Film and Broadway star Donna Bullock is being inducted April 24 into the Athens ISD Distinguished Alumni. Bullock, a 1974 graduate of Athens High School, was born in Dallas, Texas, on Dec. 11, 1955, to Don and Shirley Bullock.
When Donna’s father grew weary of corporate life in Dallas, he and Shirley forged a new path for their family, which included younger brother, Charlie, and bought a piece of land that would become the first marina on Cedar Creek Lake: “Don’s Port Marina.”
Donna was bitten by the performance bug at a very early age. “Momma had a beautiful voice,” she said, “and she was my first voice teacher. My earliest memory ... I’m in diapers, I’m not 2 years old, and I am singing a song I had worked on with my mother called ‘Little Sally Water,’ where you turn one way and then another, and I never knew which way to turn first.”
Fast-forward a few years to elementary school and Donna had continued to hone her craft, progressing to school talent shows. She somehow scored her very first TV appearance in College Station, belting out “Hello, Dolly” and “King of the Road” as only a very confident 8-year-old could.
She attended Malakoff schools through her sophomore year of high school, playing sports because, “that’s where the group was,” and continuing to perform at any opportunity. When English teacher Mrs. Lois Stevenson started a drama club, Donna jumped at the chance to participate in UIL One Act Play competitions. “I thought I was great, but I didn’t win anything,” Donna said. After attending SFA drama camp the summer between her freshman and sophomore years, she gave One Act another try and won Best Actress.
In her junior year, the Bullocks moved to Athens, and Donna enrolled at Athens High School. Change can be hard for a teenager. “At first I would go home after school and throw myself on the bed and cry, but then I got nominated for homecoming queen — and I was fine,” she said with a laugh. “I fit right in with a group of really good kids. Athens was just a better fit for me. I found people I felt safe with.”
Athens High School had a speech class but no theater, so in addition to being a cheerleader, Donna enlisted her friends to create their own drama troupe. Then they started entering — and winning — competitions. Just months before graduating Athens High School in 1974, she was named Texas Junior Miss. “I didn’t even think about winning,” she said. “For me, it was just another place to perform — a place to get out there and do something, because there weren’t that many opportunities.”
It was during this time that Donna, Julie Owens and Kim Woodruff formed a singing trio called “Sunshine” and performed at different events around town.
Performing was always Donna’s big dream, but a trip to New York City in her senior year opened her eyes. “I saw ‘Pippin’ on Broadway and that sealed the deal,” she said. “I had only aspired to dinner theatre; but as soon as I saw that level of performance, I thought, ‘That’s it.’”
She came home with a new determination. While training for the national Junior Miss pageant, Donna was introduced to J.W. Johnson, a music professor at Tyler Junior College. Johnson became her mentor and helped her earn a full, two-year scholarship to TJC, where she flourished, performing in musicals and touring with “Harmony & Understanding,” the college’s elite choral group.
After graduating from TJC in 1976, she was accepted into the theater program at SMU. During her time there, she also performed at Dallas Rep, Theatre Three, and Casa Mañana in Fort Worth, as well as playing Bobby Ewing’s first secretary, Connie, in season one of the iconic TV series, “Dallas.”
After earning her BFA in Theatre from SMU in 1979, she moved to New York City to pursue what has become a prolific career in film, television and stage. Her numerous credits include leading roles on Broadway in “Ragtime,” “City of Angels,” and “A Class Act” as well as the first national tour of “Me and my Girl,” opposite Tim Curry. Donna also starred in the brief but critically acclaimed NBC drama, “Against the Grain,” as well as TV guest stars in “Frasier,” “Monk,” “Medium,” “Six Feet Under,” “Smallville” and “Touched by an Angel,” to name a few. In the movie, “Air Force One,” starring Harrison Ford, she played the president’s press secretary who dies at the hands of the film’s villain, played by Gary Oldman. She had the pleasure of appearing opposite her husband, actor Howard Sherman, playing Ophelia to his Hamlet and Beatrice to his Benedick.
After many years of living in New York and Los Angeles, Donna and her husband moved to the Berkshires in Sheffield, Massachusetts in 2017. They have a daughter, Hannah.
“I’ve had some magical experiences,” said Donna. “It’s been a crazy good life.”
Donna is being inducted along with Mark Wimberley, AHS class of 1973, and Sam Fowler, who served as assistant superintendent at AISD from 1976-1996.