Bonnie Bartlett

Bonnie Bartlett grew up in Moline, Illinois. Her father E. E. was a failed Shakespearean actor who became an insurance salesman. Her mother Carrie was a homemaker. At an early age, Bonnie became determined to fulfill her father's failed acting career. She went to Northwestern University to study acting. In her freshman year, she met fellow thespian William Daniels. Soon after graduation, the two were married and moved to New York to seek acting opportunities. She studied under Lee Strasberg and initially supported them. In the 1950s she spent four years on the CBS soap Love of Life (1951) as Vanessa Raven.

In 1961, their first child was born, but died within 24 hours due to complications in birth. This prompted the two to adopt two children later. Son Michael (b.

1964) is now an assistant director and stage manager in Los Angeles. Son Robert (b.

1966) is an artist and computer graphics designer in New York City.

Bonnie was a stay-at-home mom through most of the 1970s, acting only occasionally in recurring roles, but rejuvenated her career in the early 1980s, most notably in the hit TV series St.

She played the wife of her real life husband William Daniels in three different series: St. Elsewhere (1982), Boy Meets World (1993) and Touched by an Angel (1994).

Bartlett and husband, actor William Daniels, won Emmys in 1986 for their portrayals of another married couple, Dr. and Mrs. Mark Craig, on the cult TV series St. Elsewhere (1982).

On Boy Meets World (1993), she had a recurring role as the dean of the college that Cory and his friends attended. Her real-life husband, William Daniels, played Cory's beloved principal who followed them there and accepted a professorship. Bartlett and Daniels married each other on the show after their characters met each other, just as they have been in real life.

In the fall of 2000 she was an honoree at her former school, Moline High School, in their Hall of Honor. Her plaque sits in a viewing window in the auditorium lobby in Moline, Illinois.