Terresa M. Graves (January 10, 1948 – October 10, 2002), credited as Teresa Graves, was an American actress and singer best known for her starring role as undercover police detective Christie Love in the ABC crime-drama television series Get Christie Love! (1974–1975). Graves was the second African-American woman to star in her own hour–long television series and the first for a drama television series.
Graves was born on January 10, 1948, the middle of three children in Houston, Texas to Marshall (1921–1967) and Willie Graves (1920–2005). Upon graduation from high school, she got her professional start in show business as a member of the singing group The Doodletown Pipers, which toured clubs in America, Canada and Puerto Rico. She stayed with the company for two years before leaving and searching for an acting career.
Graves appeared in a number of films. She had supporting roles in "Vampira," and "Black Eye. In the 1973 film That Man Bolt, in which she played Samantha Nightingale, Graves' character is shot to death when she is in bed during a nude love scene with Fred Williamson, who plays the leading role of Jefferson Bolt.
She was influenced by her Bible-studying cousin Peggy to become a Jehovah's Witness. While she was in England in 1973 filming Old Dracula (1974), Teresa became intensely involved in the religion, acting in the film by day and studying the Bible by night.
Graves pivotal role in the 1974 ABC crime drama television movie and later series Get Christie Love! featured Charles Cioffi and Jack Kelly as Lieutenants Reardon and Ryan, respectively, Love's supervisors. At the time of the series creation, Graves' was noted as the second African-American woman to star in her own hour–long television series, after Diahann Carroll in Julia which aired six years prior. In a November 1974 issue of Jet, The magazine described Graves as "television's most delightful detective, the epitome of a tough lady cop with more feminine features than Venus".
By the time the series began, however, Teresa had become so entrenched in her newly-found religion that she made what producers considered unreasonable demands on the set, refusing to do any scenes that violated Biblical scripture. As the sassy, slugging, sexy, super-hip undercover detective, Teresa insisted on not being involved in any sexy or violent scenes, would not do scenes in which her character killed anyone or even lied--difficult as an undercover cop--and would work only until 5:00 p.m. in order to attend her Christian studies. The show barely lasted one season.
Graves was baptized as a Jehovah's Witness in 1974, and almost immediately began using her celebrity to bring international awareness to the persecution of Witnesses in Malawi under then-leader Hastings Kamuzu Banda's "one-party rule". In 1983, Graves retired from show business to devote her time to her faith. Her final professional appearance, in fact, was on a Hope TV special in 1982. Graves was married once and had no children. On June 25, 1977, Graves married William D. Reddick in Los Angeles, California. The marriage later ended in divorce by 1983.
For the rest of her life, Graves resided at 3437 West 78th Place in the Hyde Park neighbourhood in Los Angeles, California where she cared for her mother who later suffered a stroke and was hospitalized before the terrible tragedy that probably saved her life.
On October 10, 2002, Firefighters responding to a fire in the Hyde Park section of Los Angeles found Graves unconscious in a rear bedroom of her home. She was taken to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in nearby Inglewood, where she died from burns and smoke inhalation not long after arriving at the hospital. She was 54 years old.
A faulty portable space heater was determined to be the cause of the blaze. A smoke alarm in the front of the house was activated but Teresa failed to hear it. Neighbours said they didn't know of the highly religious Graves's past life as a TV star.
(Edited from Wikipedia & IMDb)