Rosanne Katon

Acting

Rosanne Katon

Born 1954-02-05 · New York City, New York, USA

Rosanne Katon is an American model, actress, comedian and activist. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its September 1978 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Mario Casilli. Katon was born in New York City to a Jamaican-born father and an African-American mother. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Katon worked steadily in Hollywood, including a stint on Grady, the short-lived spin-off of the hit situation comedy Sanford and Son that starred Whitman Mayo in the title role, and guest appearances on Jason of Star Command, What's Happening!!, Good Times and That's My Mama, which starred Clifton Davis. She then had leading roles in two Cirio Santiago action films, both released in 1976, Ebony, Ivory & Jade, in which she received top billing, and The Muthers, in which she acted alongside former Playboy centerfold Jean Bell. However, the shapely actress was often typecast in sex kitten roles in R-Rated comedies such as The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974), Chesty Anderson, U.S. Navy (1976), American Raspberry (1976), Lunch Wagon (1981), Zapped! (1982) and Bachelor Party (1984). This was solidified by her appearance as the September 1978 Playboy centerfold. She had a recurring role opposite Denzel Washington on the medical drama St. Elsewhere and her appearance in two award-winning UCLA student films, Julie Dash's "Illusions," released in 1982, in which she portrayed a singer doubling for a white actress in 1940s Hollywood (whether she did her own singing in the role was not known as of mid December 2012), and S. Torriano Berry's "Rich," in which she portrays the title character's supportive girlfriend. Her other film credits included the TV movie The Night They Took Miss Beautiful (1977), the cult horror film Motel Hell (1980), Body and Soul (1981), City Girl (1984) and Harem (1985), opposite Nastassja Kinski and Ben Kingsley. Katon was selected as Miss Golden Globes for the 1981 awards show. The honor and the task of presenting the statuettes during the ceremony goes to an up-and-coming actress. Katon was the first African American to be selected, since the custom started in 1962. Additionally, Katon has had several stage credits, including a Broadway lead role in Godspell and a featured role in the parody of women in prison movies, Women Behind Bars. At one point, Katon segued into the world of stand-up comedy, and during that period in her career, she appeared in the June 1991 Playboy pictorial "Funny Girls," which covered female comedians.

Acting credits

Zapped! poster
5.1

Peyton and Barney are fun loving high school students working on a science project with white mice. When one of the mice begins to move food toward itself with out touching it, Barney finds he has accidently discovered a formula for telekinetic powers. Now, how much trouble can a high school boy who can move things with just his mind get into?

Zapped!

1982

Bachelor Party poster
6.3

On the eve of his wedding to his longtime girlfriend, unassuming nice guy Rick is dragged out for a night of debauchery by his friends.

Bachelor Party

1984

Motel Hell poster
5.8

Farmer Vincent Smith and his sister Ida run a motel attached to a farm where they capture unsuspecting travelers, bury them alive, fatten them up and then harvest their bodies as ingredients for his famous brand of "smoked meats."

Motel Hell

1980

Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party poster
1.0

Hugh Hefner invites you to Playboy’s Roller Disco and Pajama Party! With your host, Richard Dawson!

Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party

1979

Body and Soul poster
3.9

A young man struggles to become a boxing champ, but success blinds him. It is only through the love of his girlfriend that he is brought back to reality.

Body and Soul

1981

The City Girl poster
8.0

A female photographer who is engaged to a businessman investigates a cult in the local club scene. By living out some of her sexual fantasies, she faces the truth about her life and helps one of the cult's victims escape.

The City Girl

1984

Let's Do It Again poster
7.0

Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. However, their method for raising the money involves travelling to New Orleans and rigging a boxing match.

Let's Do It Again

1975

Playboy's Playmates: The Early Years poster
3.0

taking a trip down memory on what may have happened at the Hefner Playboy Mansion in the 70s

Playboy's Playmates: The Early Years

1992

The Night They Took Miss Beautiful poster
5.6

Criminals hijack an airplane carrying five beauty contest finalists, but unknowingly they've also kidnapped a government agent carrying a dangerous virus that is to be used in bacterial warfare.

