Debra Jo Rupp is well known  as an actress in american television and films. She was born on Feb 24,1951 in United States of America. She ws born into the family of Margaret A. Williams Rupp and John E. Rupp Jr. and raised in Boxford, Massachusetts. Debra has two sisters; Robin Lee Rupp and Rebecca Louise Rupp.  Debra graduated in 1969 from Masconomet Regional High School in Boxford, Massachusetts.

Dabra Jo Rupp’s net worth is estimated to be $6.5m which was amassed through her acting career. What’s interesting is that Debra may never have been an actress even through Debra always had her eyes set on being an actress, but her parents were completely against it. They opposed her dreams so much that they sought admission for her into the University of Rochester because there was no theater education course. Luckily for Debra, a year after she started going to school at Rochester, a department for drama and theatre arts was added. And so, Rupp went on to join the drama house; a small theatre arts club with an even smaller venue. When she graduated in 1974, Rupp moved to New York to kick off her acting career.

Early Days and Career

After moving to New York, Rupp spent the next 4 years working in commercials and stage shows until 1979 when Rupp had the opportunity to work in the TV drama All my Children in the 1980s. she played the role of Sheila in this show; a topless dancer. Later in the same year, Debra got a role in in Sharon Tipsword’s one-act comedy; Second Verse. She played Helen, the wife of a cheating husband. Second Verse was produced as part of a play festival at New York’s Nat Horne Theater.

Another notable stage performance was as the young bride Eleanor in the 1985 production of A. R. Gurney’s The Middle Ages at the Whole Theater Company, established by Olympia Dukakis in Montclair, New Jersey.

Debra Jo Rupp Net Worth
Debra Jo Rupp Net Worth

She garnered praise from Walter Goodman in a New York Times review of one of her many off-Broadway performances: as June Yeager, a young wife who feels she is never “loved enough”, in the 1986 York Theater Company production of Arthur Laurents’ dramatic play, The Time of the Cuckoo staged at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York’s Upper East Side

Rupp has had roles in a number of notable Broadway shows; Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and Cynthia Heimel’s A Girl’s Guide to Chaos. The latter being the one that propelled her career forward. Rupp continued to devote herself to acting full-time through the 1980s and performed in numerous regional stage productions.

In early 1987, Rupp was featured in an article written by Enid Nemy for the “Broadway” section of The New York Times. Entitled “New York is beckoning, but first, Los Angeles”, the interview revealed how Rupp’s success in the theater so soon after her arrival in New York City had scared the young actress enough to take time off from acting for several years. After returning to the stage, Rupp explained, she was often cast as an ingénue, but after her portrayal of Cynthia in Chaos, she began getting calls to audition in Los Angeles for “really crazy neurotic” parts in television pilots. She was realistic about the unpredictability of an acting career, and since she had promised her mother she would never wait tables when she left for New York, she had not given up her part-time work as a bookkeeper and was “learning computers” as something to fall back on.

Her television work during the early 1990s included recurring roles as Ms. Higgins on the television Davis Rules with Randy Quaid, and as Sister Mary Incarnata on Phenom with Judith Light, as well as guest roles on Blossom, Family Matters, L.A. Law, and ER.

She appeared in several episodes of Friends as Alice Knight, a home economics teacher who fell in love with and married Phoebe Buffay’s (Lisa Kudrow) much younger half-brother, Frank Jr. (Giovanni Ribisi). Rupp had previously appeared with Kudrow in the 1997 independent film Clockwatchers.

In 1998, she began her role as Kitty Forman in the comedy series, That ’70s Show, her most successful role to date with co-stars such as Ashton Kutcher ,  Mila Kunis, and her TV husband Kirkwood Smith. She also portrayed Marilyn See, wife of astronaut Elliot See, in episode 11 of the Emmy Award-winning television miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, produced by Tom Hanks and directed by Sally Field.

Her distinctive voice was heard as the character of Mrs. Helperman in Disney’s animated series Teacher’s Pet in 2000, and again for the 2004 movie version. She starred as a stand-up comic with a secret in the highly acclaimed independent short film The Act, directed by Susan Kraker and Pi Ware, and received praise for her performance. The short film was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and won several awards at film festivals around the world. In 2004, she played Brad Hunt’s nagging mother in Lucky 13, a full-length independent film starring Lauren Graham.

New York theater-goers saw Rupp return to the off-Broadway stage in June 2007, as Valerie in the Second Stage Theatre production of Marisa Wegrzyn’s The Butcher of Baraboo, directed by Judith Ivey. Two months later, she performed in the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, as Ida Bolton in a revival of Paul Osborn’s 1939 play, Morning’s at Seven.

That ’70s Show ended in 2006. Rupp appeared soon after in a dramatic television role as the wife of a murdered pharmaceutical CEO, on the crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In the episode, entitled “Infiltrated”, Rupp’s character desperately attempts to hide her slain husband’s past sexual abuses. In early 2007, the feature film Kickin It Old Skool was released, in which Rupp was cast as Jamie Kennedy’s mother. In 2008, she appeared as a restaurant owner who helps two homeless men in the comedy-drama-musical, Jackson, written and directed by J. F. Lawton.

In 2012, Rupp portrayed Ruth in She Wants Me, an independent romantic comedy. In June and July 2012, Rupp starred as Dr. Ruth Westheimer in “Dr. Ruth – All the Way” on the St. Germain Stage of the Barrington Stage Company. She reprised the role Off-Broadway in Becoming Dr. Ruth. She provided the voice of Mrs. Snowman in one of Fred Meyer’s commercial ads in 2013

Net worth

Debra Jo Rupp finally made a lasting contribution to her considerable abilities in the hit series “The 70s Show.” When the popular show came to an end, she moved in with several guests, and supporting roles in “Law & Order: Special Victim Unit” and “Kickin ‘This Old School.” In 2012, he painted Ruth Baum in “She Wants Me.” On the small screen, she appeared in “Heart of Dixie -” in 2013. All these outstanding achievements have left Debra with a net worth of about $6.5 million.

Physical details

Debra Rupp is 5ft 2in with an attractive body that fans have adored over the decades. She has beautiful brown eyes fans. She just turned 69 years and she still looks wonderful. She has a thing for black dresses and they suit her really well.

Shows and life events

She has starred in a total of 26 films and more than 50 Television shows in her career. She has two homes, one in Lee, Massachusetts where she stays when she is doing theatrical projects in New York and another one in Los Angeles where she stays during television and film projects. She has never been married and has no children. She has mentioned through an interview that she is a Methodist

Most notable roles

  • A Girl’s Guide to Chaos’: Rupp’s first big hit that also won her critical acclaim and opened up her future in both Broadway and Hollywood.
  • ‘That ’70s Show’, gave her popular recognition and commercial success
  • Friends’; made Debra a household name

Interesting Facts

  • Debra Jo Rupp is a very good cook though her skills are inclined to grilling rather than baking. She is famous for her secret clam dip. 
  • A stage performance of Sweeny Todd by Angela Lansbury on Broadway finally convinced Rupp’s mother why her daughter was so passionate about acting.
  • Rupp is big on gardening. She likes to lead a relaxed country life with her two dogs and her foodie friends

As you can see, Debra Jo Rupp was a sensation in her time and still holds the hearts of many devoted fans today. Her career is truly one to behold as very few people have made similar achievements in television. If you want to know more about other celebrities, check out the other pages on this site: