Life and career

Kozak was born Susan Jane Kozak in Wilkes-Barre

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, the daughter of Dorothy (née

Married and maiden names

A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Taraldsen), a university music teacher, and Joseph Aloysius Kozak, an attorney

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

. She has seven siblings: brothers John, Joseph, Peter and Andrew and sisters Dorothy, Mary and Ann. Harley is the youngest of them. Their father died when Harley was a year old. She was raised in Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

 and attended New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

. In her early 20s she changed her name from Susan to Harley after the motorcycle.

Kozak starred in movies such asThe Favor

The Favor

The Favor is a romantic comedy film directed by Donald Petrie and written by Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon.-Plot:Kathy has seemingly been happily married to Peter, but their relationship has grown routine. She cannot help but wonder what would happen if she ever got together with her high...

, Parenthood, Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia (film)

Arachnophobia is a 1990 American comedy horror film directed by Frank Marshall and starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman. It was the first film released by Hollywood Pictures....

, All I Want for Christmas

All I Want for Christmas (film)

All I Want for Christmas is a 1991 American comedy movie that stars Lauren Bacall, Thora Birch and Ethan Randall. It was directed by Robert Lieberman. Music by Bruce Broughton including a theme setting song by Stephen Bishop. The movie is rated G in the USA.-Plot:Two New York children know what...

and the soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

s Texas

Texas (TV series)

Texas is an American daytime soap opera which aired on NBC from August 4, 1980 until December 31, 1982. Created by John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington, and Paul Rauch, the show was a spinoff of Another World...

(first as a day player in October 1981, and from November 1981 to December 1982 as Brette Wheeler), Guiding Light

Guiding Light

Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...

(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

Santa Barbara (TV series)

Santa Barbara is an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on July 30, 1984, and last aired on January 15, 1993. The show revolved around the eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of Santa Barbara, California...

(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 on top of her during an argument atop the Capwell hotel.
In 1993-1994, Kozak played Alison Hart, wife of Dave Hart, portrayed by Beau Bridges

Beau Bridges

Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...

, on the CBS comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

/western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 series Harts of the West

Harts of the West

Harts of the West is an American Western/comedy–drama series starring Beau Bridges and his father, Lloyd Bridges, set on a dude ranch in Nevada. The series aired on CBS from September 1993, to June 1994.-Synopsis:...

. The program was set on a dude ranch

Dude ranch

The guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism.-History:...

 in Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

. Lloyd Bridges

Lloyd Bridges

Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958...

 played her father-in-law, and Diane Ladd

Diane Ladd

Diane Ladd is an American actress, film director, producer and published author. She has appeared in over 120 roles, on television, and in miniseries and feature films, including Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore , Wild at Heart , Rambling Rose , Ghosts of Mississippi, Primary Colors, 28 Days , and...

 appeared once as Alison's mother. Her three children were played by Sean Murray, Nathan Watt and Meghann Haldeman, who has been friends with her on-screen mother ever since. Also Mark Harmon guest-starred the series. Kozak has worked several times with Harmon,both in movies and TV series' and she credits him as one of her favorite co-stars.

In 1996 Kozak appeared on mini-series Titanic along with Peter Callagher and Catherine Zeta Jones. She played the role of Bess Allison, a mother who dies while searching her missing baby at the time when Titanic sinks. Kozak has stated that she has never been able to watch her performance,because the role was simply too sad.

Kozak was originally chosen to play Karen Sammler in the TV show Once and Again

Once and Again

Once and Again is an American television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999 to April 15, 2002. It depicts the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father...

. She filmed the pilot, but was asked to withdrew from the series when she became pregnant with her first child. The role went to Susanna Thompson

Susanna Thompson

Susanna Thompson is an American television and film actress. She is skilled in Aikido and stage combat. She is best known for her role as Karen Sammler on Once and Again.-Career:...

. Kozak also appeared in the 1st year episode "Cold Lazarus" of Stargate SG-1

Stargate SG-1

Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...

as Sara O'Niell.

Kozak has written four 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

Greeting card

A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling. Greeting cards,...

 designer and amateur sleuth

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 Wollie Shelley, a woman with very eccentric friends and family. The first three novels were published by Doubleday, a division of Random House

Random House

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

, the most recent was published by Broadway Books following the demise of Doubleday. Dating Dead Men won an Agatha Award

Agatha Award

The Agatha Awards are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write via the same method as Agatha Christie...

 for best first novel in 2004.

Kozak lives in Agoura Hills, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. She has been married twice: a brief union in the early 1980s (1982–1983) to actor Van Santvoord and a second marriage from 1997-2007 to an entertainment lawyer Gregory Aldisert. She has three children with her second husband: daughter Audrey Valentine (b. 9 March 2000) and twins Lorenzo Robert and Giana Julia (b. 30 May 2002).After the birth of her children Kozak retired from acting almost completely and has devoted her time to her family and writing.

External links