Margaret Foster (born May 10, 1948) is an American film and television actress. Some of her many roles were in the 1979 TV miniseries version of The Scarlet Letter, and the films Ticket to Heaven, The Osterman Weekend and They Live. She also starred as Christine Cagney in the first season of Cagney & Lacey.
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Early years
Foster was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, to David and Nancy (née Adamson) Foster on May 10, 1948, and grew up in Rowayton, Connecticut, with four siblings: sisters Gray, Jan and Nina, and brother Ian. Her father was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and her mother was of English ancestry. She studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York.
Career
In 1968, Foster acted in a Cornell Summer Theatre production of John Brown's Body. Later in the same year, she was in the off-Broadway production of The Empire Builders.
When Loretta Swit was unable to reprise her television-film role of Detective Christine Cagney when the film was adapted into the Cagney & Lacey TV series, Foster took on the role for the short first season of only six episodes. Foster was replaced by Sharon Gless for the remainder of the series. Entertainment columnist Dick Kleiner wrote in August 1982 about Foster's being dropped from the show: "It isn't a pretty story, no matter who you talk to. Meg was so hurt and distraught that she still isn't talking. But she told friends that she felt as though she had been hit by a truck." Kleiner's story implied that Foster's dismissal from the show had cost her other opportunities. "Until that news spread," he wrote, "she was an in-demand actress."
