Dixie Carter, a television favorite who is best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker on the long-running comedy hit, "Designing Women," returns as Randi King, the smart, sharp tongued lawyer with a southern rasp in FAMILY LAW, the one-hour drama from Columbia TriStar Television, airing Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

On Broadway, Carter played to standing ovations as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's play, "Master Class." She has also performed the role of Melba in the revival of "Pal Joey" and Anne in the musical "Sextet." Off-Broadway, she starred in "A Coupla' White Chicks Sittin' Around Talkin'" and at the New York Public Theatre in "Taken in Marriage," "Fathers and Sons" and "Jesse and the Bandit Queen," for which she won a Theatre World Award. She also starred as Mrs. Arbuthnot in Oscar Wilde's "A Woman of No Importance" at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C.

Besides "Designing Women," Carter has starred in four other TV series: "On Our Own," "Out of the Blue," "Filthy Rich" and "Diff'rent Strokes." She has also starred in television movies and mini-series including the CBS-TV movie, "The Killing of Randy Webster," where she met her husband, actor Hal Holbrook.

Last year, Carter filmed the independent film, "We Met on the Vineyard," co-starring Julianna Margulies.

Carter has a successful cabaret and concert career and travels across the country. She is the producer of two fitness videos for MCA/Universal "Dixie Carter's Unworkout," a platinum release, and "Yoga for You." She is also the author of Trying to Get to Heaven, which was published by Simon Schuster in 1996.

Born in McLemoresville, Tennessee and valedictorian of her high school class, Carter attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Rhodes College in Memphis, from which she has since received an honorary doctorate. She is a graduate of the University of Memphis. She began her acting career at Front Street Theatre in Memphis.

Carter, her husband, her father and their two dogs reside in Los Angeles.

Kathleen Quinlan | Christopher McDonald | Julie Warner | Tony Danza | Paul Haggis