Actress. Born Patsy McClenny, on February 3, 1950, in Dallas, Texas. McClenny began performing on stage at the age of 12. As a teenager, she doubled for Faye Dunaway, the lead in the acclaimed film Bonnie and Clyde (1966), co-starring Warren Beatty. After a brief marriage, she took the name Morgan Fairchild as her professional name. In 1973, Fairchild landed the role of the murderous ingenue Jennifer Pace on the long-running daytime drama Search for Tomorrow.
She left the program in 1977 and relocated to Los Angeles. Fairchild became well known during the 1980s for her portrayal of various glamorous, temperamental temptresses in such prime time melodramas as Dallas (she appeared in one episode in 1979 as Jenna Wade, a character who would later be made famous by Priscilla Presley), Flamingo Road (1981-1982), and Falcon Crest (1985 to 1986).
She also appeared in a number of TV movies, including The Initiation of Sarah (1979), The Dream Merchants (1980), Hotel (1982), Street of Dreams (1988), The Haunting of Sarah Hardy (1989), How to Murder a Millionaire (1990), Dead Man’s Island (1996), and Into the Arms of Danger (1997). From 1995 to 1996, she starred as a media mogul in the short-lived daytime drama The City. On the big screen, Fairchild appeared in such films as Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Campus Man (1987), and Venus Rising (1995).
In the 1990s, Fairchild brought her famously sultry charm to a number of tongue-in-cheek comic performances, including an Emmy-nominated guest turn on Murphy Brown in 1989 and memorable appearances on such sitcoms as Roseanne (1992), Cybill (1995), and Friends (1998). Fairchild also starred in a series of much-talked-about commercials for Old Navy clothing, and had a cameo in the comedy Holy Man (1998), starring Eddie Murphy.
Fairchild lives in Los Angeles with her longtime companion, the film executive Mark Seiler. Active in pro-choice and environmental groups, she also serves on the boards of Americans for AIDS Research (amFAR) and AIDS Project Los Angeles.