Bio
Gail Strickland is an American actress best known for her role as Olive Jeanne Davis in the first two seasons of the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
Strickland played nurse practitioner Marilyn McGrath in the 1988 television series Heartbeat. This was one of the earliest portrayals of a lesbian character on American network television.
Other shows she has appeared in include Kojak, M*A*S*H, Hardcastle and McCormick, Night Court, Family Ties, Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Fame, Dallas, Law & Order, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Murder, She Wrote, Seinfeld, JAG, Melrose Place, Chicago Hope and ER.
Although the vast majority of her career has been spent in television, Strickland has also appeared in a number of feature films.
These include The Drowning Pool (her film debut in 1975), Norma Rae (1979), Oxford Blues (1984), The Man in the Moon (1991), When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), The American President (1995) and Quality Time (2004), which was her last screen appearance.
She is rumoured to have a type of spasmodic dysphonia which has caused her voice to become increasingly breathy over the years.