Bonnie Franklin

• Birthplace: Santa Monica, California
• Birthday: January 6, 1944

In the 1970s, women were realizing that they need not be tied to a man in order to have validation as a person, and many women were leaving bland marriages to strike out on their own and have the life that pre-feminism denied them. Bonnie Franklin became the TV personification of this social phenomenon as Ann Romano, the mother of two teenaged daughters who leaves her husband to survive on her own, on the long-running sitcom "One Day at a Time" (CBS, 1975-84).

The petite redhead seemingly came from nowhere at the time but discerni…more