Catching up with Sharon Gless...

In the history of television, there are few actresses who have enjoyed the level of success and longevity as Sharon Gless.

This year, she was nominated for her ninth Emmy Award (she's won twice) for her recent guest turn on FX's "Nip/Tuck" and she is a regular on the hit USA series "Burn Notice, currently in its second season.

But that's just lately. We know her best from the six glorious years she starred on the landmark CBS show "Cagney and Lacey" with Tyne Daly (as well as several later TV movies), then there was her terrific show "The Trials of Rosie O'Neil" which only lasted two years but deserved to be on longer. But better remembered are the five seasons on Showtime's "Queer as Folk" as the larger-than-life Debbie, a no-nonsense working mom with a heart of gold and a wild red wig that allowed her to stand out in any crowd.

"I promise you I come from gratitude every single day because they still let me do it," Sharon said when we chatted at last weekend's Creative Arts Emmys. "I'm sure as you know most of my peers are not working anymore. So I'm very blessed. I've been given good material that seems to land and I get to b e a part of it."

Sharon where she said was surprised by her nomination this year for "Nip/Tuck:"

"There was a lot of fuss about the part and not because of me. Ryan Murphy wrote the sickest, most twisted thing he's ever written which is tough to say about 'Nip/Tuck." And here we are."
Of course I wanted to talk to Sharon about "Queer as Folk."

"You know, I've been on many series. This is my 10th. And you always swear you'll never part, you'll all be friends and you'll stay together forever and you never do - except for Tyne Daly and myself. The boys and I have stayed close, close, close friends all these years. We never parted. We all lived in another country (the series was shot in Canada) and the work they had to do was very intimate stuff so we supported each other."
It should come as now surprise that Sharon is staunchly against California's Proposition 8 which seeks to ban marriage between same-sex couples.

"I'm gonna fight it. I'm there, I'm absolutely there. The gay community has been absolutely wonderful to me, they've kept me going all my career."