OK, so I’m TV-ignorant. Who was the lady in the Old Navy commercials, and did she recently die? I thought it was supposed to be Morgan Fairchild, but what do I know? Pardon my ignornace, but who the heck IS Morgan Fairchild, anyway? - Jinx
The one who died was Carrie Donovan - former fashion editor of Vogue and famous for enormous black-rimmed glasses. She died about 2 weeks ago.
Can’t answer your questions about Morgan Fairchild. She’s one of those actresses whose name and face I recognize but have no idea what she’s famous for.
So, I take it Carrie Donovan WAS the lady in the commercial? Or, was she a head clothing designer behind the scenes? - Jinx
No, she was IN the commercials. She did a lot of the hokey spots with the dog. Morgan Fairchild was in some of the commercials some time ago but she is not dead to the best of my knowledge.
Check out this thread—there are several excerpts from, and links to, Carrie Donovan’s obit:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=101303
Carrie was one of the women in the Old Navy ads. IIRC, Morgan Fairchild (Chandler’s mom on Friends, Falcon Crest-ish show, Tommy Fla-nay-gan’s wife) also did ads, as did Weezy and several others.
Yes, she was the lady in the commercial. I don’t believe she had anything to do with Old Navy except to act in their ads.
Morgan Fairchild is a blond actress who’s been in lots and lots of stuff. http://us.imdb.com/Name?Fairchild,+Morgan
Most recently she was Chandler’s mom on Friends.
The late Carrie Donovan was the lady in the Old Navy commercials with the giant glasses. She had appeared in an earlier Old Navy commercial saying how much she liked some item of theirs (“they’re really fab”), which they used in the commercial because of her position in the fashion world. Everybody fell in love with her quirky look, so she got the job as part of the Old Navy “stable.”
Morgan Fairchild was another member of the stable. She’s a very pretty actress who was ubiquitous back in the 80’s. Because of that she has a certian nostalgic appeal to us Gen X’ers. You may also have seen her as Chandler’s mother in Friends or as the film-within-a-film version of P.W. Herman’s girlfriend at the end of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.
The rest of the Old Navy stable was made up of a bunch of models and a dog named Magic.
–Cliffy
Using Carrie Donovan in their commercials was a great little inside joke for Old Navy. From her position at Vouge, she was the arbiter of fashion for about 100 years.
She loved doing the ads.
I miss her, but it is nice to see George and Weezy up and around!