Rosanne Katon

Rosanne Katon

Born: February 5, 1954
in New York City, New York, USA
Rosanne Katon is an American model, actress, comedian and activist. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its September 1978 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Mario Casilli.

Katon was born in New York City to a Jamaican-born father and an African-American mother. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Katon worked steadily in Hollywood, including a stint on Grady, the short-lived spin-off of the hit situation comedy Sanford and Son that starred Whitman Mayo in the title role, and guest appearances on Jason of Star Command, What's Happening!!, Good Times and That's My Mama, which starred Clifton Davis. She then had leading roles in two Cirio Santiago action films, both released in 1976, Ebony, Ivory & Jade, in which she received top billing, and The Muthers, in which she acted alongside former Playboy centerfold Jean Bell. However, the shapely actress was often typecast in sex kitten roles in R-Rated comedies such as The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974), Chesty Anderson, U.S. Navy (1976), American Raspberry (1976), Lunch Wagon (1981), Zapped! (1982) and Bachelor Party (1984). This was solidified by her appearance as the September 1978 Playboy centerfold. She had a recurring role opposite Denzel Washington on the medical drama St. Elsewhere and her appearance in two award-winning UCLA student films, Julie Dash's "Illusions," released in 1982, in which she portrayed a singer doubling for a white actress in 1940s Hollywood (whether she did her own singing in the role was not known as of mid December 2012), and S. Torriano Berry's "Rich," in which she portrays the title character's supportive girlfriend. Her other film credits included the TV movie The Night They Took Miss Beautiful (1977), the cult horror film Motel Hell (1980), Body and Soul (1981), City Girl (1984) and Harem (1985), opposite Nastassja Kinski and Ben Kingsley.

Katon was selected as Miss Golden Globes for the 1981 awards show. The honor and the task of presenting the statuettes during the ceremony goes to an up-and-coming actress. Katon was the first African American to be selected, since the custom started in 1962.

Additionally, Katon has had several stage credits, including a Broadway lead role in Godspell and a featured role in the parody of women in prison movies, Women Behind Bars.

At one point, Katon segued into the world of stand-up comedy, and during that period in her career, she appeared in the June 1991 Playboy pictorial "Funny Girls," which covered female comedians.

Movies for Rosanne Katon...

