Terri Hatcher made waves in her younger days as fearless, smart, and beautiful Lois Lane on the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Her knack for playing spirited and stunning women was later highlighted in the Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. And who could forget Susan Mayer from Desperate Housewives?
But that was in the nineties and early aughts. What is the gorgeous and witty Terri Hatcher doing now? You may be surprised to find out that acting is only one of her many talents!
Brilliant Beginnings
Terri Hatcher was born in Palo Alto, California on December 8th, 1964. Her mother was a computer programmer, a feat for females in the sixties, and her father was a nuclear physicist and electrical engineer. While those who knew her brilliant parents may have had notions of Harvard and medical school, her parents let her explore her many interests.
Hatcher took ballet lessons in the San Juan School of Dance in Los Altos and attended Fremont High School in Sunnyvale.
At Fremont, Hatcher captained the school’s dance team, known as the Featherettes, and was voted "Most Likely to Become a Solid Gold Dancer."
Despite her penchant for the stage, post-graduation, she followed in her parents’ footsteps, pursuing mathematics and engineering at De Anza College in Cupertino.
However, the limelight beckoned, and Hatcher simultaneously took acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Before long, Hatcher found herself donning the dance costume once again, becoming a member of the San Francisco 49ers cheer squad in 1948.
During this time, Hatcher traveled to Hollywood to support a friend who was auditioning for an open casting call. She truly put her money where her mouth was when she decided to do more than offer moral support and audition herself. Hatcher made a splash and ultimately won the role of a singing and dancing mermaid on the television series Love Boat, kicking off her acting career.
From Love Boat to Lois Lane
After appearing on nineteen episodes of The Love Boat, Hatcher received the role of Penny Parker in the action-adventure TV show MacGyver. The part only lasted a handful of episodes, as did her next role as Angelica Stimac Clegg on Capitol, an American Soap Opera. Hatcher continued to pick up minor film and television shows in productions such as Night Court, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Tango & Cash, Quantum Leap, and Sunday Dinner.
Out of all of her acting gigs, her early role of Penny Parker, a ditzy female companion MacGyver described as "someone who needed looking after," stuck with Hatcher, much to her dismay. So, in the early nineteen-nineties, Hatcher was on the hunt for a role that would disassemble that image. She found it when she won the part of Lois Lane in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
Lois and Clark
The television show followed Superman Clark Kent (Dean Cain) and his love interest Lois Lane, played by Hatcher. It detailed Superman’s origin story and presented Hatcher with plenty of opportunities to be smart, sophisticated, and brave. Lois & Clark ran for four seasons, totaling eighty-eight episodes. Hatcher appeared in eighty-seven of them. Unfortunately, viewership dwindled throughout the fourth season, leading to the show’s cancellation in 1997. Teri acted alongside Traylor Howard, who made an appearance in a season 2 episode.
After her days of playing Superman’s girlfriend were over, Hatcher once again began picking up bit parts. Like Seinfeld, Frasier, and Since You’ve Been Gone. She again played a lead character similar to Lois when she became a Bond girl in 1997, starring as Paris Carver alongside Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies.
Around the same time, Hatcher began focusing on her family. Though she toured for a few months as Sally Bowles in a road tour version of Cabaret, her acting career took a brief hiatus. Then, in 2004, Hatcher was back.
Desperate Housewives
Signing on to a dark yet comedic soap opera could have been the nail in the coffin for Hatcher. Desperate Housewives was a bit of a risk, but the show turned out to be incredibly successful.
Hatcher played Susan Mayer Delfino, appearing in the pilot episode in 2004 and every one after that until the finale eight years later. Her character was one of the four prominent characters and was known as charming yet clumsy. A romantic at heart, there’s no shortage of love interests, relationships, and plenty of misfortunes courtesy of the character’s relentless bad luck.
Hatcher starred in one-hundred-eighty episodes of Desperate Housewives, winning a Golden Globe for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and a SAG Award for Female Actor in a Comedy Series in the first season. Later on, she was nominated for an Emmy and found herself more than once on FHM’s World’s Sexiest list. At one point in 2006, she was one of the United State’s highest-paid television actresses solely due to her part on Desperate Housewives. Hatcher had finally found commercial success.
Post-Desperate Housewives
Marc Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives, made the decision to end the show in 2012. Hatcher was a household name by that time and had even written a book. As she had in the past, Hatcher pared down her time in the industry, taking voice roles in the films Coraline, Planes, Planes: Fire & Rescue, and Jake and the Never Land Pirates. Hatcher appeared here and there in acting roles, such as The Odd Couple with Matthew Perry and Supergirl.
Off (the silver) screen, she debuted a YouTube channel called Hatching Change and started pursuing cooking and baking in earnest, winning Chopped Holiday Celebrity and participating in an episode of the Great British Bake Off. She furthered her passion for writing by regularly penning a column for Glamour Magazine, starting in 2007.
What is Teri Hatcher Doing Now?
These days, Hatcher is exploring all her interests and talents. You can find her acting in Hallmark movies, on Fantasy Island, appearing on stage in theater productions like The Addams Family Musical, and even performing improve a la Funny Women of a Certain Age.
Hatcher was married for one year to Marcus Leithod in 1988. On May 27th, 1994, she married fellow industry alum Jon Tenney (from The Closer). The pair has one daughter, Emerson, born in 1997. In March 2003, Tenney and Hatcher divorced. Since then, Hatcher has been single, at least in public, and maintains that she is content with her romantic life.
Hatcher’s career split-second decision to audition alongside a friend led to a wildly successful career. A woman of many talents, she continues to thrive both off and on screen.
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