The Night They Took Miss Beautiful

1977

The Comeback Kid poster
6.0

A down-on his-luck baseball pitcher finds a new set of rewards coaching a gang of underprivileged youngsters and romancing a career-oriented playground supervisor who, against her better judgment, put the kids in his charge.

The Comeback Kid

1980

American Raspberry poster
5.6

Some unknown source has interrupted all television transmissions around the world. In place of the regular broadcasts, a lineup of extremely tasteless programs and commercials have been substituted. Included in the mix are such show as The Shitheads, The Charles Whitman Invitational, and commercials for a number of improbable products.

American Raspberry

1977

Peter Gunn poster
5.4

Peter Gunn, a connoisseur of beautiful women and cool jazz, is an ex-cop turned private eye who's caught in the middle of a dangerous gang war.

Peter Gunn

1989

Harem poster
4.4

Diane is a sophisticated trainee on the New York Stock Exchange who is suddenly kidnapped and held captive in a North African desert hideaway by Selim, an Arab mogul.

Harem

1985

Coach poster
3.6

A young, blonde and beautiful woman is hired to coach a team of underachieving basketball players and against all odds, leads them to victory.

Coach

1978

Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy poster
4.3

When one of her friends goes missing, Chesty and several fellow WAVEs go looking for her and end up in a world of senatorial corruption and Mafia intimidation.

Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy

1976

The Swinging Cheerleaders poster
5.7

In order to write an expose on how cheerleading demeans women, a reporter for a college newspaper infiltrates the cheerleading squad.

The Swinging Cheerleaders

1974

Lunch Wagon poster
4.3

Three women start a lunch wagon business but run into stiff resistance from a competitor.

Lunch Wagon

1981

Police Story: The Watch Commander poster
9.0

This is the story of policeman who has been on the job for over forty years. And one of his duties is to look out for all of the officers under him cause he is the watch commander. And it seems that a lot of them have a lot of problems including the new lieutenant. And a 15 year veteran who's feeling the stress of the job. And at the same time he is being egged by the captain to retire cause he thinks he's too old. And his wife would like him to retire also.

Police Story: The Watch Commander

1988

Rich poster
8.5

A young man living in the inner city, runs into conflicts with his mother when he decides to pursue a college education instead of accepting an offer for a full-time job.

Rich

1983

The Death of a Playmate: The Dorothy Stratten Story 20/20 poster
NR

The story of Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980), the 1980 Playboy "Playmate of the Year", who was murdered by her estranged husband, just as her entertainment career was taking off.

The Death of a Playmate: The Dorothy Stratten Story 20/20

2019

Ebony, Ivory & Jade poster
6.8

An American track team has just arrived in The Philippines for an international competition. Among the competitors are Ginger and Pam, nicknamed "Ivory" and "Ebony", who meet up with another friend, Jackie, nicknamed "Jade". After they arrive at their hotel, a gang of thugs kidnaps them, along with some other girls from the team. To get away, the trio are going to have to use all their fighting skills.

Ebony, Ivory & Jade

1976

Illusions poster
6.1

A woman in a Hollywood dubbing studio struggles with race and preconceptions. The short film depicts the life of an African American woman passing as a white woman working in the film industry during the 1940s. It calls attention to the lack of African Americans in the film industry during that era.

Illusions

1982

The Death of Playboy Playmate poster
NR

Have you heard of the famous playmate Dorothy Stratten? A pretty and innocent face exploited. Stratten was born in a Salvation Army hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten, who were Dutch immigrants. In 1961 her brother John Arthur was born. Her sister Louise Stratten followed in May 1968. In 1977 she was attending Centennial High School in Coquitlam when, while working part-time at a local Dairy Queen, she met 26-year-old Vancouver-area club promoter and pimp, Paul Snider, who romanced her. Snider later had a photographer take professional nude photos of her which were sent to Playboy magazine in the summer of 1978. She was under the age of 19 at the time, which is the legal age to pose nude in Canada so she had to persuade her mother to sign the model release form.

The Death of Playboy Playmate

1995

The Muthers poster
4.7

A band of female pirates go undercover at a prison camp on a coffee plantation to rescue their leader's sister.

The Muthers

1976