Karen Valentine

Karen Valentine (born May 25, 1947) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as young idealistic schoolteacher Alice Johnson in the ABC comedy drama series Room 222 from 1969 to 1974, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1970, and received a Golden Globe Award nomination in 1971. She later went to star in her own short-lived sitcom Karen (1975), and played leading roles in the Disney films Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978) and The North Avenue Irregulars (1979). Early life Valentine was born in Sebastopol, California on May 25, 1947. She is of Portuguese heritage, and her grandfather changed the family name from Valentin before her birth. Career In 1966–1967, she started her television career as "The Resident Dream Girl" on The Dream Girl of 1967, replacing Beverly Adams from the first weekday broadcast opposite hosts Dick Stewart and Wink Martindale, and during that time, she appeared on another Chuck Barris show, The Dating Game. In 1969, Valentine won her breakthrough role as a student teacher and then a new teacher on the ABC television series Room 222 with Lloyd Haynes, Denise Nicholas, and Michael Constantine. She was discovered by Gene Reynolds, the director of Room 222, who saw her lip-synching in rehearsal and realized she was funny. She was nominated twice for an Emmy and once for a Golden Globe, winning an Emmy in 1970 for Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role.