Nicolette Sheridan

Nicolette Sheridan (born November 21, 1963) is a Golden Globe-nominated British-born American actress. She has appeared in soap operas, movies and television series, and is perhaps best known for her roles as Paige Matheson on Knots Landing and as Edie Britt on "Desperate Housewives".

Sheridan was born Colette Sheridan in Rustington, West Sussex, England, the daughter of British actress Sally Sheridan (née Adams). She is of Indian Punjabi descent through her maternal side. Contrary to rumour, Sheridan is not related to actress Dinah Sheridan. Sheridan's biological father has never been identified. However, Sheridan has said that she considers her mother's late ex-boyfriend, actor Telly Savalas, to be her father (and not stepfather). Sheridan's half-brother, Nick Savalas, is his son. Sheridan attended school at Millfield in Somerset and emigrated to the United States in 1973

Nicolette Sheridan made her debut in Paper Dolls, but her breakthrough came in 1986, when she joined the cast of the CBS night-time soap Knots Landing as "Paige Matheson". She started out in a recurring role, but proved to be so popular that she was a regular during the 1988-89 season. For her performance in the role, she won the 1990 Soap Opera Digest Award for "Outstanding Lead Actress: Prime Time" and the 1991 Soap Opera Digest Award for "Outstanding Heroine: Prime Time". The same year, she was named one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People". After the series ended in 1993, she appeared in several made-for-TV movies and the films Spy Hard and Beverly Hills Ninja and auditioned for the role of Grace Adler on Will & Grace (on which she would later guest-star). Despite her carefully cultivated sex symbol image, Sheridan has only done one nude scene during her career, in the low budget 1999 film Raw Nerve, opposite Mario Van Peebles.

In 2004, Sheridan's role as sexy divorcee Edie Britt in ABC's Desperate Housewives brought her renewed media attention. She was nominated for a 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and was named #48 on Maxim's 2006 List. Less positively, she was named 2004's "worst dressed" by Mr. Blackwell. Blackwell's citation probably resulted from the colourful and boldly-cut gown Sheridan wore as a presenter at the American Music Awards on November 14, 2004 but he had earlier (TV Guide, July 22, 1989) praised her fashion sense: "daring ... with her panache, she brings it off without a hitch. For the adventurer in all of us, she's the one to watch".

On November 15, 2004, Sheridan was cited by the FCC for her appearance in a sketch that opened the evening's Monday Night Football broadcast. The Desperate Housewives inspired sketch, showing Sheridan dropping a towel to attract the attention of football player Terrell Owens who then said "ah hell", was widely condemned as being sexually suggestive. ABC was forced to apologize for airing it, but the citation against Sheridan was dropped on March 14, 2005.

In February 2009 Nicolette Sheridan announced she will be leaving Desperate Housewives at the end of the season. Her final episode will be in April 2009. According to E! Online Sheridan's character Edie Britt will be killed off the show. "If there are no script changes, Edie will die before the season ends. She will find out that Dave plans to kill her. When he tries to, Edie escapes only to get involved in an accident that involves her car and an electrical wire." Actress Dana Delany, who plays Katherine Mayfair, confirmed that there will be some shocking drama when Nicollette Sheridan leaves the show.