DEBBIE ALLEN MY LIFE IN 10 Pictures

BORN IN Houston, Deborah Kaye Allen knew what she wanted to do fairly early on.

"It was dancing for me from the beginning. I think I came out dancing.... I wanted to replace Shirley Temple. I was sure I could do better."

And after being voted "most versatile" in high school, she was determined to show how good she could be - stepping out from the shadow of big sister Phylicia Rashad and becoming a dancer, choreographer, actress, producer and director along the way.

Yet for Debbie, who turns 75 on Jan. 16, her roles as wife to former NBA star Norm Nixon, with whom she celebrated a 40th anniversary last year, mother and now grandmother are just as important in the grand scheme of things. "This is a great time," she says.

"And it's something we don't get back. We don't get time back. So we must capture and have every moment and celebrate who we are, what we can do and not what we've done."

1 1973 SETTING THE STAGE

After her Broadway debut in 1970’s Purlie, Debbie knew she was on her way during her run in the Tony-winning musical Raisin. “[Iconic dancer] Josephine Baker walked backstage after a performance and told me she’d like to see me portray her someday,” she revealed. “She saw something of her own spirit in me.”

2 1976 GOOD TIMING

"It was a big deal all the way around," she'd say of her breakout turn as J.J.'s drugaddicted fiancée on TV's Good Times. "I was there visiting [my former Raisin co-star] Ralph Carter. And the casting woman saw me waiting. She said, 'Oh, who are you?' And I told her. She said, 'Can you act?' I said, 'Yes, ma'am.' And then it all happened!"