Delta Burke
Burke at the 1990Emmy Awards
Born	(1956-07-30)July 30, 1956 (age 68) Orlando, Florida, U.S.
Education	Colonial High School
Alma mater	London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Occupations	Actress producer author
Years active	1974–present
Known for	Designing Women Delta Filthy Rich
Spouse	Gerald McRaney ​ (m. 1989)​

Delta Burke McRaney (born July 30, 1956)^[1] is an American actress, producer and author. From 1986 to 1991, she starred asSuzanne Sugarbaker in theCBSsitcomDesigning Women, for which she received twoEmmy Award nominations forOutstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Burke's other television credits includeFilthy Rich (1982–83),Delta (1992–93),Women of the House (1995) andDAG (2000–01).^[2] She has produced and starred in made-for-TV movies, appeared in the filmWhat Women Want (2000), and had a recurring guest role in the drama seriesBoston Legal (2006–07). She has also starred in theBroadway productions ofThoroughly Modern Millie (2003) andSteel Magnolias (2005).

Burke was born on July 30, 1956, inOrlando, Florida, to a single mother, Jean.^[3] Frederick Burke, an Orlando realtor, adopted her after marrying her mother. She has never met her biological father.^[3] Burke has two younger siblings: Jonathan and Jennifer.^[4]

Burke graduated fromColonial High School in 1974, and won the senior superlative "Most Likely to Succeed."^[5] In 1972, she won the Miss Flame crown from the Orlando Fire Department and went on to become State Miss Flame. In her senior year of high school, she won theMiss Florida title for 1974;^[6] she was the youngest Miss Florida titleholder in pageant history.^[7] Burke won a talentscholarship from the Miss America Organization, allowing her to attend a two-year study program at theLondon Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.^[8]

In 1974, as part of winning Miss Florida, Burke appeared on the ABC-TV showBozo the Clown, filmed in Orlando, Florida. A 2001 episode ofLost Treasures ofNFL Films presented film footage, taken by Lewis Bice, of her appearance as Miss Florida at theWorld Football League'sWorld Bowl that same year.

In 1980, Burke portrayed the role of the second Bonnie Sue Chisholm in theCBSwesternminiseries,The Chisholms. Burke spent a year onFilthy Rich in 1982 playing the wily young widow, Kathleen Beck. After that, she played football team owner Diane Barrow on1st & Ten from 1984 to 1986.

In 1986, Burke was cast as Suzanne Sugarbaker in theCBS sitcomDesigning Women; she left1st and Ten in order to appear on the show.Designing Women was created byLinda Bloodworth-Thomason, who had previously cast Burke in her showFilthy Rich. The show was set at aninterior design firm inAtlanta headed by four women, and Burke was one of the show's four female leads. (Dixie Carter, another of the leads, had been the lead actress onFilthy Rich.) The show struggled in the ratings, and was even briefly cancelled after its first year,^[9] but in 1989 began to receive respectable ratings after being paired with the sitcomMurphy Brown. Burke became the show's breakout star,^[10] and earned two consecutive nominations for thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1990 and 1991; she was the only lead female cast member of the show to be nominated. (Alice Ghostley received a nomination for Supporting Actress in a Comedy in 1992, for her recurring role as Bernice Clifton, whileMeshach Taylor received one in 1989 for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.)

In 1990, Burke publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the show on a televised interview withBarbara Walters and other media outlets. She argued onEntertainment Tonight that there was a labor dispute, and actors were often forced to work over 15 hours per day, with executives even blocking the doors to keep actors on set. She also said that Dixie Carter, who had once been her close friend and maid of honor at her wedding toGerald McRaney, was not speaking to her as Carter sided with her bosses. At the end of the fifth season ofDesigning Women in 1991, Burke was fired from the show due to her contentious relations with Carter and the Thomasons.^[2]

Burke was given her own vehicle with the sitcomDelta in 1992, in which she portrayed an aspiringcountry music singer. She dyed her hair blonde for the role.^[11] When ratings plummeted, Burke became a brunette again. The series was cancelled after one season. In 1995, she and Linda Bloodworth Thomason reconciled their differences, and Burke returned as Suzanne Sugarbaker in theDesigning Women spinoffWomen of the House (1995), but that show also met an early demise.

