Early Career
Sullivan was born in New York City, but was raised in the Long Island town of Freeport, Nassau County, New York, where she graduated from Freeport High School in 1960. She earned a BA in drama from Hofstra University in 1964. During the latter part of her college years (1963–64), she worked as a Playboy Bunny. She got her acting start in the 1960s playing opposite Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway play Jimmy Shine. She landed a contract with Universal Studios in 1969, guest-starring on several shows. It was during this time she played parts in daytime dramas. Starting with a role on A World Apart in 1970, she moved to a five-year stint as Lenore Moore Curtin Delaney on the daytime soap opera Another World. Taking over from Judith Barcroft, Sullivan played the role from 1971 to 1976. Sullivan played Charlton Heston's girlfriend Ann, a new character written into the TV version of the film Midway in 1976. She then played Dr. Elaina Marks opposite Bill Bixby in the Incredible Hulk TV Series pilot in 1977 and portrayed Poker Alice opposite James Garner as Bret Maverick and Charles Frank as Ben Maverick in The New Maverick the following year.
An Emmy nomination for the role of Maggie Porter in the television drama Rich Man, Poor Man Book II brought Sullivan even more attention. She played Dr. Julie Farr in Having Babies, which was made into two television movies and later a short-lived weekly series in 1978.
In 1980, she appeared on the sitcom It's a Living, playing head waitress Lois Adams.
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