Jeanne Cooper

2008 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her role as Katherine Chancellor, Lifetime Achievement Award winner, resident star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Soap Opera Digest Award winner, Soap Opera Digest Editor's Award winner and nine-time Emmy nominee Jeanne Cooper is currently launching her record-breaking 36th year on daytime television's #1 soap opera, The Young and the Restless. Her lengendary portrayal of Genoa City's wealthiest, most elegant, most fearless businesswoman and recovering alcholic Katherine Chancellor has made her one of the most recognizable faces in television throughout the world, not to mention one of the most historic - she and her fictional character underwent simultaneous televised facelifts in 1984 as part of the The Young and the Restless storyline, making Jeanne Cooper a true reality RV/extreme make-over pioneer before the genres were ever thought of.

Jeanne Cooper, born in Taft, California, began her theatrical training at the College of the Pacific, the Civic Light Opera Company, the Revue Theatre and the renowned Pasadena Playhouse School. Her first professional appearance was in the 1953 film The Redhead From Wyoming with Maureen O'Hara. From there it was on to a stunning list of features that includes The Boston Strangler, There Was a Crooked Man, Let No Man Write My Epitaph, The Man From Alamo, Frozen Assets, The All American Boy, Tony Rome, Kansas City Bomber, The Glory Guys, Black Zoo, The Commies Are Coming, House of Women, 13 West Street, The Intruder, Unwed Mother, Plunder Road, 5 Steps to Danger, The Houston Story, Over-Exposed, The Calling Homicide, the Naked Street, and Shadows of Tombstone. Her list of colleagues from that body of work reads like a "Who's Who" of Hollywood's Golden Days: Frank Sinatra, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, George Kennedy, Tony Curtis and Joseph Mankiewicz, to name just a few.

Never one to neglect television, even during a thriving film career, Jeanne managed to make time for guest appearances in such classic series as Playhouse 90, Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, The Big Valley, Maverick, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Wagon Train, 77 Sunset Strip, The Virginia, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Hawaiian Eye, rawhide, Have Gun Will Travel, Cheyenne, Surfside 6, Wells Fargo, Wanted: Dead Or Alive, Zane Gray Theatre, Death Valley Days, The Tall Man, Bracken's World, Mannix, Ironside, Daniel Boone, Diagnosis Murder, The Nanny, Touched By An Angel, Emergency!, Cannon, and Ben Casey, for which she received her first Emmy nomination in 1961. Her second Emmy nomination in the "Outstanding Guest Performer in A Drama Series" category came in 1987, for her recurring role on L.A. Law playing Gladys Becker, mother of commitment-challenged attorney Arnold Becker, who was portrayed by her real-life son Corbin Bernsen.

Recent films and t.v. movies include Tomorrow Man, Gentle Ben and Gentle Ben 2: Danger on the Mountain, Beyond Suspicion, The San Pedro Bums, The Mystery of Edward Sims and Sweet Hostage. Particularly close to her heart are her appearances in the upcoming releases Three Day Test,Carpool Guy, produced by her son Corbin Bernsen's film company Public Filmworks.

Her theatrical roots still lure her, when her schedule allows, into starring roles in such classics as On The Town, The Miracle Worker, Plain and Fancy, Love Letters and a touring production of Plaza Suite .

Jeanne Cooper has fought hard to see to it that her Young and the Restless alter-ego Katherine Chancellor is never confined to a rocking chair and lap robe on the front porch of the Chancellor estate, and she holds herself to that same high standard of a busy, productive, creative, socially conscious off-camera life. In addition to creating her own jewelry line and personalized fragrance "Tatters", she's the founder of a national volunteer support network called, The Katherine Chancellor Society; she's an active volunteer and contributor to an abuse victims' charity called The Interval House, the Children's Hospital of Toronto, the National Wildlife Association, Greenpeace, London's Children's Cancer Research, San Diego's House of Hope, and Drive-By Agony of Lynwood, California. She's also in great demand as a passionate motivational speaker, particularly for an organization called "No2Debt," which guides people toward the freedom of a debt-free life.

The heart of her personal passion is reserved for her sons Corbin, Collin, and her daughter Caren, her eight grandchildren and her Jack Russell terrier Daisy and Lhasa Apso, CrackerJack!

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