She is an Actress, Dancer, Model and Singer.
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Karen is of Italian and Portuguese decent.
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She was a contestant in the "Miss Teenage Santa Rosa" pageant, the "Miss Sonoma Country" pageant and she won “Miss Teen California” and eventually appeared and performed in the “Miss Teenage America” pageant.
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She was spotted by Actor, Host and Writer “Ed Sullivan” during one of her pageants and was heard to say "I want that girl on my show" which was called “The Ed Sullivan Show” originally named “Toast of the Town”.
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She did appear and perform as a Dancer and a Singer on his show on 29 March 1964 which was her first ever appearance nationally and led to many more appearances on TV and later in Films.
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She had her very first regular starring role in the weekly reality Game show “Dream Girl of '67” as a Hostess from 26 December 1966 to 29 December 1967.
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In 1967 she married “Carl MacLaughlin” and they divorced in 1973.
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In 1969 she played “Gidget Lawrence” in the Made for TV Comedy Movie “Gidget Grows Up”.
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From 1971 to 1977 she very frequently appeared on the weekly daytime game show “The Hollywood Squares”.
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She played “Ellen Carmichael” in the Romantic Comedy Film “The Love Boat” in 1976. The Movie was made into a very popular series on “ABC” and ran from 1977 to 1986 and she appeared in a 2-part episode of the series in 1978 as “Taffy Martino”.
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USA