Forsythe Show, 1965, The Mod Squad, American Broadcast Companies, Inc. (ABC), 1968–73, Twin Peaks, ABC, 1990, and Angel Falls, Columbia Broadcasting System, 1993. Actress in films, including Purple People Eater, 1988, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka', 1988, True Identity, 1991, The Postman, 1997, and Jackpot, 2001. Actress on stage, including roles in The Guys and The Vagina Monologues. Worked as a model in New York, NY, c. early 1960s. Singer on album, Peggy Lipton.

MEMBER: Break the Cycle.

AWARDS, HONORS: Golden Globe Award for best actress in a leading role, 1970, for The Mod Squad.

WRITINGS:

(With David and Coco Dalton) Breathing Out (autobiography), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Author of song "L.A. Is My Lady."

SIDELIGHTS: Peggy Lipton was a successful model when she was still a teenager, and was only twenty-one years old when she landed the part that would make her an icon of the 1960s—that of undercover detective Julie Barnes in the television series The Mod Squad. Created by Aaron Spelling, the show featured three hip, young people who were working for the police after getting in trouble with the law. It took on topical subjects of the time, such as campus unrest and war protestors. Lipton's character, Julie, was the runaway daughter of a San Francisco prostitute; her waiflike beauty quickly made her a celebrity. Although she has often been described as the quintessential "California girl," Lipton was actually born and raised in New York City, the daughter of a well-to-do family. The Mod Squad catapulted her into the fast-paced world of Hollywood, a work in which Lipton was ill-prepared to cope.

Lipton relates the story of her life in her autobiography, Breathing Out, cowritten with David and Coco Dalton. Behind the golden-girl façade, Lipton was a survivor of sexual abuse, someone who had to overcome a stutter to move forward with an acting career, and a woman who made numerous sexual conquests among the celebrities of the day. Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney, and Sammy Davis, Jr. were just a few of the men with whom she was linked; the actress eventually married musician and record producer Quincy Jones, with whom she had two children. Her marriage to an African American several years her senior provoked an angry response from some, but the marriage lasted for many years, while Lipton took a break from acting to concentrate on raising her two daughters. After the girls left home, the marriage dissolved, in part due to Lipton's struggle with depression. A Publishers Weekly writer called Lipton's story "cliched" and her writing "clunky," but predicted that readers will still enjoy the portrait of the wild life of the 1960s and 1970s. A Kirkus Reviews writer found that, somewhat surprisingly, the sections on Lipton's later life are the most compelling: "Her descriptions of the post-marriage, post-Mod Squad phase of her career are the strongest sections here. The chapter on Twin Peaks, the David Lynch television show with Lipton playing Norma Jennings, is fascinating and passionate." John Smyntek, in a review for the Detroit Free Press, found that the memoir lacks depth, but is nevertheless enjoyable. He wrote: "There is minimal hot air and you get a real sense of the shallowness of her existence. It is a guilty pleasure for any connoisseur of gossip…. Let us give her credit for linking up with the right storytellers and creating something out of what might seem only a pile of personal dust."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Lipton, Peggy, with David Dalton and Coco Dalton, Breathing Out, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Detroit Free Press, June 26, 2005, John Smyntek, review of Breathing Out.

Entertainment Weekly, May 13, 2005, Margeaux Watson, review of Breathing Out, p. 94.

In Style, May 1, 2001, Monica Corcoran, "The Mom Squad: A Force of One, Peggy Lipton Uses Straight Talk and Motherly Advice to Teach Teens to Break the Cycle of Domestic Violence," p. 375.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2005, review of Breathing Out, p. 338.

People, September 8, 1986; April 4, 1988; May 12, 1997, p. 180.

Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2005, review of Breathing Out, p. 41.

Women's Wear Daily, May 26, 2005, "Star Wars," p. 4; July 21, 2005, Molly Prior, "The Mod Squad," p. 22S.