Autism: The Musical
Title: Autism: The Musical
Character: Herself
Released: April 18, 2007
Type: Movie
Follows five autistic children as they work together to create and perform a live musical production.
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Peter Gunn
Title: Peter Gunn
Character: Waitress
Released: April 23, 1989
Type: Movie
Peter Gunn, a connoisseur of beautiful women and cool jazz, is an ex-cop turned private eye who's caught in the middle of a dangerous gang war.
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Police Story: The Watch Commander
Title: Police Story: The Watch Commander
Character: Janice
Released: November 12, 1988
Type: Movie
This is the story of policeman who has been on the job for over forty years. And one of his duties is to look out for all of the officers under him cause he is the watch commander. And it seems that a lot of them have a lot of problems including the new lieutenant. And a 15 year veteran who's feeling the stress of the job. And at the same time he is being egged by the captain to retire cause he thinks he's too old. And his wife would like him to retire also.
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Title: Full House
Released: September 22, 1987
Type: TV
After the death of his wife, Danny enlists his best friend and his brother-in-law to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle.
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Harem
Title: Harem
Character: Judy
Released: November 6, 1985
Type: Movie
Diane is a sophisticated trainee on the New York Stock Exchange who is suddenly kidnapped and held captive in a North African desert hideaway by Selim, an Arab mogul.
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Bachelor Party
Title: Bachelor Party
Character: Bridal Shower Hooker
Released: June 29, 1984
Type: Movie
On the eve of his wedding to his longtime girlfriend, unassuming nice guy Rick is dragged out for a night of debauchery by his friends.
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The City Girl
Title: The City Girl
Character: Ira
Released: February 17, 1984
Type: Movie
A female photographer who is engaged to a businessman investigates a cult in the local club scene. By living out some of her sexual fantasies, she faces the truth about her life and helps one of the cult's victims escape.
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Title: St. Elsewhere
Released: October 26, 1982
Type: TV
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at a lightly-regarded Boston hospital who gave interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions.
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Illusions
Title: Illusions
Character: Esther Jeter
Released: August 30, 1982
Type: Movie
A woman in a Hollywood dubbing studio struggles with race and preconceptions.
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Zapped!
Title: Zapped!
Character: Donna
Released: July 23, 1982
Type: Movie
Peyton and Barney are fun loving high school students working on a science project with white mice. When one of the mice begins to move food toward itself with out touching it, Barney finds he has accidently discovered a formula for telekinetic powers. Now, how much trouble can a high school boy who can move things with just his mind get into?
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Body and Soul
Title: Body and Soul
Character: Melody
Released: October 9, 1981
Type: Movie
A young man struggles to become a boxing champ, but success blinds him. It is only through the love of his girlfriend that he is brought back to reality.
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Lunch Wagon
Title: Lunch Wagon
Character: Shannon
Released: September 1, 1981
Type: Movie
Three women start a lunch wagon business but run into stiff resistance from a competitor.
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Motel Hell
Title: Motel Hell
Character: Suzi
Released: August 14, 1980
Type: Movie
Farmer Vincent Smith and his sister Ida run a motel attached to a farm where they capture unsuspecting travelers, bury them alive, fatten them up and then harvest their bodies as ingredients for his famous brand of "smoked meats."
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The Comeback Kid
Title: The Comeback Kid
Character: Girl #3
Released: April 11, 1980
Type: Movie
A down-on his-luck baseball pitcher finds a new set of rewards coaching a gang of underprivileged youngsters and romancing a career-oriented playground supervisor who, against her better judgment, put the kids in his charge.
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Title: The Facts of Life
Released: August 24, 1979
Type: TV
The Facts of Life is an American sitcom that originally ran on the NBC television network from August 24, 1979, to May 7, 1988, making it the longest running sitcom of the 1980s. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' premise focuses on Edna Garrett as she becomes a housemother at the fictional Eastland School, an all-female boarding school in Peekskill, New York.
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Coach
Title: Coach
Character: Sue
Released: March 17, 1978
Type: Movie
A young, blonde and beautiful woman is hired to coach a team of underachieving basketball players and against all odds, leads them to victory.
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The Night They Took Miss Beautiful
Title: The Night They Took Miss Beautiful
Character: April Garland
Released: October 24, 1977
Type: Movie
Criminals hijack an airplane carrying five beauty contest finalists, but unknowingly they've also kidnapped a government agent carrying a dangerous virus that is to be used in bacterial warfare.
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Title: Logan's Run
Released: September 16, 1977
Type: TV
In a futuristic society where reaching the age of 30 is a death sentence, a rebellious law enforcement agent goes on the run in search of Sanctuary.
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Title: CHiPs
Released: September 15, 1977
Type: TV
Lighthearted look at the adventures of two Highway Patrol officers in Los Angeles. The main characters are Jon Baker and Frank Poncherello, two motorcycle officers always on the street to save lives.
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The Muthers
Title: The Muthers
Character: Angie
Released: November 1, 1976
Type: Movie
A band of female pirates go undercover at a prison camp on a coffee plantation to rescue their leader's sister.
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Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy
Title: Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy
Character: Cocoa Daniels
Released: November 1, 1976
Type: Movie
When one of her friends goes missing, Chesty and several fellow WAVEs go looking for her and end up in a world of senatorial corruption and Mafia intimidation.
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Ebony, Ivory & Jade
Title: Ebony, Ivory & Jade
Character: Pam Rogers
Released: September 24, 1976
Type: Movie
An American track team has just arrived in The Philippines for an international competition. Among the competitors are Ginger and Pam, nicknamed "Ivory" and "Ebony", who meet up with another friend, Jackie, nicknamed "Jade". After they arrive at their hotel, a gang of thugs kidnaps them, along with some other girls from the team. To get away, the trio are going to have to use all their fighting skills.
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Title: What's Happening!!
Released: August 5, 1976
Type: TV
What's Happening!! is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from August 5, 1976 to April 28, 1979. The show premiered as a summer series. With good ratings and reviews, and after the failure of several other shows on the network, What's Happening!! returned in November 1976 as a weekly series. It remained a regular show until 1979; ratings were modest. What's Happening!! was loosely based on the motion picture Cooley High, also written by Eric Monte.
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Title: Grady
Character: Laurie Marshall
Released: December 4, 1975
Type: TV
Grady is an spin-off of the sitcom, Sanford and Son. In this series, Fred Sanford's widower friend Grady moves out of Watts and moves in with his daughter and her family in Westwood. Executive producer Norman Lear served as a consultant to the show. Redd Foxx made a special guest appearance as Fred Sanford in the second episode. The series never found a solid audience, and was canceled after just ten episodes. Whitman Mayo returned to Sanford and Son and would go on to star in the revival series The Sanford Arms.
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Title: Starsky & Hutch
Released: September 10, 1975
Type: TV
Streetwise Detective David Starsky partners up with a more intellectual partner, Kenneth 'Hutch' Hutchinson, to protect citizens and patrol the streets of Bay City.
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The Swinging Cheerleaders
Title: The Swinging Cheerleaders
Character: Lisa
Released: September 25, 1974
Type: Movie
In order to write an expose on how cheerleading demeans women, a reporter for a college newspaper infiltrates the cheerleading squad.
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Title: That's My Mama
Released: September 4, 1974
Type: TV
Clifton Curtis has got it made—he runs a successful business he inherited from his late father and he's lucky with the the ladies—but he still lives with his Mama. She rules the roost and dispenses advice to everyone who'll listen—no one at Oscar's Barbershop is spared from Mama's wisdom. And they wouldn't have it any other way.
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Title: Good Times
Released: February 8, 1974
Type: TV
Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which is itself a spin-off of All in the Family along with The Jeffersons. The series is set in Chicago. The first two seasons were taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. In the fall of 1975, the show moved to Metromedia Square, where Norman Lear's own production company was housed.
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Title: Sanford and Son
Released: January 14, 1972
Type: TV
The misadventures of a cantankerous junk dealer and his frustrated son.