Vicki Lawrence

Lawrence was married to singer-songwriter Bobby Russell from 1972 to 1974. In November 1974, she married television makeup artist Al Schultz, with whom she had two children, Courtney Allison and Garrett Lawrence. Schultz died on June 19, 2024. After The Carol Burnett Show concluded in 1978, Lawrence and Schultz lived in Maui, Hawaii, for several years before returning to Los Angeles.

Around 2011, Lawrence was diagnosed with chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU), a recurring skin condition. She subsequently partnered with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America to raise awareness about the disorder, serving as a spokesperson for the "CIU & You" educational campaign and discussing the condition on medical talk shows such as The Doctors.

Born Vicki Ann Axelrad in Inglewood, California, Lawrence performed with the musical touring group The Young Americans while attending Morningside High School. During her senior year, she entered the local Miss Fireball of Inglewood contest. After a local newspaper story noted her physical resemblance to Carol Burnett, Lawrence sent Burnett a fan letter with the clipping. Burnett attended the pageant, crowned Lawrence upon her victory, and auditioned her to portray her younger sister on The Carol Burnett Show.

Lawrence debuted on the variety show in the fall of 1967 at age 18. Both Burnett and co-star Harvey Korman mentored her, with Korman coaching her in comedic timing and accents. Lawrence stayed with The Carol Burnett Show for its full eleven-season run from 1967 to 1978, standing with Burnett as the only two cast members who appeared across the entire series. Her work earned her multiple Golden Globe nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award in 1976.

During the seventh season of The Carol Burnett Show, Lawrence introduced the sharp-tongued southern matriarch Thelma "Mama" Harper in the sketch series "The Family". Originally planned as a one-time routine, the sketch became an audience favorite and ran through the remainder of the variety show's run, producing many of the series' most famous unscripted moments between Mama and Burnett's character, Eunice.

The popularity of the sketches led CBS to produce the 1982 television film Eunice, followed by the NBC sitcom Mama's Family in 1983. After NBC cancelled the program in 1985, it was revived for first-run syndication from 1986 to 1990, completing 130 episodes. Lawrence sustained the character for decades, touring the country with her stand-up production Vicki and Mama: A Two Woman Show and making guest appearances in costume on numerous television programs.

In November 1972, Lawrence released "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", a Southern gothic narrative ballad written by her first husband, Bobby Russell. The single reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian pop charts in April 1973, selling more than two million copies. Burnett surprised Lawrence on the air by presenting her with an official RIAA gold record during the season six finale of The Carol Burnett Show.

Her debut LP, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, was issued shortly afterward. Lawrence also achieved major chart success in Australia, where her follow-up release "He Did with Me" climbed to number one in late 1973, followed by "Ships in the Night" reaching number seven in 1974. She later explored the disco genre on her 1979 album Newborn Woman, which featured the dance single "Don't Stop the Music".

In 1987, Lawrence became a television emcee when she began hosting the daytime edition of the game show Win, Lose or Draw, fronting the program until 1989. She followed with her own daytime syndicated talk show, Vicki!, which ran from 1992 to 1994 and earned her nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Lawrence was also a frequent guest player on competitive panel shows, appearing in dozens of episodes of The $25,000 Pyramid, Password Plus, and Match Game.

Lawrence continued to make regular guest appearances on sitcoms and primetime dramas, including Laverne & Shirley, Roseanne, and Yes, Dear. From 2006 to 2011, she played Mamaw Ruthie Stewart in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. She returned to a leading sitcom role in 2018, starring as Margaret Flynn in the Fox comedy series The Cool Kids alongside Martin Mull, Leslie Jordan, and David Alan Grier.