MacLachlan with Jim Brown in ...tick...tick...tick... - publicity still, 1970
MacLachlan was born in Harlem, New York City; her mother, Iris South MacLachlan, and father, James MacLachlan, were both Jamaican-born members of the Church of the Illumination. Attending P.S. 170 and Julia Ward Junior High School, MacLachlan graduated from Julia Richman High School in 1950.[1][2] She received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Hunter College in 1955.[2] She then worked as an executive secretary in New York City before turning to acting. She later performed at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.
MacLachlan also won a Los Angeles-area Emmy for her performance in KCET's Voices of Our People: In Celebration of Black Poetry in 1981. She would later serve as grant committee chairman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Death
Suffering from cardiovascular disease in her later years, MacLachlan died from complications from the condition on October 11, 2010, at the age of 77 at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Los Angeles. MacLachlan resided in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.[2]
^Although the character's first name is listed as "Sherry" in the end credits, she is never called by that name within the dialogue of the episode; she is always referred to as "Kris" in the dialogue.