Fame, Family & My Life Today

CLOSER CATCHES UP WITH THE BELOVED BROADWAY, FILM AND TELEVISION STAR

- LOUISE A. BARILE

Sandy Duncan’s front yard in Connecticut attracts a lot of admiration. People stop to marvel at the variety and colors of the flowers and sometimes even take pictures. “It’s so flattering,” she confides, admitting that she came by her green thumb naturally. “I come from farmers,” the Texas-born performer tells Closer. “My father and grandfather always had big gardens.”

A three-time Tony Award nominee who charmed the world in the 1979 revival of Peter Pan, Sandy also became a TV fixture starting with the sitcom Funny Face and ending with four seasons on The Hogan Family. “I never minded signing autographs or taking pictures with people,” Sandy, 78, says of her years in the spotlight. “Also, acting’s not a hard job. It’s full of joy and working with nice people.”

STARS IN HER EYES

Sandy first began dancing as a child growing up in Tyler, Texas. “We’d go into the VFW hall and hold on to the pool tables to do our ballet barre!” recalls the performer, who began appearing in musicals in Dallas as a teenager and moved to New York City at 19. Her big break arrived in 1969 with a Broadway show called