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| birth_place = [[Fukuoka]], [[Japan]] |
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Revision as of 13:06, 13 March 2012
Victoria Principal | |
---|---|
Born | Victoria Principal January 3, 1946 |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1972–present |
Victoria Principal (born January 3, 1950)[1] is an American actress, author and businesswoman, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the CBS nighttime TV drama Dallas from 1978 to 1987.
Biography
Early life
Principal was born in Fukuoka, Japan, the eldest daughter of United States Air Force sergeant Victor Principal, after whom she was named and who was then stationed in Fukuoka. Her paternal grandparents were emigrants from Italy, originally surnamed Principale. Her mother, the former Bertha Ree Veal, was born in Georgia and was of English descent.[2] Because her father was in the US military, they moved often; she grew up in London, Puerto Rico, Florida, Massachusetts, and Georgia, among other places. She attended 17 different schools, including studying at the Royal Academy of Ballet while her family was stationed in England. [3]
She appeared in her first TV commercial aged five, and enjoyed a successful career in commercials. After graduating from South Dade Senior High School in 1968, she enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College, intending to study medicine. But months before completing her first year of studies, she was seriously injured in a car crash while driving home from the library. The other driver was convicted of drunk driving and served jail time. Principal spent months in recovery and was faced with the prospect of having to take her first year of studies over again. After a period of serious introspection, she drastically changed her life by moving to New York to pursue her acting career, and shortly thereafter to Europe. While living in London, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and then in 1971, she moved to Los Angeles.[4]
Personal life
Principal met Christopher Skinner in 1978 when he played a bit role on Dallas. Soon after, they married, but divorced two years later, in 1980. She dated teen idol Andy Gibb after meeting him on The John Davidson Show in 1981. The two hit it off immediately, and she sang a duet with Gibb. A year later, she gave him an ultimatum, "Choose me, or choose drugs"; Principal split with Gibb in March 1982.[5]
Principal married Harry Glassman in June 1985. The couple divorced in December 2006 with Principal stating, "We have had a loving relationship for over 20 years".[6] She later moved to Malibu.[7] She also has homes in Big Sur, California and in Switzerland.
In 2006, Principal formed a charitable organization to help subsidize the environmental movement, which she had been a part of since 1978.[8]
In 2007 it was reported that she was training for her booked flight on Richard Branson's commercial space flight venture.[9] Principal stated "Going into space fulfills many desires I have of seeing the planet, going fast, going someplace very few people have been -- and hopefully coming back down!" [10] Principal and Branson flew to New Mexico and held a joint world-wide press conference on the space center to be built in New Mexico.[11][12]
Philanthropy
Principal provided assistance to aid those in need after the 2008 California wildfires.[13] On June 2, 2010, she donated $200,000 to the cleanup effort in the Gulf Coast region. Her donations brought together two huge environmental non-profits, Oceana and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), to work together on the cleanup.[14]
Principal appeared with other celebrities on June 21, 2010 in a CNN Larry King sponsored Telethon to support the Gulf Coast Region following the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Victoria was on a panel with Larry and also answered phones and spoke to donors for the entire two hours. The telethon raised over $1.8 million in just two hours.[15]
Principal was honored at the opening of Legacy Park in Malibu on October 2. Principal was a founding member of the park in 2004, and was honored at the opening for helping get the 15 acre park off of the Pacific Coast Highway off the ground.[16] Over a 12-year period, she served the Arthritis Foundation as Honorary Chairperson and Ambassador to Government.[17]
She is the co-chair of Victory Over Violence, the LA County Domestic Violence Council Community Advisory Board. The Community Advisory Board is a coalition of representatives from the entertainment industry, business, government, and community who have come together with the dual purposes of increasing public awareness of issues surrounding domestic violence and increasing shelter and victim resources. [citation needed]
On December 13th 2011 it was announced that Principal donated a substantial sum to OCEANA and NRDC to stop the expansion of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Arctic Ocean, fearing such activity could lead to another disastrous oil spill.[18][19]
