Cindy Pickett

Cindy Lou Pickett is an American actress. She is known for her 1970s role as Jackie Marler-Spaulding on the CBS soap Guiding Light and Dr. Carol Novino on the television drama St. Elsewhere in the 1980s. Pickett, however, is best known to audiences for her lighter turn as Katie Bueller, Ferris Bueller's loving and unsuspecting mother, in the 1986 American comedy movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Other notable cinematic roles and performances include Valerie St. John, the leading role in Roger Vadim's 1980 film, Jeux de Nuit / Night Games, and the heroic, tough-as-nails Dr. Diane Norris, executive officer of the under-siege, deep-sea scientific research station in the 1989 sci-fi-horror film DeepStar Six.

Early life and education Born on April 18, 1947, in Norman, Oklahoma and raised in Sand Springs, Oklahoma and Houston, Texas, In Houston, Pickett attended Jane Long Junior High School and Bellaire High School; next came Jacksonville's Lon Morris College —under the tutelage of another widely revered Texas-based teacher-director, LMC drama department founder Lula Pearson —and the University of Texas at Austin. Returning home, Pickett attended Houston Baptist College and the University of Houston, once again studying with—and being directed by—her father, as well as performing in a repertory company alongside similarly Hollywood-bound classmates such as Randy Quaid, Trey Wilson, and Brent Spiner (then Brent Mintz). It was a sexually charged role involving numerous nude scenes, however the film went unnoticed and did not boost Pickett's career. In the 1981 mystery/crime drama Margin for Murder, Pickett played the role of Velda, Mike Hammer's (Kevin Dobson) loyal and devoted secretary. She played "Jackie Marler" on the soap opera The Guiding Light from 1976 to 1980, "Vanessa Sarnac" on the ABC weekly TV series Call to Glory from 1984 to 1985, and she appeared as Dr. Carol Novino on the hospital drama TV series St. Elsewhere from 1986 to 1988.

Pickett had a supporting role in the 1987 mini-series Amerika, which she then considered to be her "best part and the best showcase" she ever had. Pickett met Lyman Ward when they played the parents of the titular teenaged protagonist in the 1986 comedy film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. They married in real life and divorced in 1992. Pickett is a collector of stereopticon cards.

Filmography

Film

Television