Tyne Daly, best known as half of the female cop team that formed Cagney and Lacey, won recognition for her role as the New York City detective who was also a wife and mother. With a background in the theater, Daly brought a cultivated artistry to the working-class role of Mary Beth Lacey. As written, the character was multifaceted —a tough cop, a loving wife, a committed mother, a loyal friend. As played by Daly, Mary Beth was even more complex — innocent, compassionate, and at times funny but clear-eyed and confrontational in her dealings with both the “perps” and her best friend and partner, Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless). As Mary Beth, Daly created a female character for television who was smart enough though not college educated, sexy without being glamorous. Mary Beth’s marriage with Harvey Lacey (John Karlen) offered what Daly called “a love story” that marked a true departure from TV marriages— a lusty, devoted partnership.

It is Mary Beth’s partnership with Christine, however, that has drawn the attention of most feminist critics for its twist on the countless pairs of male partners and buddies that have populated television. The professional and personal sides of Mary Beth and Christine’s relationship often blurred; feelings inevitably get involved. Though seemingly the “softer” of the two, Mary Beth’s more rational approach to her job served as ballast in the twosome’s investigations.

In addition to the ongoing themes of marriage and women’s relationships, Daly was given the opportunity to explore a number of other women’s issues. In 1985, Mary Beth discovered a lump in her breast that proved to be cancerous. As a method actor, Daly “lived” with the illness during Mary Beth’s diagnosis and treatment, which involved a lumpectomy and radiation rather than the disfiguring mastectomy. She told one reporter, “I realized that as long as there are women being led astray by the medical establishment, women getting hacked into pieces, it’s important that I tell the story, and it’s important that I face the music.” The following season, Daly’s pregnancy was written into the series. The episode in which Mary Beth gave birth to Alice aired on the same day that Daly gave birth to her daughter.

As the series came to a close, Daly commented, “I played the hell out of [Lacey]. I knew everything there was to know about her.” Between 1982 and 1988, Daly’s craft was recognized with four Emmys for best actress in a dramatic series.

Besides her work in Cagney and Lacey, Daly is best known for her performances as Mama Rose in Broadway’s revival of Gypsy, for which she received the Tony Award as best actress in a musical. Daly also continues to work in television movies and series, choosing roles of social significance. She played the mother of a child with Down syndrome in Kids Like These (1987), a homeless woman in Face of a Stranger (1991), and a prostitute, beaten and left for dead, who resolves to bring her attacker to justice in Tricks (1997). She has also done more comic turns on Wings (which stars her brother Tim Daly) and on Sharon Gless’s series The Trial of Rosie O’Neil, in which she played an “old friend” who has more in common in looks and manner with the brash Mama Rose than with the shy, frumpy Mary Beth.

Daly and Glass have also reprised their roles in several Cagney and Lacey made-for-television movies, two-hour presentations in which the characters, their friendship, and their professional relationship move further into midlife complexity. Beginning in 1999, Daly returned to series work for the Columbia Broadcasting System’s (CBS) Judging Amy, in which she plays the title character’s strong-willed mother, social worker Maxine Gray.