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Entertainment

See What the Cast of Designing Women Is Up to Today

By Linda Rodgers April 21, 2016

Tags:

then and now,
TV

The four ladies and one man of Sugarbakers & Associates were on the air from 1986 until 1993, delighting millions and racking up awards. One fan: Dolly Parton, who guest-starred as herself in an episode!

Dixie Carter

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Dixie Carter: Julia Sugarbaker
Dixie Carter 2008

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Dixie Carter died in 2010, when she was 70, from endometrial cancer.
Jean Smart

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Jean Smart: Charlene Frazier-Stillfield
Jean Smart 2016

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Smart was in FX's Fargo (2015) and is now appearing as Katherine Miller in Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce.
Delta Burke Then

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Delta Burke: Suzanne Sugarbaker
Delta Burke 2010

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These days Burke keeps a low profile and sticks close to home in California and her husband Gerald McRaney (House of Cards).
Annie Potts

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Annie Potts: Mary Jo Shively
Annie Potts Now

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You'll be able to catch Potts this summer in the return of Ghostbusters. She was in the 1984 original!
Julia Duffy

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Julia Duffy: Allison Sugarbaker
Julia Duffy

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You can catch Duffy on the comedy-horror TV series, Scream Queens.
Meshach Taylor

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Meshach Taylor: Anthony Bouvier
Meshach Taylor 2012

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Taylor died in 2014, from colon cancer.
Judith Ivey

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Judith Ivey: Bonnie Jean (BJ) Poteet
Judith Ivey 2016

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Ivey plays Mrs. Asher on ABC's The Family.