(From TVLand) Gail Fisher is best known for portraying widowed secretary Peggy Fair on the CBS detective show "Mannix," a part she played from 1968 to 1975. As "Mannix" aficionados well know, Gail did not make her appearance until the show's second season, when Mannix left the detective firm Intertect and set up shop as a private investigator.

In 1970, Gail was honored for her work on this series with an Emmy Award for outstanding performance by an actress in a dramatic supporting role. (She beat out Susan Saint James in "The Name of the Game," and Barbara Anderson in "Ironside.") In addition to this honor, Gail is well regarded as a role model, having served (along with Diahann Carroll in 1968's "Julia") as one of the first African-American women to find substantive work in American television.

Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, on August 18, 1935, Gail landed her first television appearance at age 25 in the 1960 syndicated program, "Play of the Week." Although her television work was sparse thereafter, her career perked up in the late '60s. In 1968, while a regular on "Mannix," she also made appearances on "My Three Sons," "Love, American Style" and "Room 222."

Her television appearances after the 1975 cancellation of "Mannix" were few; most notably, she guest-starred in a 1980 episode of "The White Shadow."