Cagney & Lacey (TV Program)

The “Cagney & Lacey” star discusses her unflinching new memoir and why Jean Smart’s performance in “Hacks” gives her hope.In 2013, with her time on cable TV’s “Burn Notice” coming to an end, Sharon Gless was summoned to CBS. “Welcome home, Sharon,” said Nina Tassler, then the president of entertainment, extending her hand.“I was so touched because I had done ‘Cagney & Lacey’ there, and it was my home for many years,” Gless recalled in a recent video interview. “But I didn’t even know if they’d remember.”She waited for the offer of a series. Instead, Tassler told Gless that she thought she had in book in her.“I dream a lot,” said Gless, “but this was not something I dreamed of.”It took seven years, but Gless has come clean and then some in “Apparently There Were Complaints,” a hilarious yet often affecting account of her metamorphosis: from the granddaughter of a film industry lawyer into the Emmy-winning actress behind one of TV’s most iconic characters, the New York City cop Christine Cagney. The book’s title captures its unflinching spirit: It’s how Gless explained to a friend her decision to go to rehab, not long after Cagney struggled with her own alcoholism on the show.Gless hated the process of writing the memoir, she admitted, but she loves being an author now that it’s done. And while she’s not sure if she has another book in her, she does believe that she has one more series.In the glow of a light-festooned palm in her home on Fisher Island, Fla. — “My husband’s birthday is at Christmas so he hates Christmas trees because it upstages him,” she laughed, referring to the “Cagney & Lacey” executive producer Barney Rosenzweig — Gless took what she called “sentimental travels through my life.”Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. Ed Ruscha’s “Pumping Sand” With my “Cagney & Lacey” money, I was able to purchase a home in Malibu, and I bought it from a very famous producer, Doug Cramer. Doug was an art collector, and he left behind a piece of art for me as a gift. It was an Ed Ruscha graphic, and he said, “It must stay in this beach house,” and I said, “Well, thank you.”I’m sure it’s bad taste to discuss money, but there was an Ed Ruscha show in New York last year and the Ed Ruscha Society asked if I would loan my graphic to them, and I said, “Of course. Do you insure it?” And they said, “Yes, the value of it is around $400,000.”2. Union Station in Los Angeles I’m born and raised in Los Angeles. Union Station is a spectacular building, and as a child I used to go there to pick up my grandmother and other people who traveled across the United States. You’d see people always dressed so beautifully to travel in those days. I still enjoy going today and sitting on those highly, highly polished wooden benches, and just watching. It’s a tender spot.3. Broadway Classics at the Hollywood Bowl My grandfather had a box at the Hollywood Bowl, and he never used it. So he’d give the tickets to us, and my dad would take me to watch the Los Angeles symphony orchestra in that gorgeous setting at sunset. My two favorite nights were a Rodgers and Hammerstein night and a Lerner and Loewe night. I was enraptured.I constantly listened on my 33 1/3 records to every musical I could get my hands on. I knew every word. I always win bets with [my “Cagney & Lacey” co-star] Tyne Daly, who has a Tony, on lyrics. She’s never won once.4. “Gypsy” I saw Tyne do “Gypsy” four times — three in New York and once in Los Angeles. And in my humble opinion, I think she was the greatest Rose. We always think of musicals as being light but that performance was so desperate because Rose was desperate.5. Audra McDonald All the big Broadway greats were invited to sing at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Hillary was about to be [nominated] and everybody showed up. Tyne and I were invited. Certainly Tyne qualifies as a Broadway singer, and I was invited to go along because I was Cagney. That’s when I met Audra. She has a world-class voice and a world-class soul. I’ve gotten know her since that evening, and I think she’s the best we have.6. Eddie Redmayne I was introduced to him as Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” He won the Oscar for it. And then the next year he did “The Danish Girl,” and he should have won the Oscar again because he was absolutely brilliant. You never catch him acting. It’s such a thrill to watch talent like that.7. “Hacks” “Hacks” is a comedy, but Jean Smart could break my heart. And she’s an older actress, and she gives me such hope that that kind of career is still possible. There should be older women starring in shows on television. Older actresses have so much more to say.8. “Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris I love books that really frighten me. “Red Dragon” is where Hannibal Lecter was first introduced — it wasn’t “Silence of the Lambs” — and the description of him, I was petrified and I loved every moment of it. There was a quietness to him. A satisfaction. And he was quick! He could be the most calm — I don’t know if tender is the right word because he was so evil. He could move faster than any other human being, and end a life in a second.9. Johnny Mathis Johnny Mathis formed my life. As a teenager, I used to dream about falling in love and I believed it would all happen because of these beautiful songs he’d sing. The first one that I ever heard of his was “Maria,” which had emerged from “West Side Story.” The way he does it is like a choir singing. He makes the sound of her name sound so gorgeous. I have every album he’s ever made. He’s just magnificent.10. “Auntie Mame” When I was 14, my parents were divorcing and I was home from boarding school. My mother didn’t know what to do with me so she took me to Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard to see “Auntie Mame” every day. I’d sit there in the first-row balcony with my feet up on the brass railing and eat buttered popcorn, and I memorized every line. Rosalind Russell just did something to me. I was smart enough to know I could never play Mame. But she was everything I wanted to be. More