Morgan Fairchild
Lake Highlands High School class of 1967
While she’s best known for her steely stares in 1970s soap operas like “Dallas” and “Search for Tomorrow,” Morgan Fairchild has managed to stay in the spotlight for more than four decades as an actress and host. But her roots stem to Lake Highlands, the daughter of a Richardson ISD English teacher.
Three things to know:
1) Morgan Fairchild is the stage name she adopted, but people who went to high school with her remember her by her birth name, Patsy Ann McClenny.
2) Her mother enlisted the youngster in acting class after she was too shy to read a book report at school. One of her very first television appearances was as a young child on WFAA’s popular “Mr. Peppermint Show” with host Jerry Haynes.
3) She was briefly kidnapped in New York in 1970 when two men grabbed her on the street and pushed her into a cab. “I was just damned if I was going to let them see how scared I was,” she said on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.” “So every time they said something awful, I just made a wisecrack. Eventually one turned to the other and said, ‘You know what, she’s funny, let’s let her go.’ ”
