![adv1134_fea_014](https://article-imgs.scribdassets.com/3aaq9cy0xscnv7cn/images/fileMX5YA3L9.jpg)
to the LGBTQ+ community has gone hand-in-hand with her amazing four-decade-plus career on stage and screen. In fact, her first New York theater credit was playing a lesbian in the play . And as the fictional comedy legend Deborah Vance who has a complicated relationship with her young bisexual writing partner Ava, Smart became known to the world as Charlene Frazier-Stillfield on the popular 1980s sitcom . The series was one of the first to address the topic of HIV/AIDS on network television, an issue close to the actress’s heart.