Dixie Virginia Carter (born May 25, 1939) is an American actress noted for her portrayal of Southern women.

Carter was born in McLemoresville, Tennessee and spent many of her early years in Memphis, Tennessee. She attended college at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College). She is a graduate of Memphis State (now University of Memphis) with a degree in English.

In 1960, Carter made her professional stage debut in a Memphis production of Carousel. She moved to New York in 1963 and got a part in a production of A Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. In 1967 she married businessman Arthur Carter (to whom she is not related), with whom she had two daughters. Following the birth of her daughters, she left acting for eight years to focus on raising her children. She returned to acting at age 35.

Carter first became famous for her role as Brandy Henderson on the soap opera The Edge of Night. However, she is best known for appearing as outspoken Julia Sugarbaker in the 1980s television program Designing Women, set in Atlanta. From 1999 to 2002, she portrayed brash Southern attorney Randi King on the series Family Law. She also starred in several musicals and plays on Broadway. She is known for her Southern pride, which is evident in her product endorsements, like her appearance in commercials for Southern Bell (later BellSouth). Carter is also a registered Republican, and once jokingly described herself as "the only Republican in show business." [1]

She divorced Arthur Carter in 1977 and married actor Gene Hearn. Two years later, she divorced Hearn and married again to actor Hal Holbrook, who is most noted for his appearances as Mark Twain. They live in Beverly Hills, California.

In 1996, Carter published her memoirs, entitled Trying to Get to Heaven.

In 1974, she filled in for Nancy Pinkerton as Dorian Cramer Lord on One Life to Live while Pinkerton was on maternity leave.