Career
Hatcher studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater. One of her early jobs (in 1984) was as an NFL cheerleader with the San Francisco 49ers. From September 1985 to May 1986 she joined the cast of the TV series The Love Boat, playing the role of "Amy", one of the "Mermaid" showgirls. From 1986 to 1989, she appeared in the recurring role of "Penny Parker" opposite Richard Dean Anderson's eponymous hero on the TV series MacGyver. In 1987, she played the daughter of Patty Duke's lead character in the short-lived Fox comedy Karen's Song. In 1988, she made a guest appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Lt. Robinson. In 1989, she guest-starred in an episode of Quantum Leap titled "Star Crossed".
Hatcher's next TV series role, in 1991, was in the Norman Lear creation Sunday Dinner. She portrayed a 26-year-old lawyer in an affair with a widowed businessman twice her age, played by Robert Loggia. The series had a brief run on CBS that summer, but was not renewed. In 1992, Hatcher tried out for the role of Jamie Buchman on Mad About You and made it to the final two choices, but lost the part to future emmy winner Helen Hunt.
Hatcher landed a starring role of Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (opposite Dean Cain) in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from 1993 to 1997. At the height of the show's popularity in 1995, a picture of Hatcher wrapped in a Superman cape was reportedly the most downloaded image on the Internet averaging 20,000 downloads each month for a six-month period. "It's a great shot," she told Entertainment Weekly. "Not so much because it's me. It's just cool looking."
In "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," the cast was worried that she would be taller than Superman in heels as she was 5'81⁄2" and Dean Cain was 6'. ABC cancelled Lois & Clark in 1997. Hatcher beat out Monica Bellucci for the role of Paris Carver in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. Hatcher was three months pregnant at the filming's start, by her then husband, Jon Tenney. A publicist said the pregnancy did not affect the production schedule. Hatcher later regretted playing Paris Carver, saying, "It's such an artificial kind of character to be playing that you don't get any special satisfaction from it." She was voted the world's sexiest woman by readers of popular men's magazine FHM in the same year. Hatcher also appeared in films such as Spy Kids (2001), Dead in the Water (1991), 2 Days in the Valley (1996) and The Cool Surface (1994). She co-starred with Alec Baldwin in Heaven's Prisoners (1996), which failed at the box office.
Hatcher made a much-discussed guest appearance on a 1993 episode of Seinfeld, in which her character, Sidra, breaks up with Jerry because she believes that Jerry was trying to have Elaine surreptitiously determine whether Sidra had breast implants. ("They're real... and they're spectacular.") She returned to play Sidra in two subsequent episodes, The Pilot, and The Finale (Part 2).
Hatcher appeared in a series of Radio Shack television commercials alongside NFL player Howie Long. They remain close friends and together have bought farm land on the outskirts of Los Angeles, with the intent of eventually raising endangered species.
Hatcher hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live in 1996. She beat out four other actresses for one of the lead roles on ABC's Desperate Housewives, on which she stars as Susan Mayer, a role for which she won the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award in January 2005. In 2005, Hatcher won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award in the same category. In July 2005, she was nominated for an Emmy award as Best Actress in a Comedy Series for the role, along with costars Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman.
As of April 2006 Hatcher is one of the highest paid television actresses in the United States. She reportedly earns $285,000 per episode of Desperate Housewives. In May 2006, she released her first book, Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life.
Hatcher performs The Beatles song "Good Night" on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars.
On April 9, 2008, Hatcher appeared on Idol Gives Back, singing Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats".
Hatcher also appeard in the 2009 hit film Coraline. She played as the Other Mother, a mysterious, button-eyed figure, and as Coraline's mother Mel Jones, who constantly shows Coraline "tough love". The film received critical acclaim.
In 2010 Hatcher made a return to the Superman franchise, with a special guest role in the final season of Smallville as Lois Lane's mother, Ella Lane. The episode continued a tradition of former Lois Lane actresses portraying the character's mother many years later. Noel Neill appeared as Lois' mother in the 1978 film Superman: The Movie, and Phyllis Coates made a similar appearance on Lois & Clark.
A report in November 2010 suggested that Hatcher, along with co-star Felicity Huffman, would be quitting Desperate Housewives, but ABC denied the claim. Hatcher later addressed the rumors of her departure from Desperate Housewives saying, "There are not enough adjectives to describe how stupid, off base, and ridiculously untrue this is."
On December 10, 2011, Men's Health listed Hatcher as number 38 in their "Hottest Women Of All Time" list.
Read more about this topic: Teri Hatcher
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