Debralee Scott (1953-2004)

A sad time in nostalgia land: Debralee Scott passed away recently at the age of 52, of the always baffling "natural causes."



To you younger folk, the name may not mean anything, but those of us of a certain age (ahem) recall Ms. Scott as female "Sweathog" Rosalie Totzi (better known as "Hotzi" Totzi) on the '70s classroom sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, and in a similar role as the title character's trampy little sister Cathy on the soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman from that same era. She later co-starred on Angie alongside Donna Pescow, and appeared in a couple of the endless string of Police Academy sequels. Game show aficionados — myself among them — also remember Debralee's frequent appearances as a celebrity panelist on the Gene Rayburn-hosted Match Game.

I've always been drawn to women of, shall I say, unconventional attractiveness. Thus, as an adolescent, I found Debralee Scott rather cute, with her prominent overbite, freckles, and reddish hair feathered in that uniquely '70s style pioneered by Farrah Fawcett (whom, oddly enough, I never much liked — when it came to Charlie's Angels, I was always a Kate Jackson man). She wasn't a great actress, but she was the funniest character on Mary Hartman, and she was delightful on Match Game, where she played the more-or-less-innocent ingenue role opposite veteran tart-tongued panelists Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly.

According to reports, Ms. Scott lost her fiance, a police officer with the New York Port Authority, in the World Trade Center tragedy four years ago. Now she too is gone too soon.