American actress Lauren Tewes is best remembered for playing “Julie McCoy” in the ABC drama series “The Love Boat.” Tewes had to show her mental toughness for a number of years before she could experience success since she was born into a lower-middle-class household.
However, as soon as she began to enjoy the rewards of her effort, her career came to a fast end.
Lauren Tewes’s Bio, Date of Birth, and Parents
On October 26, 1953, in Braddock, Pennsylvania, German immigrant Joseph Robert Tewes and English-Irish mother Joanne Woods gave birth to Cynthia Lauren Tewes. Her father was a producer of wood patterns.
She spent her first eight years of life in the Pennsylvania industrial town of Trafford before relocating with her family to Whittier, California, where she and her three siblings had a poor childhood.
Lauren Tewes’s Education
Since a young age, the Tewes kids have been involved in neighborhood theater and school productions. Cindy attended Pioneer High School after graduating from Ada S. Nelson Elementary School, where she shined in theatre and earned the “Best Actress” award three times.
Tewes first enrolled in Rio Hondo College to study for an associate of arts degree with a theater arts concentration, but she quickly switched to the University of California, Riverside after being awarded a one-year scholarship called “The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Theatre.”
Tewes’ studies in drama were not completed since she was unable to remain at the institution once the scholarship ran out. She now went by the name “Lauren Tewes,” however. She also changed her name at a drama teacher’s advice.
Lauren Tewes’s Career
With the Pacific Conservatory Theatre in Santa Maria, Lauren Tewes made her stage debut in 1973, playing roles in performances of the plays “Arsenic and Old Lace” by Joseph Kesselring and “The Happiest Fella” by Frank Loesser.
Tewes quickly became a member of the famous “Birdcage Theatre Company” at Knott’s Berry Farm, a theme park close to Los Angeles, where she was listed with other famous theatrical figures like Dean Jones and Steve Martin.
She appeared in theatre production for the company where she played both the villain and the hero.
Tewes left the company in 1974 after only working there for 4 months in interested in pursuing a career in filmmaking. While working as a waitress at a coffee shop on Sunset Boulevard to make ends meet, she attended TV and film seminars.
The same year, Tewes appeared in a “Lipton Ice Tea” ad, which helped her get representation and become a member of the “Screen Actors Guild.”
She had to wait a while before she could start to get noticed in Hollywood. She kept working in the hotel industry up until 1977 when 20 TV ads made her a household name. When Tewes’ mother passed away in 1975, she suffered a huge personal loss.
She began her career in supporting roles in Aaron Spelling films like “Charlie’s Angels” and “Family,” but it wasn’t until 1975’s “ABC’s The Wide World of Mystery” that she made her formal acting debut.
Tewes’ life was dramatically improved by her brief but important role as “Assistant Attorney Sharon Freemont” in Spelling’s “Starsky & Hutch.”
Tewes wasn’t originally considered for the ‘Julie McCoy’ part. Producer Aaron Spelling had previously made two attempts, beginning in September 1976, to cast the ABC cruise adventure-drama series “The Love Boat.”
Tewes was one of many hundreds of blondes that showed up for Julie McCoy’s audition. On May 5, 1977, “The Love Boat” debuted with its first episode.
After making her telefilm debut in 1979 in “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” Tewes made her feature film debut in “Eyes of a Stranger” the following year, playing the lead role of Jennifer Jason Leigh.
After the 1984 season had been filmed, the show’s executive producer, Douglas Cramer, declined to extend Tewes’s contract. Pat Klous took her place in the role of “Judy,” Julie’s younger sister.
It became a well-reported departure, highlighting Tewes’s unprofessional conduct and cocaine addiction.
Her successful career unexpectedly came to an end. Nothing remarkable happened to her outside a few silly films like “It Came from Outer Space II” and “Attack of the 5’2″ Women.”
She was hired to appear in the 1985 summer season of the CBS comedy “Anything for Love,” which was never made into a series. In 1985, she made one last appearance on “The Love Boat.”
Tewes spent the 1980s making appearances in supporting parts on programs including “The New Mike Hammer,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “T.J. Hooker,” and “Hunter.”
In the 1990s, Tewes completed the circle by deciding to resume her theater career. But this time, she also served as a director. She played Independence’s lead role at the Burbank Little Theatre in Lee Blessing’s play that year.
She was the director of William S. Leavengood’s dark comedy “The Head,” which opened in West Hollywood’s “Attic Theatre” before moving on to the “Matrix Theatre.”
In later years, she moved to regional theater, working with the Tacoma Actors Guild, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and A Contemporary Theatre.
The plays she appeared in include “Side-Man” by Warren Leight (1999), “A Delicate Balance” by Edward Albee (2001), “My Fair Lady” (2003), “The O’Conner Girls” by Katie Forgette (2004), “Prayer for My Enemy” by Craig Lucas (2007), “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” by Neil Simon (2011), and “Good People” by David Lindsay-Abaire (2013).
She has provided the voices for characters in video games including “Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat from Your Head to Your Feet,” “Police Quest: SWAT 2,” and “Putt-Putt Travels through Time.”