It’s just about impossible to pick a favorite Annie Potts performance.
Frankly, this only scratches the surface of her vast filmography.
“It hasn’t been all sunshine and unicorns.
But I have endured.
And I’m a workaholic.
I love to entertain,” she toldAssignment Xin 2024.
Time and time again, Potts has proven her resilience and not just in her career.
Her path has been paved with tragedy, heartbreak, and physical setbacks.
However, she’s yet to stop moving forward.
“I’m at a wonderful place in my career and in my life,” she toldGlamourin 2022.
“My children have started to have children.
So it’s good.
I got no complaints.”
From small-town kid to Hollywood veteran, this is the transformation of Annie Potts.
She spent the bulk of her childhood in a small town in Kentucky.
“I thought, ‘Oh, that is fantastic!’
And I did win Little Miss Simpson County.
So that’s how I got my start.
When she was 12, Potts attended a summer camp that featured a drama program.
There, she met her instructor, Sylvia Bernard, who encouraged the pre-teen to take the craft seriously.
In a 2023 interview with theSAG-AFTRA Foundation,Potts remembered the moment that would change her life forever.
“Nobody had ever told me that I was good at anything.”
Potts took the teacher’s words to heart; with that, her love of acting was born.
There, the aspiring actor studied theater, and in 1973, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree.
This was also where Potts met Steven Hartley, whom she’d later marry.
She and Hartley were out one night when drunk drivers crashed into their car.
Hartley ended up losing his leg, and Potts spent a long time recovering from her own injuries.
To this day, she’s still dealing with the emotional and physical after effects of the crash.
“It’s something like my 25th or 26th surgery.
“So, I’ve been trying to put myself back together for 50 years.”
This would grant her a level of success that later followed her into the big screen.
Potts' work in “Corvette Summer” resonated with audiences and critics alike.
In 1979, she earned a nomination from the Golden Globes for best motion picture acting debut.
Needless to say, it was a major turning point for her career.
The legendary star also noted that she was totally caught off guard by her Golden Globe nom.
“I didn’t even know what the Golden Globes were,” she stated.
Wouldn’t you know it, we have Potts to thank for those snazzy specs.
She was reluctant at first, partially because she didn’t have her costume squared away just yet.
Then, an idea struck like a lightning bolt.
“And then I was stuck with these prescription glasses that I could barely see out of.
That’s how that started.”
“I don’t think we understood what a big hit we were,” she recalled.
What was recognized, however, was the impact her fictional counterpart had on the general public.
Or, ‘It meant so much to my mother to have you representing that.
It helped her get through raising us kids.'”
After divorcing Steven Hartley in 1978, Potts married actor Greg Antonacci that same year.
Alas, thiscelebrity marriage was a shortone: In 1979, they split up.
Two years after that, Potts married assistant director B. Scott Senechal, with whom she shares a son.
In 1990, her third marriage came to an end.
That same year, Potts met producer James Hayman on the set of “Breaking the Rules.”
Despite her negative feelings about serious relationships at the time, their connection was undeniable.
So much so, that the two got married that year.
Potts and James have been inseparable ever since, lasting over three decades as husband and wife.
In a 2018 interview withCloser Weekly, Potts reflected on the beginning of their relationship.
I had an 8-year-old when I met him.”
“He was so willing to do that.
We were instantly a family, had two more sons together, and a very happy life.”
Annie Potts became a mother of three
1981 was a busy year for Annie Potts.
She not only married B. Scott Senechal but became a mother shortly after tying the knot.
On April 29, 1981, the actor gave birth to her first child, Clay Samuel Senchal.
As previously noted, Potts eventually moved on from Senechal with James Hayman.
On May 28, 1992, Potts would have her second child, James Powell Hayman.
Not too long after that, Potts welcomed her third child, Isaac Harris Hayman, into the world.
However, the “Designing Women” actor almost passed on the whole kit and caboodle.
As she toldVariety, “I was like, ‘I don’t even know what you just said.
“Those magnificent little shorts unspooled.
“So, that’s how I came to it.”
“Needless to say, Potts was thrilled to find out her once-supporting character had become a main character.
“I was gobsmacked.”
Outside of this, however, Potts’ theater roles have been far and few.
After “God of Carnage,” she took a break from treading the boards for a while.
However, that break wouldn’t last forever.
As she toldPlaybill, this was a long time coming.
So I didn’t think I would ever have a career in this again,” she said.
“I certainly couldn’t have ever competed as an ingenue.
But now that I’m an old woman I can come back!
“Doing is a whole lot different than observing, of course.”
When it came time to craft her character, Potts drew from a very personal well.
“While my mother was a little bit different the flavor is the same.”
Potts had a hard time saying goodbye to “Young Sheldon” when it ended in 2024.
As she told AARP’s Senior Planet, “I can’t stop crying.
In 2022, Potts founded The Heart Channels.
This ranges from granting financial aid to struggling college students to providing housing assistance.
So that always stuck with me,” she said.
