Leigh Taylor-Young

About

Leigh Taylor-Young (born January 25, 1945) is an American actress who has appeared on stage, screen, podcast, radio, and television. Her best-known films include I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), The Horsemen (1971), The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (1971), Soylent Green (1973), and Jagged Edge (1985). She won an Emmy for her role on the hit television series Picket Fences.

Young was born on January 25, 1945, in Washington, D.C.. She graduated from a Detroit high school. Before attending Northwestern University as an economics major, she spent a summer shifting scenery, modeling, acting, and sweeping up at a Detroit little theater. She left Northwestern before graduating to pursue a full-time acting career, making her professional debut on Broadway in 3 Bags Full (1966). About dropping out of college, she said:

I left there because I lost the most wonderful teacher. I didn’t want to go back when she left. My parents naturally were upset, and I spent four months at home thinking what to do, then went to New York.

Taylor-Young got her first big break in 1966, when she was cast as Rachel Welles on the primetime soap opera Peyton Place…