Born on May 25, 1947, Karen Valentine grew up on a chicken ranch in Sebastopol, California. An exotic beauty of Portugese descent, she often dreamed of becoming an actress, taking her first steps in show biz at an early age by becoming the 1963 Miss Teenage America contestant representing nearby Santa Rosa, the closest city large enough to sponsor Valentine.

At the event, she was spotted by a CBS talent scout when she won the talent portion of the national competition in Dallas. As a result, she was invited to be on "The Ed Sullivan Show," where she did a humorous dance while lip-synching Edie Gorme's hit "Blame It On The Bossa Nova."

Valentine went on to bit parts in shows like "Love, American Style" and "Divorce Court" before landing a regular role as new bie teacher Alice Johnson on "Room 222" (1969-74). She did so well that even in the first season she was awarded an Emmy for "Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role In Comedy." That resulted in more screen time for her character, and she only kept getting better.

After "Room 222" she also did a series of "cute and perky" roles in TV movies, including "Coffee, Tea or Me" and "The Daughters of Joshua Cabe," "Go West Young Girl." Said perkiness also resulted in her association with Disney and being placed in family favorites like "The North Avenue Irregulars" and "Hot Lead And Cold Feet." She also starred in a couple of other sit-coms - "The Karen Valentine Show" and "Karen" in 1975.

Valentine even went on The Dating Game twice, before her marriage (to first husband Mac McLaughlin), she told TV Guide. She said she appeared on the show because she could add it to her acting resume, and also wanted to earn some extra money. Valentine was already dating McLaughlin then, so wasn't interested in getting involved with any of the bachelors she met.

Valentine recalled that one of the bachelors she went out with was completely charming, though. She found him to be not at all presumptuous, and they got along very well. However, on another occasion, the bachelor she chose for the date decided that she must be a swinger just because she was an actress.

As they were being driven by a uniformed chauffeur to the place where they were to have dinner together, he started to question her on her sexual attitudes. Then he made it clear that he thought she was a swinger. "'What young actress isn't?' was his attitude," said Valentine. It was also clear that he wanted to swing with her. He was a little shocked when she turned him down.

Room 222 cast (from left):
Lloyd Hanes, Karen Valentine,
Denise Nichols, Michael Constantine.

Even a Room 222 comic book.
Let's have those complete season DVDs!

© 1974 Dell Comics

"Usually the bachelors who think actresses are wild aren't in show business," Valentine said, "It's generally people outside the business who get the idea that all unmarried actresses are swingers.

"Before I was married I sometimes had to handle men who claimed that a young actress should have affairs, and who tried to convince me that I needed that kind of experience to get depth into my acting. It was an old, old line!

"Do you want to know how I handled it? I would tell them, 'The only part I ever want to play is Gidget, and I don't have to get down to the nitty gritty to play Gidget.' The funny thing is that later I played Gidget in a movie (Gidget Grows Up) made for television!"

But her cute and perky image eventually became something that Valentine wanted to shed, in order to broaden her acting horizons. She took on more dramatic roles in television and film, and also served as the host of the 1985 TV retro-fest Our Time.

Also doing many plays in recent years, Valentine later appeared as the mom in the 1995 film The Power Within (1995), as a politician's wife in an episode of Family Law (2000) and as the wife in the TV-Movie Wedding Daze (2004).

"I went to school with Karen," Misty Garoutte Jones told the online movie site IMDB in 2008. "I'm female and very straight, so don't get me wrong when I say that I just loved her. Everyone did. She was three years ahead of me, and my brother was two years ahead of her. Her sister Valerie was one year behind me. So our families were together in school over quite a period of time."

According to the former schoolmate, "Karen is exactly the same in person as she seems to be when you see her in various shows. She's sweet, perky, happy-go-lucky, down-to-earth, kind, and talented, talented, talented.

"One of our favorite teachers in high school, Mr. Beach, once told her she'd never make it in Hollywood because she wasn't 'pretty enough'. Can you imagine? She's a doll! When he told me (years later during a nostalgic trip back to visit the Analy High campus) what he'd said to her, I told him he needed glasses because she was one of the cutest girls to ever grace our town."

Even way back then, Jones recalled, Valentine was no stranger to trying to get onstage. "You should have seen her during the talent shows the school put on every so often. Once she sang and danced as a pregnant Indian and another time she was a reindeer that didn't want to leave the stage when it was time to go! I loved her, my brother loved her, EVERYBODY loved her. I truly hope her life has been wonderful and will continue to be so for a very long time."