Beverly Sanders

Beverly Sanders is one of the most familiar faces in America. It seems virtually impossible to turn on the TV without enjoying her Mercedes-Benz, Clairol, Kellogg’s and Shoney’s Restaurants spots. She has probably made more TV commercials than any other actress, highlighted by the CLIO award-winning 10-year run of Arm and Hammer commercials, in which she created the unforgettable character of Louise.

Beverly’s talents encompass stage, television and film as an actor, writer and director. Her current one-woman show, Yes Sir, That’s My Baby! began in a writing class at UCLA and was further developed in a writers’ performance group. The play, directed by Asaad Kelada and produced by Lucy Johnson, was workshopped at the Victory and Tiffany Theatres in Los Angeles and was recently awarded the ADA (Artistic Director’s Association) Award for its Fall 1999 run at the Fremont Centre Theatre in Pasadena.

Television fans will remember Beverly portraying the memorable newsroom waitress, Rayette, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Easy Susie, Rhoda’s always pregnant friend. She began her television career in high school when she appeared regularly on the classic Father Knows Best with Robert Young and Jane Wyatt. She starred on Lotsa Luck playing Olive, Dom DeLuise’s sister. Beverly was a semi regular on CPO Sharkey and appeared with Bonnie Franklin on One Day At A Time. She was featured on the long-running series Night Court and St .Elsewhere, among many others. More recently, she has been seen in Baywatch, Grace Under Fire, Delta, Kirk and The Faculty.

Beverly’s dramatic performance as Maureen Stapleton’s daughter in Queen of the Stardust Ballroom received widespread critical recognition. On the big screen she played opposite Al Pacino in And Justice For All, appeared in Magic with Anthony Hopkins and Beaches with Bette Midler. Several years ago, she co-starred with Mary Tyler Moore and Edward Asner in Payback, an ABC Movie of the Week, and appeared in the recent feature comedy The Flintstones.

One of a select group chosen to attend the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, Beverly’s short film Callback was an award winner at the San Francisco Film Festival.

Beverly is a graduate of the famed Hollywood High, along with Ricky Nelson, Yvette Mimieux and other illustrious alumni, and went on to UCLA, majoring in psychology, all the while working on her craft. By the age of sixteen, she danced with Dan Dailey and performed with Eddie Fisher at the California State Fair in Sacramento.

Following her dream, Beverly moved to New York to study acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio. Among her theater credits are Wendy Wasserstein’s Isn’t It Romantic at the Pasadena Playhouse, Vienna Notes and Babbit workshop for the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and Neil Simon comedies Rumors with David Birney, Brighton Beach Memories at the Burt Reynold’s Theater in Florida and the national tour of Neil Simon Suite with Paul Lynde.

Through the 1980’s Beverly was co-founder and artistic director for Room For Theatre, a company devoted to the works of American Master Playwrights. Among other productions, Beverly directed their first presentation, S.N. Behrman’s Old Acquaintance, and the company’s final play, Preston Sturges’ Strictly Dishonorable.

Beverly lives in Los Angeles with her husband, studio musician Harvey Newmark and their 20 year-old daughter Laura.