My family valuesFamilyInterviewSharon Gless: My family values
Nikki SpencerThe actor, best known for her role as Cagney in Cagney & Lacey, talks about her familyThe Gless family have been in Los Angeles for generations and no one ever left. We have five streets named after us. When my husband, Barney, retired, we moved to Miami, but I still have a house in Los Angeles. I would never give up my roots there.
My grandfather was Neil S McCarthy, a well-known entertainment lawyer in the golden days of Hollywood. When I was about 18, I told him I wanted to be an actor. He said: "Stay out of it, it's a filthy business!" I didn't have the nerve to say: "But that's how you made your money!" Later, he mellowed, and when I was 26 he gave me $150 for my first acting classes. I worked as a secretary during the day and went to class at night.
I am surrounded by family. I have two brothers, two sisters-in-law, stepdaughters and stepgranddaughters and nieces and nephews and 18 cousins. I was raised Catholic, so they just kept coming! My brothers are wonderful brothers – we adore each other. The older one, Michael, is an attorney, and Aric, who is seven years younger than I am, is an architect. They are both very respectable and very conservative – as opposed to their sister.
I am particularly close to Michael, as we were closer in age. When he got married, in his 20s, I was bereft and so worried that I would not see him again that I spent most of the wedding sobbing, which didn't go down well with my new and wonderful sister-in-law.
I was a war baby, and my mother, Marjorie, stayed home to look after us all. She was a really wonderful mother and very hands-on. She used to say, when she was reprimanding us: "One day you will thank me." And it's true. My father, Dennis, was a sportswear manufacturing executive. I adored him. But to be honest, he wasn't the greatest father. He wasn't around much and would sweep in and out of my life.
My parents divorced when I was in my teens. It was very painful and I didn't get to see my father very much. As I became older, we grew close. He didn't live long enough to see me married. Michael walked me down the aisle.
When my parents divorced, my maternal grandmother stepped in. She scared me to death, but I loved her. She had 17 grandchildren and I was the one she decided to take under her wing. When I was a teenager, I used to dream about having the perfect marriage and the perfect children, and impressing my grandmother. But it didn't work out like that. Looking back, I could not have had the career I've enjoyed and also been a good mother. I wasn't grown-up enough myself.
When I was 48, I married Barney Rosenzweig, the man who created Cagney & Lacey. My family adored him. I think my mother was just so excited that I had got married at all. Barney has three daughters and now we have three granddaughters. It's wonderful having stepchildren. I didn't have to raise them, but I get to reap all the benefits of enjoying them. Watching them bring up their own children, I am full of such admiration. I think motherhood is the most important and difficult job in the world.
My family are my best friends. In this industry when you work with people, you swear you will never part. But you do. The exception is my Cagney & Lacey co-star, Tyne Daly. Her mother, Hope, used to say that "sweat makes a great cement" and working with Tyne for six years has cemented us together for ever.
Sharon Gless is appearing in A Round-Heeled Woman at Riverside Studios, London, 18 October to 20 November
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