Betty Buckley

Actress/singer Betty Buckley has starred in numerous theatrical productions, as well as making appearances in film and television, but she is perhaps best known for her role as Grizabella in the Broadway version of "Cats" and her corresponding performance of the show's signature number, "Memory."Betty Lynn Buckley was born on July 3, 1947, in Fort Worth, Texas; at age 11, she attended a production of "The Pajama Game" and fell irrevocably in love with the theater, studying vocalists like Judy Garland and Ella Fitzgerald to develop her technique. After getting a degree in journalism from Texas Christian and touring with a USO troupe, Buckley found her way to New York, where in 1969 she landed the Broadway role of Martha Jefferson in "1776". She moved to London later in the year, where she starred in Neil Simon's "Promises, Promises", and spent the next five years acting in both London and New York, as well as portraying the gym teacher in the 1976 Stephen King film Carrie.