Delta Ramona Leah Burke (born July 30, 1956) is an American actress, producer, author, retired beauty queen and fashion designer.
Burke first entered public life as a teenage beauty queen, winning the Miss Florida title in 1974 at age 18 - the youngest title holder at the time. She later competed in that year's Miss America pageant but placed outside the top ten. Afterwards, she transitioned to acting. Her first major role was in the short lived TV series Filthy Rich, alongside Dixie Carter. Her breakout role was in the HBO series 1st and Ten as Diane Barrow, the unlikely female owner of a football team. From there she landed her now-best known role as Suzanne Sugarbaker in the sitcom Designing Women. She quickly because the show's breakout star, earning two consecutive Best Actress Emmy nominations in 1990 and 1991. However, she also experienced a lot of turbulence on the set which lead to her departure from the show in 1991. Details of her departure are murky and there have been conflicting accounts as to whether she left voluntarily or was fired. She then starred in the short-lived sitcom Delta, before she made up with Designing Women's creators and reprised her role of Suzanne Sugarbaker in Women of the House, which also only lasted a year. Her last major roles were in the 2000 film What Women Want and the sitcom DAG before she more-or-less retired from acting and returned to living a private life in the mid-2000s. Since then, she's largely focused on her clothing company Delta Burke Design, which she founded in 1995 to market fashionable clothing for plus-sized women. She still makes occasional public appearances, usually with husband Gerald McRaney (who she married in 1989), but doesn't seem to have much desire to return to public life.
Burke's characters were usually rich socialites who are strong-willed, outspoken and wear elaborate outfits and makeup. Sometimes she will be a rude and vain Rich Bitch, but that's not always the case.
Burke can also be considered a pioneer of the body positivity movement. At the height of her fame in the late 1980s/early 1990s Burke gained a significant amount of weight, at one point surpassing 200 lbs. The tabloids had a field day with her over this and she became a much-parodied figure in the media. Saturday Night Live portrayed Leon Phelps as having a sexual fixation with her, while another sketch comedy show once portrayed her getting revenge on her Designing Women co-stars by eating them.note The 1989 Designing Women episode "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?" was intended to be her response to the fat-shaming and in subsequent interviews defended her changing appearance - the memorable quote atop the page is from her pushing back against her critics. She has advocated for greater acceptance of plus-sized women since the 1990s and without a doubt helped lay the foundation for the rise of the greater body positivity movement that emerged in The New '10s.
Film Roles
- Zuma Beach as Terri (Uncredited Role)
- Rooster as Laura DeVega (TV Movie)
- Murder Me Murder You as Paula Corey (TV Movie)
- A Bunnys Tale as Margie (TV Movie)
- Where The Hells That Gold as Germany (TV Movie)
- Sordid Lives as Noleta Nethercott
- What Women Want as Eve
- Hansel And Gretel 2002 as Stepmother
- Good Boy! as Barbara Ann
- The Year Without A Santa Claus as Mrs. Claus (TV Movie)
Television Roles
- The Seekers as Elizabeth Fletcher Kent
- The Chisholms as Bonnie Sue Chrisholm
- The Misadventures Of Sheriff Lobo as Diane Stone (1 episode)
- Nero Wolfe as Jean Wellmann (1 episode)
- The Fall Guy as Cantina Waitress/Bryna (2 episodes)
- Filthy Rich as Kathleen Beck
- Fantasy Island as Gloria Ransom (1 episode)
- Gun Shy as Clementine (1 episode)
- Remington Steele as Nancy Stinson Dannon (1 episode)
- The Love Boat as Andrea Sheppard (3 episodes)
- Automan as Rachel Innis (1 episode)
- Mike Hammer as Linda Sloane (1 episode)
- T.J. Hooker as Diana Polnoi (1 episode)
- First And Ten as Diane Barrow
- Designing Women as Suzanne Sugarbaker
- Women Of The House as Suzanne Sugarbaker
- Hotel as Sherry (1 episode)
- Simon & Simon as Christy Keating (1 episode)
- Saturday Night Live as Herself/Host (1 episode)
- Delta as Delta Bishop
- The Mighty Jungle as Viola
- Diagnosis: Murder as Maggie Donahue/Sister Michael (1 episode)
- Touched by an Angel as Julia Fitzgerald/Diana Winslow (3 episodes)
- Lois & Clark as Myrtle Beech (1 episode)
- Promised Land (1996) as Julia Fitzgerald (1 episode)
- Any Day Now as Teresa O'Brien (1 episode)
- Popular as Cherry Cherry (6 episodes)
- DAG as Judith Whitman
- Family Law as Marcie Dell (1 episode)
- Boston Legal as Bell Horowitz (5 episodes)
- The Wedding Bells as Sheila Pontell (1 episode)
- Drop Dead Diva as Tessa Wells (1 episode)