It took more than a decade for Burke and Carter to reconcile, but they did so when Burke guest-starred in an episode ofFamily Law, on which Carter was a regular cast member.

Since the early 1990s, Burke's weight has been a subject of discussion in the tabloid press.^[2][11] Her struggles with weight,depression, andeating disorders stretch back to her pageant days in the early 1970s. She became a much-parodied figure in the press due to the media's incessant obsession with her weight, including in a skit onSaturday Night Live, wherein Leon Phelps fromThe Ladies Man has a sexual fixation with her. In 1989, Burke asked Thomason to write an episode addressing her weight. The episode, "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?", had Suzanne Sugarbaker going to her 15-year high school reunion and having her feelings hurt after hearing disparaging remarks about her weight. Her performance on this episode is said to have led to her receiving her firstEmmy nomination as Best Actress.^[12]

Burke has been a leading actress in a number of television films, and had a supporting role in theMel Gibson filmWhat Women Want (2000).^[11]

In the early 2000s, she co-starred withDavid Alan Grier on the sitcomDAG; she had lost much of her excess weight for the role after being diagnosed with diabetes.

Burke made her Broadway debut in September 2003, when she starred as Mrs. Meers in the musicalThoroughly Modern Millie.^[13] She was the third actress to play the role in the production, afterHarriet Harris and Terry Burrell. She played the role until February 2004, before being succeeded by herDesigning Women co-starDixie Carter.^[14] Burke then played the role of Truvy in the original Broadway production ofSteel Magnolias, playing the role for the shows entire four-month run from April 4 - July 31, 2005.^[15]

She also played Bella Horowitz during a five-episode arc onBoston Legal as a former flame ofWilliam Shatner's character,Denny Crane, in season three.^[16]

Burke appeared in aHallmark Channel film,Bridal Fever, which aired February 2, 2008.^{[citation needed]}

In March 2012, Burke was cast in the ABC comedy pilotCounter Culture.^[17] However, after Burke fell on the set, production of the pilot was suspended and it was not picked up to series.

Burke has been married to actorGerald McRaney since May 28, 1989. They have no children together, although McRaney has adult children from his prior marriages. Burke and McRaney's primary residence is inLos Angeles, California; they also own a house inTelluride, Colorado, and one inNew Orleans, Louisiana.^{[citation needed]}

Burke has been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.^[18][19]

Burke is a supporter ofgay rights,^[20] and has worked with openly gay playwright and screenwriterDel Shores on many occasions, inSordid Lives andSouthern Baptist Sissies.^[20] In 2006, Burke and openly gay Tennessee actorLeslie Jordan were uninvited from the Nashville talk showTalk of the Town after the show's managing director decided the subject matter to be discussed would offend conservative viewers.^[21] Burke first became supportive of gay people and gay rights through attending acting school in London and also through her sister Jennifer, who is a lesbian.^[20]

Burke is a designer and manager of the clothing companyDelta Burke Design, headquartered in New York City.^[11]

Burke and McRaney also own an antiques store inCollins, Mississippi.

Burke hascompulsive hoarding syndrome, for which she received therapy. "At one time I had 27 storage units. I don't have a big enough house!" she said. "My mom had it, it's my mother's fault. She saved the diaper I came home from the hospital in!"^[22]

• Delta Style: Eve Wasn't a Size 6 and Neither Am I (1998, St. Martin's Press;ISBN 0-312-15454-2)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toDelta Burke.

• Delta Burke atIMDb
• Delta Burke at theTCM Movie Database
• Delta Burke at theInternet Broadway Database

• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• Actresses from New Orleans
• Actresses from Orlando, Florida
• Colonial High School alumni
• Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
• American adoptees
• American film actresses
• American television actresses
• American LGBTQ rights activists
• Living people
• Miss America 1975 delegates
• 1956 births

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