Marcia Strassman

Marcia Ann Strassman (April 28, 1948 – October 24, 2014) was an American actress and singer, best known for her roles as Nurse Margie Cutler on M*A*S*H, as Julie Kotter on Welcome Back, Kotter, and as Diane Szalinski in the film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989). 2Life and career Strassman was born in New York City and raised in Passaic, New Jersey. Among her earliest acting credits was an appearance in an episode of The Patty Duke Show. In 1963, at age 15, she succeeded Liza Minnelli in the role of Ethel Hofflinger in the Off-Broadway musical Best Foot Forward.In 1967, she became a recording artist for Uni Records. Her debut single, "The Flower Children", was a top-40 hit in many West Coast U.S. markets, hitting #4 in San Diego and #2 in San Francisco; the track also hit #3 in Vancouver, British Columbia (both at CKLG 730 AM and CFUN 1410 AM in July 1967). However, the single failed to break out nationally in either country; the record stalled at #105 in the United States, and just sneaked into RPM's Top 100 for Canada, peaking at #95.Her follow-up release, "The Groovy World of Jack and Jill", charted in Denver, Colorado, but virtually nowhere else. A third single, "Star Gazer" (1968) (produced by Kim Fowley), failed to chart anywhere and brought Strassman's brief recording career to a close. Returning to acting after a gap of a few years, she landed the recurring role of Nurse Margie Cutler in six early episodes of M*A*S*H.She landed her best-known role as Julie Kotter, the wife of title character high school teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan) on the ABC comedy series Welcome Back, Kotter in 1975. The series lasted four years. Strassman was told that co-star Kaplan wanted her off the series and she stated in an interview that working on the series made her "miserable