On December 20th 2011 The Giving Back Fund named Principal to the Top 30 Celebrity Charity Donations for 2011. [20]
Career
Acting
In 1970, Principal moved to Hollywood. She had no money, no car, no agent, and no prior television or movie making experiences beside the commercials she had made in her teenage years. She supported herself by teaching backgammon, which she had learned while living in London, that was becoming a popular game played by many in Hollywood. Nine months later Principal had a car, an agent, still little money but auditioned and won her first film role, as Marie Elena, a Mexican mistress in Paul Newman's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), for which she earned a Golden Globe Nomination as Most Promising Newcomer.[21] Because of the response to Principal's footage in the film, the role was enlarged on a daily basis by the writer, John Milius. Producers, agents, and other interested parties began showing up at the remote location in Benson, Arizona. For the most part they were showing up to sign Principal to her next film. During this period of time Warren Cowan flew in, introduced himself to Principal, and offered to represent her free of charge for the next year. Principal has been a client of Rogers & Cowan ever since. She flew to Arizona a complete unknown; when she returned to Los Angeles three months later, the commercial flight she was on was greeted by throngs of paparazzi. Subsequently, she appeared in The Naked Ape (1973) with Johnny Crawford and appeared nude in Playboy magazine to promote the film.[22] The film's failure disappointed her.[23]
In 1974, she was cast in the disaster film Earthquake. Although the role had been narrowed down to three actresses, Principal won the role when she showed up for the third audition having cut off her waist-length brown hair, dyed it black, and put it into an afro. The producer was stunned and impressed by Principal's risky transformation in order to look more closely like the Italian character Rosa. Principal won the part in that moment. She continued to act in lesser-known films such as I Will, I Will... for Now and Vigilante Force with Kris Kristofferson. She was given a three-picture deal with Brute Productions. However, Principal decided to stop acting and became an agent, which was her profession from 1975 to late 1977.
In 1977, Aaron Spelling offered her a role in the pilot of his television series Fantasy Island, which she accepted. Soon after, in 1978, she landed her most famous role, playing Pamela Barnes Ewing in the evening soap opera television series Dallas. In 1983, she earned a Golden Globe Nomination as Best Actress in a Television Series for her role in Dallas.[24]
After nine years, Principal left Dallas in 1987. She went on to star in various made-for-television movies such as Mistress, Blind Witness, Naked Lie, Sparks: The Price of Passion, and Don't Touch My Daughter, a few of which she co-produced. In 1994, she appeared in an episode of the hit sitcom Home Improvement. Principal returned to primetime soap operas in 2000, when she appeared in another Aaron Spelling production, the short-lived NBC television series Titans.
Entrepreneur
When Principal signed her Dallas contract, she omitted the clause that would have given the network the right to consent and profit from her outside endeavors. She explained, "As a result that's why, you can only notice in hindsight, I was the only person in the cast who did commercials, who was doing movies of the week, who wrote books and these all belong to me. I retained the control and ownership of my image. No one owns me."[25]
When she left the show in 1987, she began her own production company, Victoria Principal Productions, producing mostly movies for television. In the mid-1980s, she became interested in natural beauty therapies and in 1989 she created a self-named line of skin care products, Principal Secret, which has amassed over $1 billion (USD) in sales to date.[citation needed]
In 1995, she was named "Entertainment Business Woman of the Year" by the National Association of Women Business Owners and received an honorary degree from Drexel University's Business School. In 2003, Principal became a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. In January 2011, Principal launched a line of jewelry called Keys & Hearts available on the same site as her skin care line Principal Secret.[26] She became a best-selling author, writing three books about beauty, skin care, and health: The Body Principal (1983), The Beauty Principal (1984), and The Diet Principal (1987). She published a fourth book, Living Principal (2001). After twelve weeks on the The New York Times Best Seller list in the general non-fiction category, The Body Principal was the first "Advice, How-To, and Miscellaneous" number one best seller when that list debuted January 1, 1984.[27]
Filmography
Feature films
Year | Film | Role | Director |
---|---|---|---|
1972 | The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean | Maria Elena | John Huston |
1973 | The Naked Ape | Cathy | Donald Driver |
