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Betty Thomas

A former public school art teacher, actress Betty Thomas turned a side job as waitress at Chicago's Second City improv club into an acting career that brought her an Emmy on "Hill Street Blues" (NBC, 1981-87) as dedicated officer Lucy Bates. Thomas later found even greater success as a director for television and features, including such top-grossing films as "The Brady Bunch Movie" (1995), "Private Parts" (1997) and "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel." If critics occasionally dismissed her movies as lightweight fluff, there was no denying that they brought audiences to theaters and drew sizable profits, which in turn made Thomas one of the most accomplished female directors in Hollywood.