Fairchild began her career on the CBS daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow as Jennifer Pace from 1973 to 1977. In 1978, she appeared on the primetime soap opera Dallas as the first actress to portray Jenna Wade, before taking a lead role on the NBC series Flamingo Road in 1980 (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama). In 1984, she co-starred on ABC\'s short-lived television drama Paper Dolls, and then appeared on Falcon Crest as attorney Jordan Roberts from 1985 to 1986. Fairchild has also performed in theater and played guest roles on television comedies, including Murphy Brown (for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series), Roseanne, Cybill and Friends. She is a board member of SAG-AFTRA.\n', '

Fairchild was born Patsy Ann McClenny in Dallas, Texas, the daughter of Martha Jane (née Hartt), a high school English teacher who taught at Richardson High School (in Richardson, Texas), and Edward Milton McClenny. Fairchild has a younger sister, Cathryn Hartt, who is also an actress. As a younger child, she was seen on WFAA\'s Mr. Peppermint Show with host Jerry Haynes. In her teens she was in the audience on WFAA\'s Sump\'n Else bandstand show. She auditioned three times to be in The Little Group, which was the show\'s dance group. Also during this time, she appeared in several locally broadcast commercials on Dallas-Fort Worth television stations. As a child, she suffered a bout of scarlet fever, which left her partially deaf.[citation needed]\n', '

Fairchild\'s first acting job was as a double for Faye Dunaway during filming for the film Bonnie and Clyde (1967), particularly in scenes where Bonnie is supposed to be driving a car, because Dunaway couldn’t drive a stick shift. She took her new first name, Morgan, from the David Warner film Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966). Fairchild then moved to New York City, where she secured her first credited onscreen role as the maniacal Jennifer Pace in the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow from 1973 until 1977. From the mid-1970s, she began to make various appearances on episodic primetime television series such as Kojak, Happy Days, Police Woman, and a few episodes of CBS Radio Mystery Theater.\n', '

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