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Janet Carroll

An extremely versatile entertainer who could dance, sing and act, Janet Carroll made a highly visible film debut in the 1983 comedy "Risky Business." In the movie, a hit comedy about a high school senior (Tom Cruise) turning his home into a profitable brothel, Carroll had a big supporting role as the family matriarch. That auspicious debut launched her long career of supporting parts in TV and, to a lesser extent, film. In the former medium, she put in a host of guest appearances following her "Risky Business" role. She did one-offs on shows like the female buddy cop series "Cagney & Lacey" (1985) and the reboot of classic science fiction anthology "The Twilight Zone" (1986). The following decade, Carroll landed recurring roles in popular fare like "Murphy Brown" (1990), a widely watched sitcom about the TV newscaster of the title, and "Melrose Place" (1993), a nighttime soap centering on well-off young people in Los Angeles. Carroll did her share of film work as well, although most of the movies she appeared in weren't hugely successful. She had a small part in the Sidney Lumet multigenerational crime story "Family Business" (1989), for example, and was in the cast of "Enough" (2002), a spousal revenge tale starring Jennifer Lopez.