My TV Crushes: '50s to '80s
by aluminum_foil | created - 10 Mar 2015 | updated - 22 Nov 2016 | PublicIt's a shame Phoebe Cates didn't have a TV show back then.
1. Yvonne Craig
Actress | Batgirl
Yvonne Joyce Craig was born on May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young teenager, Yvonne showed such promise as a dancer that she was accepted to Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her training progressed until she left the company in 1957 over a disagreement on casting changes. She ...
as Batgirl
2. Julie Newmar
Actress | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Julia Chalene Newmeyer was born on August 16, 1933, in Los Angeles, California, the eldest of three children. Her father, Don, was a one-time professional football player (LA Buccaneers, 1926), her mother, Helene Jesmer, was a star of the Follies of 1920 and later became a fashion designer under ...
as Catwoman on Batman
3. Andrea Elson
Actress | ALF
Andrea Hope Elson first realized her love for acting at age eleven when she played the lead in a sixth grade production of "Alice in Wonderland".
Born on March 6, 1969 in New York City, this green-eyed actress grew up traveling because of her father's job in advertising. Before she was ten years old...
as Lynn Tanner on ALF
4. Tracy Wells
Actress | Mr. Belvedere
Tracy Wells was born on March 13, 1971 in Encino, California. She is an actress, known for Mr. Belvedere (1985) and other film and TV credits. She was married to her husband, Erin Cook, until his death in 2001. They have two children. She currently is known as Tracy Tofte and a top producing ...
as Heather Owens on Mr. Belvedere
5. Ari Meyers
Actress | Kate & Allie
Ari Meyers was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Sunday, April 6, 1969. She began an acting career at age 12, with her role as Al Pacino's stepdaughter in Al Pacino's Author! Author! (1982) and hasn't looked back, since. Ari dictated her first play, "The Super Magic Show," for her nursery school ...
as Emma McArdle on Kate & Allie
6. Allison Smith
Actress | The West Wing
Allison Smith's career started on Broadway at the age of nine, in the original production of "Evita", quickly followed by her landing the title role of "Annie" on Broadway in the musical "Annie" at the age of ten. She was the longest-running and youngest star of a Broadway musical at that time, ...
as Jennie Lowell on Kate & Allie
7. Eve Plumb
Self | A Very Brady Renovation
Eve Plumb, the actress and painter most famous for playing the role of Jan on The Brady Bunch (1969), began acting professionally in 1966, appearing in TV commercials. The child actor began getting parts on series television in 1967.
Her place in TV history was cemented when she landed the role of ...
as Jan on The Brady Bunch
8. Missy Gold
Actress | Benson
Missy Gold was born on July 14, 1970 in Great Falls, Montana, USA. She is an actress, known for Benson (1979), Captains and the Kings (1976) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979). She has been married to Brian Herskowitz since 1996. They have two children.
as Katie Gatling on Benson
9. Molly Ringwald
Actress | Sixteen Candles
Molly Ringwald was born in Roseville, California, to Adele Edith (Frembd), a chef, and Robert Ringwald, a blind jazz pianist. Her ancestry includes German, English, and Swedish. She released an album at the age of 6 entitled, "I Wanna Be Loved By You, Molly Sings". She is the youngest daughter of ...
as Molly on The Facts of Life
10. Janet Jackson
Soundtrack | Poetic Justice
Janet Damita Jo Jackson was born on May 16, 1966 in Gary, Indiana, to Katherine Jackson (née Katherine Esther Scruse) and Joe Jackson, a musician. She is the youngest of ten children. Before her birth, her brothers formed a band later called The Jackson 5. She lived at home with her sisters, while ...
as Charlene on Diff'rent Strokes
11. Priscilla Barnes
Actress | Jane the Virgin
Though probably not to her liking, actress Priscilla Barnes is best known for her bittersweet replacement of TV goddess Suzanne Somers during the tension-riddled times of the popular ABC slapstick comedy series, Three's Company (1976) -- bittersweet in that although the lovely, stringy-framed ...
as Terri on Three's Company
12. Alyssa Milano
Actress | Charmed
Alyssa Milano comes from an Italian-American family; her mother Lin Milano is a fashion designer and father Thomas Milano is a film music editor. Alyssa was born in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn and grew up in a modest house on Staten Island. One day her babysitter, who was an aspiring ...
as Samantha on Who's the Boss?
13. Victoria Principal
Actress | Vigilante Force
Principal is the elder daughter of Ree (née Veal) and Victor Rocco Principal. Her paternal grandparents were Italian, while her mother's family was from Gordon, Georgia, and South Carolina. Her father, a United States Air Force sergeant, was often transferred to different duty stations, so the ...
as Pamela Ewing on Dallas
14. Priscilla Presley
Actress | The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
Priscilla Presley's stepfather was an Air Force officer stationed in West Germany when as a teenager she met Elvis Presley in 1959, then four years into his meteoric career in rock and roll and serving with the U.S. Armed Forces. After an eight year courtship, she married him on 1 May 1967. As ...
as Jenna Wade on Dallas
15. Kari Wuhrer
Actress | Eight Legged Freaks
Kari Samantha Wuhrer was born on April 28, 1967 in Brookfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Karin, a payroll officer and Andrew, a former police officer and car salesman. Kari has three siblings. She studied acting at age 13 at the Wooster School, and headed to New York City to do rounds of ...
as herself on Remote Control
16. Tanya Roberts
Actress | A View to a Kill
The second daughter of manufacturing executive Oscar Blum and his wife Dorothy, Tanya Roberts was born 1949 in Manhattan and grew up in the elite Westchester County suburbs Scarsdale and Greenburgh. Tanya reportedly dropped out of high school, got married and hitchhiked around the country until her...
as Julie on Charlie's Angels
17. Shelley Fabares
Actress | The Donna Reed Show
Vibrant, increasingly lovely teen fave Shelley Fabares withstood the test of time by transitioning successfully into adult parts unlike many of her 1960s "teen queen" peers who faded quickly into the memory books. She was born Michele Marie Fabares on January 19, 1944, in sunny Santa Monica, ...
as Mary Stone on The Donna Reed Show
18. Suzi Quatro
Soundtrack | Cruella
Born in Detroit and grew up in the nearby suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Moved to England to pursue music career. Had tremendous success as a rock singer in Britain and worldwide, but only managed one hit in her native America. Was reportedly asked to audition for the part of Happy Days (1974)'...
as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days
19. Kristy McNichol
Actress | The Pirate Movie
Actor Kristy McNichol is best known for her role as "Buddy" in the Spelling/Goldberg hit TV series Family (1976), where she won 2 Emmy awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe. McNichol began her career with guest appearances on such popular TV series as Starsky and Hutch, The Bionic Woman, Love...
as Buddy on Family
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