The Official KRESKY Homepage

Erin Lowe

Born: January 25, 1954; Ocean City, MD.

A former teen model and winner of Maryland's Miss Eastern Shore Beauty Pageant, Erin Lowe was only 22 years old when she joined the cast of Kresky as the spunky Connie Sommers. It was very nearly her acting debut; a Hollywood neophyte Lowe had fled to Hollywood eight months before to escape the New York modeling scene and her domineering mother. Her only acting experience was a handful of commercials and a small role in an episode of The Rookies.

Amazingly enough Lowe was actually discovered in the now defunct Schwab's Pharmacy, a claim that, despite popular legend, Lana Turner could not make. UBC President Larry Rubin still loves to recount the anecdote of how he spotted Lowe at the check-out counter of the Hollywood landmark and immediately knew he had found a star. Lowe herself has since taken some of the shine off that story by revealing that she had stopped into the drugstore to buy some feminine hygiene products and was mortified when the network executive cornered her. But whatever the circumstances of her discovery, there was truth in his assertion: Erin Lowe definitely had the makings of a star.

Within a few days of Lowe's first appearance on Kresky fan mail started pouring into the network, begging information about this sprightly, fresh-faced young actress. Viewers across the country were smitten by this chestnut-haired girl-next-door; women wanted her for a friend and men....well, men simply wanted her. It was a recipe that would ensure her enduring appeal among the American public. Farrah Fawcett-Majors may have had the best-selling poster in the nation, but it was Lowe who had the biggest selling poster across both the male and female demographic.

After Kresky was cancelled, Lowe went on to high-profile guest spots on Cantrell, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island, but her fans were clamoring for more. A tireless letter-writing campaign spearheaded by her fan club was at least partly responsible for Larry Rubin's decision to give her her own series. In 1983, Rubin cast Lowe opposite Rick Springfield in the sci-fi cult fave Future Phase. Lowe and Springfield played soldiers Lieutenant Trina Steele and Captain Wagner Dane who traveled back through time from the 22nd century to 1983 in order to stop alien invaders from destroying mankind. Although its plots often verged on ludicrous, the series garnered high ratings -- primarily because of the hypnotic sexual chemistry of its two leads. But late in the first season the program alienated its core audience by making two critical miscalculations: it allowed a cloying romance to blossom between Steele and Dane and it revealed Springfield's character to be an amphibious half-alien. Things just weren't the same after that, and the show was cancelled midway through its second season.

In 1985, Lowe bounced back with She's the Governess, the American adaptation of the British comedy series Mind Your Manor (which was in turn based on the French sitcom Mademoiselle Michelle). Lowe portrayed a former inner city teacher hired by a Beverly Hills millionaire to teach and tame his three unruly teenage sons. Puerile and only sporadically amusing, She's the Governess seemed to coast ratings-wise on its smarmy, barely submerged sexual subtext. There's no telling how long the series might have managed to milk its prurient undercurrents if fate hadn't suddenly intervened.

For it seemed that Lowe was finally starting to lose the battle with a personal demon that had dogged her since her modeling days in New York: shopping addiction. For years, she had successfully hidden her affliction from all but her closest friends, but now her mania was growing beyond her ability to control. Normally a conscientious worker, she had begun to skip work, heading instead to major department stores to feed her bottomless hunger for retail merchandise. The producers of She's the Governess were finally forced to fire her and replace her with Morgan Fairchild (the series lost its numbers and was cancelled shortly thereafter).

Out of work and teetering on the edge of financial ruin, Lowe realized she had hit rock bottom when she found herself in a North Hollywood Dollar Discount store, scrounging for pocket change to buy a bag of sponges. The very next day she entered a twelve step shopping addiction program at a Studio City rehab center. It marked the beginning of a long climb out of darkness.

Today, Lowe -- credit card free for over 9 years -- is still working to rebuild her acting career. She has appeared in any number of infomercials and industrial films as well as playing a starring role in the hit interactive computer game Zombie Slayer courtesy of her old friend Ronald Whitney. But it was her light-hearted guest stint as the Empress Xing on the syndicated series Tales of Flash Gordon that won her the highly coveted reoccurring role of Veerek, the sensuous Cardassian assassin on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. While not acting, Lowe tours the country as a motivational speaker. She is currently hard at work on her own unique series of exercise videos Erin Lowe's Frisbee Fitness.

Erin Lowe resides in Studio City, California with her husband Neil, a photographer and her six year old son Cagan.