Harley Jane Kozak

Kozak was born Susan Jane Kozak in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the youngest of eight children to Dorothy ( Taraldsen), a music teacher, and Joseph Aloysius Kozak, an attorney. Her father died when she was one year old, after which her mother relocated the family to North Dakota. Kozak attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln for three semesters before relocating to New York City, where she worked as a waitress for ten years. During this period, she attended New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1980. Of her name, Kozak has said that "Harley" came from a former boyfriend, who owned a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and that she liked the nickname, later having her name legally changed. ==Career==

Acting Kozak starred in movies such as The House on Sorority Row (1983), Parenthood (1989), Side Out (1990), Arachnophobia (1990), The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991), Necessary Roughness (1991), All I Want for Christmas (1991), The Favor (1994), Magic in the Water (1995), Unforgivable (1996), and the soap operas Texas (from November 1981 to December 1982 as Brette Wheeler), Guiding Light (from 1983 to 1985 and a one-day voice-over in February 1990, as both Annabelle Sims Reardon and Annabelle's deceased mother, in 1983 flashbacks, Annie Sims) and Santa Barbara (from 1985 to 1986 and again in 1989, as former nun, Mary Duvall McCormick). In Santa Barbara, her character died in an accident where a giant neon letter "C" toppled onto her during an argument atop the Capwell hotel. Viewers were so angry over Mary's death that they started a letter-writing campaign demanding for her reappearance. The show received such a huge number of letters that eventually they admitted their mistake and asked Kozak to come back. She declined the offer since she was already working with other projects and she was proud of the unusual way her character had made her exit. In February 1989, though, she made a brief return as an angel in Heaven. In 1987 Harley received a Soap Opera Digest Award from her role as Mary. The role went to Susanna Thompson. Also in 1996, Kozak portrayed a battered wife in a made-for-TV movie, Unforgivable, co-starring with John Ritter, and received praise for her "strong" performance. Kozak also appeared in "Cold Lazarus", a first-season episode of Stargate SG-1, as Sara O'Neill. Writing Kozak has written five novels: Dating Dead Men (2004), Dating Is Murder : A Novel (2005), Dead Ex (2007), and ''A Date You Can't Refuse (2008), all of which feature greeting-card designer and amateur sleuth Wollie Shelley, a woman with very eccentric friends and family. The first three novels were published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, and the most recent was published by Broadway Books following the restructuring of Doubleday. Dating Dead Men'' won an Agatha Award, an Anthony Award, and a Macavity Award for best first novel. Kozak's fifth book is Keeper of the Moon, a paranormal romantic suspense novel. ==Personal life==

Kozak lives in Los Angeles. She has been married twice: a brief union in the early 1980s and a second marriage from 1997 until 2007 to entertainment lawyer Gregory Aldisert, with whom she has three children. ==Partial filmography==