Della Reese Spreads Her Wings

'Touched By An Angel' Star Talks About Her Faith

Imagine the pitch meeting for "Touched by an Angel" to CBS executives: "What we're going to do is take these two angels (one with a sort of Irish accent) and send them to earth and have them mingle with common folk and help them solve challenges in their lives."

Perhaps it sounded out of this world. But instead of scoffing, CBS had faith when it introduced "Touched by an Angel" in 1994.

The network's prayers were answered when the show became gospel for millions of viewers. Perhaps the premise was an answer to a growing spiritual movement in the United States, or maybe it was the inspiration.

Either way, "Touched by an Angel" has perpetuated the spiritual tide in America. And all this from big bad Hollywood (Congress, eat your heart out).

This Sunday, "Touched by an Angel's" season premiere takes flight. The show stars three angels: Roma Downey (Monica), John Dye (Andrew) and the supervising angel, the warm and spirited Della Reese as Tess.

As the show enters its seventh heavenly season, I called on Reese to find out why she thinks the show has gathered such an amazing congregation of fans.

Reese's, Um, Pieces
Born Delloreese Patricia Early, the veteran actress and singer whom we now know as Della Reese started singing in church at the tender age of 6 in her native Detroit. Later, at 13, Reese would tour with the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

Five years later, Reese formed her own group, the Meditation Singers. Later, with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, Reese cut her own record albums including "And That Reminds Me" and "Don't You Know."

Reese continues to sing to this day, most recently being nominated for a Grammy in 1998 for best female soloist in gospel music.

While Reese is well known for her amazing voice, she's also been delighting us on television for years.

Early in her career, Reese appeared 20 times on the famed "Ed Sullivan Show" in one year alone. As an actress or playing herself, she also guest starred on shows like "Sanford and Son," "MacGyver," "L.A. Law," "Night Court," "The A-Team," "Crazy Like a Fox" and "Picket Fences."

But it's Reese's role as the gruff but big-hearted supervising angel Tess that has truly made her a household name and introduced her to a whole new generation of television watchers.

Reese has been nominated for both an Emmy Award (twice) and Golden Globe Award, and has won the NAACP outstanding lead actress in a drama series award five times in a row for her work on "Touched by an Angel."

Reese is clearly pleased with the success of the show and by her part in it.

"I'm typecast, I can't help that," she jokes. Reese lets out a big rich laugh and asks, "What can I do?"

We're sitting side by side in the garden of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. Reese has my hand in hers. She's just as I had imagined she would be: warm, funny and full of spice. She also wants me to know that she's the real deal: not just playing an angel on television, but living her life in faith.

Heaven On Earth
"Touched by an Angel" is a favorite with people across the United States and the world. I ask Reese why she thinks people are so drawn to the show.

When Reese, who is also an ordained minister (she has her own congregation in Los Angeles), speaks, her words flow forth like an inspirational sermon.

"There are some people, and unfortunately (too many), who don't have any close relationships," she tells me.

She then pauses for impact.

"They maybe talk to the cashier at the supermarket, or the bus driver, or the cleaning place (clerk). Other than that, they don't have any conversations. (Nobody) to say God loves you and God is consciously aware that you're even on this earth. And this show gives this, it says that."

She leans closer to me.

"If you're in a twister, in a tornado, God is in there too, and he loves you," Reese says. "Whatever you're going through at this moment, God is in there. And being all the power, you can get some help here, and people need to know that."

Clearly, people are responding to the message.

Tess-Timonial
"Touched by an Angel" is about angels who come to earth to help humans get through life's trials and tribulations.

Episodes usually have a moral message and, more often than not, the audience ends up with a "feel good" vibe.

But Reese is quick to point out that the angels on the TV show don't solve the humans' problems; they simply act as guides.

Reese has said it before: "The humans we touch have to churn their own butter. Tess, Monica and Andrew don't come to fix people in trouble. They come to teach them how to fix themselves."

That leaves most of the work up to the humans themselves.

So who was Reese's angel in her life? Reese tells me that her faith was rooted in her childhood.

"My mother gave me that platform to stand on. In my house, God was part of the family," she tells me.

"It wasn't a thing we did on Sunday. It's bred in me. The show is just affirmation for me that God has given me a place to teach what I know."

Reese is proud that "Touched by an Angel" has reached every age group. She says that young people especially have responded to the show.

"While we were watching the children grow up, they were watching us," Reese says of the viewers. "They saw everything that we did, just like we saw what they did. And they said, 'This is nothing.'

"This greed is making them all sick. This dishonesty is bad. They have no basis. So the young people said, 'We've got to have something better than this, we're not going through that," she says of the positive effect that the show is having on young people.

You Gotta Have Faith
Reese is clearly on top of the world. With a hit television show, and surrounded by friends and family, her life is heavenly.

I ask her if she has ever been at a point her life when she lost faith.

"Not my faith. I have been disgusted because I didn't have a job. I have been without money, but I've never been without my faith," she says. "My faith is an inbred thing.

"As far as faith is concerned, I was born in the slums and I now I live at the top of Bel Air Road, so you had to have a whole lot of faith to get from where I was to where I am, absolutely."

Why has she always relied on her faith?

"Have you ever heard the word 'necessity?'" she asks.

The Big Scoop