1974 | Earthquake | Rosa | Mark Robson |
1976 | I Will, I Will...for Now | Jackie Martin | Norman Panama |
Vigilante Force | Linda Christopher | George Armitage | |
1998 | Michael Kael vs. the World News Company | Leila Parker | Christopher Smith |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1973 | Love, American Style | ||
Love Story | Karen | ||
1974 | Banacek | Brooke Collins | |
1975 | Last Hours Before Morning | Yolanda Marquez | TV movie |
1977 | Fantasy Island | Michelle | Pilot episode |
The Night They Took Miss Beautiful | Reba Bar Lev | TV Movie | |
1978 | Dallas | Pamela Ewing | 251 appearances from 1978-1987, same character |
1979 | Greatest Heroes of the Bible | Queen Esther | |
Hawaii Five-O | Dolores Kent Sandover | ||
1980 | Pleasure Palace | Patti Flynn | TV movie |
1982 | Not Just Another Affair | Dr. Diana Dawson | TV movie |
1987 | Mistress | Rae Colton | TV movie |
1989 | Naked Lie | Joanne Dawson | TV movie |
Blind Witness | Maggie Kemlich | TV movie | |
1990 | Sparks: The Price of Passion | Patricia Sparks | TV movie |
1991 | Don't Touch My Daughter | Linda | TV movie |
1992 | The Burden of Proof | Margy Allison | TV movie |
Seduction: Three Tales from the 'Inner Sanctum' | Patty/Sylvia | TV movie | |
1993 | River of Rage: The Taking of Maggie Keene | Maggie Keene | TV movie |
1994 | Beyond Obsession | Eleanor DiCarlo | TV movie |
Home Improvement | Les Thompson | ||
1995 | Dancing in the Dark | Anna Forbes | TV movie |
The Larry Sanders Show | Herself | ||
1996 | The Abduction | Kate Finley | TV movie |
1997 | Love in Another Town | Maggie Sorrell | TV movie |
1999 | Just Shoot Me! | Roberta | |
Jack & Jill | Mrs. Cecilia Barrett | Made two additional appearances, in 1999 and 2001. Same character | |
Family Guy | Pamela Barnes Ewing | Made a second appearance in 2000, as 'Dr. Amanda Rebecca' | |
2000 | Providence | Donna Tupperman | Three appearances in 2000, same character |
The Practice | Courtney Hansen | ||
Titans | Gwen Williams | Made fourteen appearances from 2000-2001, same character |
Books
- The Body Principal. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. ISBN 0671466844.
- The Beauty Principal. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984. ISBN 0671496433.
- The Diet Principal. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. ISBN 0671530828.
- Living Principal: Looking and Feeling your Best at Every Age. New York: Villard, 2001. ISBN 0375504885.
References
- ^ Interviews of Principal at UltimateDallas from 2003 and 2007 (retrieved 2007-07-07) list 1950, as does The World Almanac & Book of Facts. World Almanac Books. 2007. p. 225.
1/3/50.
- ^ Stated on Lifetime Television's Intimate Portrait
- ^ Official website bio Accessed 2012-01-17.
- ^ Official website bio Accessed 2007-06-15.
- ^ Appearance with Phil Donahue (May 26, 2006), YouTube
- ^ [1], People.com (May 26, 2006)
- ^ Reportage on Principal per TMZ, TMZ Staff (January 21, 2010).
- ^ Michael d'Estries (November 9, 2009). Victoria Principal donates $25k for Forest Restoration Efforts at ecorazzi.com
- ^ Victoria to Be Principal Character in Space at EOnline.com
- ^ "Victoria Principal to go into Space", December 8, 2009
- ^ "Richard Branson unveils Spaceship Enterprise", December 8, 2009
- ^ "Virgin Galactic Moves into New Mexico Spaceport", October 17, 2011
- ^ Deborah Netburn Helping Hand latimes.com.
- ^ "Victoria Principal donates to oil-spill cleanup". The Victoria Advocate. June 2, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ AP Larry King Telethon for Gulf Coast aid
- ^ Malibu Times Legacy Park in Malibu
- ^ Official website bio
- ^ Niland, Kurt (December 14, 2011). "Victoria Principal funds oil-spill research & response". Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ CNN.com-Victoria Principal puts up money to prevent oil spills
- ^ Principal named to Top 30 Celebrity Charity Donations
- ^ The 30th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1973). GoldenGlobes. Accessed 2008-02-16.
- ^ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20078929,00.html
- ^ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20085072,00.html
- ^ The 40th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1983). GoldenGlobes. Accessed 2008-02-16.
- ^ Colin Hunter (2007). UltimateDallas.com interview. Accessed 2007-07-07.
- ^ Principal Secret- Keys & Hearts by Victoria Principal
- ^
"The New York Times Book Review Best Sellers", NYT January 1, 1984, page BR28.
"Best Sellers", NYT December 25, 1983, page BR13.
External links
- Official website
- Victoria Principal at IMDb
- Victoria Principal at AllMovie
- Victoria Principal’s Roots in the Peachtree State Genealogy Magazine.
- 1950 births
- Actors from California
- Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
- American businesspeople
- American film actors
- American people of Italian descent
- American people of English descent
- American soap opera actors
- American television actors
- Living people
- Miami Dade College alumni
- Military brats
- People from the Greater Los Angeles Area