Sigh. A lovely lady named Kristine Greco was found dead in her apartment the other day from (as yet) undetermined causes.
Kristine was an actress who later decided she liked it better on the other side of the camera. I met her my first day working on Welcome Back, Kotter in 1976. She was one of the other, non-featured students in Mr. Kotter's classroom. It was more or less "extra" work but occasionally, she got a few lines. I think I wrote the first dialogue she ever spoke on television. Oddly enough, she was often recognized in public for sitting behind John Travolta or the other stars of the show. One night in Westwood, she was practically stalked by an ardent female Kotter fan who wouldn't leave us alone until Kristine gave her an autograph.
Kristine was only on that show a short time but turned up later on many others. For a time, whenever Young and the Restless needed someone to play a hooker, it was Kristine, and she had a very nice role in a not very good movie called Coach, which starred Cathy Lee Crosby, and bit parts in Grease and American Hot Wax. While we were going together, she was also on Happy Days, Emergency, General Hospital, Charlie's Angels and a few others.
At some point, she began to tire of the rat race and the auditions, and she ditched her headshot photo. (That's it up above. I took it in my back yard.) She worked for a time for Goodson-Todman as a stand-in and rehearsal contestant on game shows, then got into script supervising. It was in that capacity that she became enormously successful, working on dozens of movies, TV shows and especially commercials. Among her many credits are The West Wing, Gilmore Girls, Lifestories, My So-Called Life, Dinosaurs, Dexter and E.R.
I have a great anecdote that involves Kristine but it really isn't about her directly so I'll wait and tell it in a couple of days here. Right now, I just want to note the loss of a talented lady with a very large heart and a wonderful smile. We're all a little poorer every time we lose one of those.